In: Mechanical Engineering
how does a compressor can make a recording appear to sound louder.
Basically, compression reduces the dynamic range of your recording by bringing down the level of loudest parts, so that the loud and quiet parts are now closer together in volume and the natural volume variations are less obvious.
The audio compressor unit can then boost the overall level of this compressed signal. So the end result is that the quieter parts sound like they’ve been boosted in volume to be closer to the louder parts.
The dynamic volume changes of a recording are now under more control, and a knock-on effect is that the overall level of the compressed recording can be increased inside your mix. The recording will also sit inside your whole mix much more easily.