Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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MANUAL Compression??? The dumber (but somehow kinda smart) way to do gain reduction

Hey folks!
Here's a quick technique to keep in your arsenal for when it's needed. Compression is a way to do gain reduction. You set a threshold, ratio, attack and release, and the compressor generates a gain reduction curve based on your signal, but if you find it hard to calculate the right settings, or if your settings are right in one place and wrong in another, you can always cut the middleman and make the gain reduction curves yourself!

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:34 WTF is Manual Compression?
2:41 When to do Manual Compression?
4:41 How to Manual Compression? (in REAPER)
6:42 Manual Compression vs. Regular Compression
7:27 Using pooled Automation items
10:35 A couple of Mouse Modifiers
11:52 Extra cool stuff you can do