In this article, I will not only explain each compressor type , but also demo and compare each of them on vocals, electric bass guitar, high gain metal rhythm guitars with lots of low end spikes, drum bus, drum room mics, and strummed acoustic guitar , so you can hear how each compressor reacts differently to the same audio source. Keep in mind the nitty-gritty is in the comparison section of the article— knowing what hardware each Logic compressor is based on is much less important than knowing which one to use on what audio sources.

If you are more a visual learner, you can watch my video guide below! Very few compressors out there are red and have those kind of knobs:. Focusrite Red 3 Dual Compressor Hardware. You do want to remember that VCA compressors are generally very versatile because you can set the attack and release to be very fast or very slow.

VCA compressors typically also have all the controls , so besides attack and release, they will have ratio, threshold and sometimes knee. Some even offer more controls for tone shaping, like the API The Focusrite Red 3 Dual Compressor hardware is known to be very clean and punchy. Its output transformer is also supposed to add some non-linear enhancement to the audio source.

The Studio FET compressor is based on the classic Blackface , which you have might come across, since there are so many plugin emulations of it. FET stands for Field Effect Transistor —another completely useless fact you can use to impress people. The Classic VCA compressor is based on the dbx a. A lot of people love it on the drum bus or the master bus. This is a VCA compressor, so it gives you quite a bit of control. Optical compressors are known to be some of the slowest kind of compressors , but the nonlinear behaviors of the attack and release make people love optical compressors for their musical and smooth compression.

Because optical compressors are tube compressors, they also add some nice tube warmth and saturation to the audio. What matters is knowing how these compressors sound and behave, so you can choose the right one for the right audio source. I have set up the audio players below so you can easily switch among different compressors and compare them.

Some compressors have a knee control, and I have set them all to 0. All the compressors are doing the same amount of gain reduction as well. Lastly, I made sure they are all volume-matched , so we are not fooled by loudness. I liked the Studio VCA the most because it was able to drastically reduce the dynamic range of the vocals and really flatten them in a pleasant way.

Even with 20 dB of gain reduction, the vocals sounded really smooth, which is exactly what you want for great vocal compression. The Studio VCA also adds some really nice harmonic saturation to the vocals, making them a bit warmer and thicker.

I thought the Platinum Digital and the Classic VCA sounded the worst because I could hear very noticeable volume drop whenever there is a loud part, and I could hear the vocal levels fluctuate quite a lot, which is really not ideal for vocal compression.

Aside from the best and the worst, the rest of the compressors all sounded pretty similar to one another, and they sounded okay. Now of course I know with different settings you might get better results, because if these plugin emulations are anywhere like the hardware counterparts, their attack and release should be all different from one compressor to another, even at the same values.

I just used the same settings for all for demonstration purposes. In this comparison, we have some fast metal guitar riffs that contain a lot of palm mutes. They have plenty of low frequency jumps and they are very dynamic. Good compression on metal rhythm guitars means reducing these palm mute jumps in an unnoticeable way , while retaining the punch of the palm mutes.

We would need a compressor with really fast attack and release for that. Again, all the compressors have the same settings, which are fast attack, fastest release, 4 to 1 ratio, and a hard knee if there is a knee control. All the compressors do the same amount of gain reduction as well. This time, quite a few of the compressors sounded equally good, but the Platinum Digital still sounded the worst, with the Classic VCA sounding the second worst again.

I believe the Studio VCA sounded the cleanest, in that it colored the audio the least, while the Vintage Opto and the Vintage VCA added a subtle but nice mid-range bite to the guitar tone.

The Platinum Digital and the Classic VCA, however, really struggled to keep up big time, even though I used a really fast attack and the fastest release. Very good performance and recording. All the compressors are set to 12 milliseconds for attack, 51 milliseconds for release, 2 to 1 ratio, and a medium knee if there is a knee control. They are all doing about 5 to 7 db of gain reduction. I did notice that some compressors changed the tone of the acoustic guitar very slightly. For this particular bass track, I have set all the compressors to 8 milliseconds for attack, milliseconds for release, 4 to 1 ratio, and medium knee if there is a knee control.

All compressors do the same amount of gain reduction. To my ears, the clear winner is the Platinum Digital. It sounded the most natural, most transparent and the cleanest. The drum bus is always my favorite thing to test compressors on. First, take a listen to the uncompressed version:. We are going to hear how these different compressors will react to the drum transients.

All the compressors have 50 milliseconds for attack, fastest release, 4 to 1 ratio and a hard knee if there is a knee control, and they are all doing 4 to 6 db of gain reduction. The rest of the compressors are very close. They are all slightly different and I can see someone liking any one of these over the others. I really like that it kind of chops off the snare transients a bit like a clipper and in a very pleasantly aggressive way, while maintaining the clarity and punch of both the snare and the kick.

This really marries the snare and the kick, and it glues the whole drum kit together. One of the things mixing engineers love to do when mixing rock or metal drums is to use a compressor to smash the drum rooms, and not every compressor works well for that.

Below is the unprocessed drum room mics recording from the same performance as the one above:. As you can hear, this is a very large drum room with a really awesome room sound.

The gain reduction is about 10 to 15 db. I think we have a very clear loser here, which is the Platinum Digital. In the meantime, I think all the other 6 compressors sounded really awesome and they all have their own flavor.

The Studio VCA is exceptionally clean, and handles the transients, especially the ones from the kick, really well. My favorite would be the Vintage VCA because it clips the transients the way I like, and I like the mild distortion you get from it, but all the other compressors, except for Platinum Digital, are good options for smashing the drum room. After testing all these compressors out, I came to three conclusions. One is that, they are all really good.

Whether you are a professional audio engineer or a songwriter, these compressors should be able to satisfy a lot of your needs. Third is that, damn that Studio VCA is such a good compressor on almost everything. Good job Apple! Hopefully you now have a better understanding of these 7 compressors in Logic Pro X. Be sure to check out my YouTube channel if you are into audio production!

I publish helpful videos on audio production every single week. Feb 4 Written By James Zhan. Platinum Digital. Studio VCA. Studio FET. Classic VCA. Vintage VCA. Vintage FET. Vintage Opto. Hi-Gain Metal Rhythm Guitars In this comparison, we have some fast metal guitar riffs that contain a lot of palm mutes. Drum Bus The drum bus is always my favorite thing to test compressors on.

Drum Room Mics One of the things mixing engineers love to do when mixing rock or metal drums is to use a compressor to smash the drum rooms, and not every compressor works well for that. Conclusion After testing all these compressors out, I came to three conclusions. James Zhan.

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Please put the big stuff on the first page! You are about to get a huge amount of high-value information. A GUI like this makes it difficult to understand where key functions are accessed easily. Should Drums Be in Mono or Stereo?

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Chris Vandeviver is a mix engineer and content creator based out of Rochester, NY. For a spacious sound, add reverb of the overall space.