How do I set the range on my compressors? · Mastering.com Members Club

How do I set the range on my compressors?

Hey, guys. I've watched Dylan's tutorial on compressors. I even went back and looked at the module where he explains hold, range, and the knee. He never really went into depth about range, because it's less common than the knee. Hold is pretty audible as you listen to the playback, and God showed me the knee pretty fast, too. I can't seem to get range, though. I'm stuck trying random settings until I try one where the volume stays the same throughout the whole song. Then I realized most of the time I can get by without even using that parameter, but I want to learn my plugins in their entirety.

How do I use the range parameter with intention? One of my bus compressors and my master compressor both have it. One thing I really don't get is that it says Max GR db is i.e. 36db. How is that possible when according to the number on the mix bus or master bus, it's actually like 2 or 3 db? What's the connection? What indicator(s) am I looking at when I go to set the range and what is the end goal I'm looking to achieve by using it at all?

A visible demostration would be ideal. I'm descent at mixing, but I'm no pro, so if you could simplify your explanation to a student level engineer, it would really help.

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