Need help using Sonitus Compressor

I have a good bass track, but the pick noise is much too loud.  So I thought I could squash the attack by using a fast compressor.  I loaded the Sonitus Compressor into the effects bin and set the Attack at 0 ms and the Release at 20 ms.  The ratio was set very high, above 10.
 
The sound of the attack should be squashed and then the rest of the bass sound after the attack should be normal.  But it does not seem to work.  The entire base note seems to be squashed.  The compressor never really releases.
 
Also I tried the Cakewalk compressor and it seems to operate in the same way.  Maybe I do not understand compressors, but I would think that the first part of the note should be reduced in volume with the rest of the note after the release time coming through loud and clear.  What is wrong?
 
Thanks.

What is wrong is that the compressor does not release.  The sound after the release of 20 ms is still squashed for the duration of the note.  I tried different release amounts, 100 ms, 150 ms, etc. but the remainder of the note after the release time is never allowed to come through.
 
It is as though the compressor follows an attack time, but has no release time control.  I cannot see that the release time control does anything???

Bass can distort if you have too quick of an attack time setting on your compressor.

Keep it at 40ms or above.

The compressor won't release at all until the input signal falls below the threshold, no matter what the release time. The release timer only starts at that point, is one way to look at it. I'm massively over-simplifying here, but it might be a good starting point for working out what's wrong.

You've probably just got the threshold turned down too low. It needs to be above the nominal level of the sustained portion of the bass notes.

Also, setting the ratio at 10:1 makes the threshold setting even more touchy. Once you get it dialed in, a 4:1 ratio should be fine for this purpose, although it depends on the envelope of the particular bass patch you're using. Take a close look at the waveform. What is the ratio of the initial transient to the sustain portion? Chances are it's no where near a 10:1 ratio and more like a 2:1 or 3:1. You never want to turn the ratio up higher than what's actually needed.

Thanks all for the suggestions.  I have tried to use EQ, but that does not seem to work at all.
 
I will try turning the threshold way up and reducing the ratio substantially.  The part I'm working on is an actual recorded bass part.  I will have a look tonight but I think the audio file shows very little difference between the loudness of the pick noise at the attack and the loudness of the rest of the note.
 
I did not know that the compressor will not release until the sound level drops below the threshold.  If that is the case, what is the release time for?  Once the sound drops before the threshold, I thought it would always release.  Perhaps the release time dictates how long the release takes once the release begins.  That is interesting because I thought the release time started running with the attack at the beginning of the sound, and the compressor would release after the set amount of release time expired.

Bitflipper is also on the money here (as ever).

I wish people would refrain from accusatory topic titles when they don't know what they are talking about. I've found that most everything in Sonar does in fact work if you take the time to learn how to use it properly. 

chuckebaby


the compressor doesnt work?will there be an update to fix it?

There is an update done already. It was not the compressor that was updated tough...

you should really edit the title of this post.   It is very misleading..  Maybe change it to How do compressors work?