When you compress an audio signal, there is less of a difference between the lowest measured gain of the signal and the highest measured gain of the signal. Compression is useful if your audio signal has many different loudness levels that you want to play back at a similar perceived loudness level. For example, when recording voice-overs, you may want to maintain a constant perceived level of loudness in the actor's voice.
You can also compress an audio signal to attenuate portions of the signal that are too loud. For example, if your recording is at a consistent loudness level, but for some reason there is an unwanted peak in loudness level, you can compress the loud portion to give it the same perceived loudness as the rest of the recording.
Because compressing an audio signal could have a drastic effect on the overall dynamic range of the signal, it is not effective in every situation. For example, for a complex recording that has been mixed down from many other audio sources, such as a vocal track with music and sound effects, the audio signal might have complex differences in loudness levels. If you compress a master audio signal such as this, you will lose many of the original qualities of the audio signal. In such cases, it is advisable that you compress the source audio track before mixing down.
If you are editing a pair of mono tracks that you wish to process as stereo tracks, you should merge both tracks into one stereo audio track. This ensures that the same compression is used on both left and right channels.
To apply Compression Timeline FX:
