Compressors

Quite a few engineers who work with bands like driving their drum submix into fairly heavy compression, but whenever I try doing this it seems like I end up losing the low‑end weight from my kick drum...

At what point in the mixdown process do you think it’s best to engage the master‑bus compressor?

When doing parallel compression, are there advantages to using the compressor fully wet on another channel, and feeding it with an aux send from the first track?

Feedback and feed‑forward compressors can sound very different. Which type is right for which job?

I’m seeing a lot of conflicting advice about using compression while recording. Some swear by it while others say it’s completely unnecessary with 24‑bit recording and modern converters. Where do you stand on this?

I thought I had a handle on this, but seem to have a hard time understanding the difference between a compressor’s ‘Hold’ and its ‘Release’. Can you help explain?

Could you explain (slowly!) the basic principles of how a compressor works, and what each control does, the ratio control in particular?

I have a compressor with inserts to access the side-chain. What is the side-chain and what would you use these inserts for?

In my hardware-based setup, with my TC electronics Triple*C compressor, is it possible to do the kind of limiting on a full mix where you end up with a waveform that is levelled off at the top and bottom, 'brick wall'-style?