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Actually my point of view is this:
The time that is meant by the release time is actually the time it needs to bring up around 66% of the gain that was reduced. Correct me if i'm wrong. Knowing this, the feeling of groove is not matchable to the numbers. But if you really want hard facts, it depends on the lenght of the attack of the actual audio. When gainreduction longs for 200ms for example, you have to count from that point on. Hard to know. When you have 25ms of attack on the compressor and an audio with only 20 ms , it means the compressorunit just brought down the levels by 20/25 of the set gainreduction. And also the set time (25ms) means 66% of the possible reduction .. the complet reduction needs more time. Which depends on the style of compressor.. every one acts different.
Did that help you? Math is important, but in this case..
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I see what you mean. I actually didnt mean it to be a math-y thingy. All I wanted to know was: would the time of both the attack and release be counted together (adding) in order to have an audio (a snare, for example, is what I should have written) to be in time with the music?
In your example of a 25ms attack of an audio of 20ms (assuming you're saying that the entire length of the audio is 20ms, which may be a percussive sound, a snare, triangle, kick, etc, then the compressor is actually doing nothing since the length of the audio is only 20ms. If anything, the compressor is compressing whatever and 5ms late in the tail end of it. If it was a snare, or even a kick, the compressor is pushing down nothing, possibly the floor noise. Now even if you bring up the gain reduction up to 12dBs or high heaven, whichever you preferred, I am not sure there is anything to bring up except for the...floor noise! and your gain reduction would act like bringing up the fader.
And no, I dont think the release time is the time it needs to bring up 66% of the reduced gain. Or at least I never heard of such thing. This is the first time I hear it from you. As I understand, the release time is the time it takes for the compressor to let go once the audio is compressed. How you get the 66% and where it comes from, I have no idea, but I am opened to further explanation and/or discussion.
Let me try this example to see if it works:
Let's say that we are trying to compress a snare and release it in time of the music. The BPM=60 (easy to calculate, as you can see, I am not that math-y
) and let's say that the snare is on the second and fourth beat (hat1, hat2 and snare, hat3, hat4 and snare; hat1, hat2 and snare, hat3, hat4 and snare, and so on throughout the song. Quite boring but it's just have to do).
And let's say that the whole snare sound is 500ms long (unrealistic but for sake of argument and for the love of god). Here we go, and according to a whole lot of people but not me, in order to have the comp release in time with music (which is 60bpm) and AVOID having the compressor still holding on pass the next snare hit, then it follows that IF I set the attack time approx 23ms then my release should be (according to me and my assistant engineer Ganja) 500-23=477 or shorter (I'd do 470 just to make sure it lets go before the next one comes around).
Now if I set the release, say, 560ms, then the compressor will still have a good grip on the snare 60ms into the next one possibly crushing the front end of the snare and created all kind of nonsense and attack again somewhere in the middle of snare sound and keeps on doing that farther and farther as the song progresses. Does it make any sense to any of you? if it does not, then I strongly suggest that the discussion ends here since I have great doubt if we can have a meaningful discussion on this topic anymore. Thanks.
Note: words do have a way of fucking things up in ways we never intended. If you found any flaws or don't understand my example, may I suggest rolling up a joint and practice some forgiveness to me
Thanks.
