I want to talk about a commonly overused piece of gear- the compressor. The basic concept of a compressor is to turn the volume down when the signal gets too loud. A lot of inexperienced engineers think they can put a compressor on almost every channel and then sit back like they’re on auto-pilot. It’s not quite that simple, and using these too often goes against my entire approach of keeping it simple. Just because you read in a magazine that the bass was compressed, doesn’t mean you automatically need to compress yours. Too many compressors, and all of the sudden your mix has no life, no air, and no dynamics. To tell if your compressor is working well or not, there is 1 sure-fire way to find out.