Compressor settings just to catch peaks ?

fast attacks to catch peaks , star at 4:1 , but be very easy on the treashold as you got a fast attack or you will kill the transient and have the pumping effect ....the release depends on your speed (tempo)

this the most critical value to set up....it's the time the compressor go back to it's initial state so you have to synchronise it with the material , if you're compressing snare for exemple , the release must be shorter than the time between each snare hit !! for a whole mix use your ear .....

If you are just trying to use it to protect you from clipping, in which case it should almost never be doing any compression at all, set it up as follows (you still might clip a bit as the comp's attack is never going to be fast enough to catch the beginning of the transient):

Turn ratio all the way up to the max.
Fastest possible attack.
Turn off "over easy".
Turn threshold all the way up and lower it only enough to compress peaks that would otherwise clip.

OTOH, if you want to hear it compress all of the peaks, follow the advice above - lower ratio, somewhat lower threshold, "over easy" on/off to taste.

The sum of attack time plus release time should be less than the shortest interval between notes. So if you're compressing a snare that hits once per measure, those hits are going to be 2 seconds (4 quarter notes @ 500ms = 2 seconds to a measure) apart at 120BPM, so the compressor's release + attack time should be less than 2 seconds. But if it's a high-hat playing 8th notes, at 120BPM there will be only 250ms between hits, so the compressor's release time should be less than 250ms.

 
That is one of the absolute clearest statements I've ever read about how to handle release times.
Thanks for reminding me of this approach, Dave!
 
 

Theres no magic setting, its source dependant. You really need to get into the nuts and bolts of how they work and you will be much happier with the results.

I don't get the advice to set the release to the tempo....Seems pretty rare that an instruments transient portion of the envelope is actually tied to tempo in any real way...maybe when pumping sync based sequences or techno..what ever that is....... If you're trying to only catch transients... they will typically be less than 50 ms... no matter what the instrument is you're trying to tame. That'll be a fraction of any usable tempo setting.

Tempo based settings is a great idea for normal compression though. Great advise for keeping any short percussive based release settings less than the typical 1/4 note value for that instrument, based on tempo.

Release is like those double-triple negatives I never completely understand.  So I always err on shorter release times (assuming peaks are just a few milliseconds at most)

a limiter is a compressor.
a compressor CAN be a limiter.

some compressors are better at limiting than others.

DBX is not known for having the fastest attack times.
they are typically used more for color.

Robbie,
 Are you working on a slow decay resulting from your ex's fast attack?

hahaha nice