An Archeological History of Compression
Since the dawn of time, when man was mixing records in caves with a little Mackie LM1602, a pair of Alesis Monitor Ones and a primitive, fur-wrapped Focusrite Scarlett interface, at that time called the Furlett… since that time, man has been trying to control Audio Levels.
There was always the guy kicking skulls with his left and right foot, and because of bison skull mismatch or differentiated foot strength, one skull was always louder than the other. This is, incidentally, why kick drums are called kick drums. And there was always a singer who just couldn’t f**king stand still, jumping around the microphone like a turned-on baboon. And there was our ancestor, Homo Audioengineerus, in the Control Cave, trying to ride the gain using a pointed stick.
There has always been a need for better tools.
The Neolithic Age saw the invention of writing and the Downward Compressor. When the signal got too loud, the Neolithic Age compressor pushed down. It was the Hittites that invented the Threshold. And beer! Eventually, the Neolithic Age compressor migrated from pillaging Mongol Horde remote trucks into Central Europe and Hollywood. It didn’t take long until every tribe in Europe and the Americas had some sort of compressor happening. And there was even trade amongst these primitive people, and it wasn’t uncommon to find a compressor from the new world in the ruins of a recording studio of the country now called England, and vice versa. Korneff, incidentally, will be releasing a range of Neolithic compressors in the near future.
But still, gain control was stuck being a matter of pushing the loud stuff down. And while it worked, it could also mangle things. Audio archeologists have found the fossilized remains of a recording that really sounded like ass in the Lascaux Caves, in what is now France, along with cave paintings describing how to set a threshold and what “knee” is. Even as human civilization advanced, and created amazing innovations like toilet paper and gunpowder, proper audio level setting remained the domain of sliding faders up and down, whether the engineer (a term adopted in the late Cretaceous) did it manually or using “automation.” By the way, the earliest automation systems used either a windmill or water wheel for power. Hence the term “Flying Faders” and producers complaining that the mix is “too wet.”
But finally, and by finally I mean today, November 9th, 2026, the audio level problem has been solved. A way has been discovered to compress gain up, not just down. No, this isn’t just more utter marketing nonsense like you’ve been reading. It exists. It’s real. And it’s only $24.99!
A NEW PLUGIN!
Allow me to introduce the Korneff Audio Dual Level Compressor 2, the greatest innovation in gain-riding compression in weeks.
What happened to the Dual Level Compressor 1, you ask? Marketing, my dear friend, marketing! It’s like the band U2! How many records would they have sold if they were called U1?
The DLC-2 is a modern marble…err, marvel. It has two faders: push the left one up and the quiet stuff gets louder; pull the right one down and the loud stuff gets quieter. Remarkable! There’s never been anything else like it, that we know of. Well… perhaps something like it once upon a time washed up on the shore of a distant beach, pulled by waves and tides across the ocean.
And then it washed back out to sea because of subscription pricing models.
Evidently, it washed up on a beach on Long Island, NY a few miles from Korneff Audio’s spacious modern headquarters that actually has air conditioning.
The “2” in Dual Level Compressor 2 stands for two more controls! An attack and a release! So, not only can the DLC-2 ride gain like the octopus love child of Bob Clearmountain and Dan Korneff, it can make things punchy and pumpy, so you can get some lo-fi incompetence happening at the same time as gain-riding brilliance.
And this is yours for the ridiculously low price of $24.99! If you purchase now!
U2 can capture this moment of history! This reinvention of the compression wheel! This discovery of fire that burns up as well as down! Click the link below.
Hanna – Spy thriller as Metaphor
This week on production talk, let’s expand our horizons.
Hanna is a fabulous thriller, released in 2011. It’s appropriate for the entire family provided they aren’t triggered by a close-up of Cate Blanchett flossing until her teeth bleed…
Cate Blanchett is the wicked queen, or stepmother. Hanna, played by a young Saoirse Ronan, is Snow White or any number of lost princesses, or a genetically engineered weapon. Eric Bana is the good huntsman or former CIA operative who raises the princess in the woods. Somehow they’re all chased through North Africa and Europe (the same route that the compressor took when it migrated in the Neolithic era, as discussed above), there’s tons of action sequences, and a kicking good soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers.
Hanna is a wonderful example of using metaphor. Director Joe Wright develops a visual and aural vocabulary that links modern day spy thrillers with fairy tales. Characters are from right now, but are clear fairy tale archetypes. Abandoned theme parks and subway stations become haunted forests and caves.
Check out this action sequence, which is maybe the coolest thing to ever happen in three and a half minutes. Note the posters of eyes behind the main character as he descends into the “caves.” This is all shot in what appears to be one take—I think it is actually two and the cut is when the camera pans by a column, but the choreography of this sequence alone is worth all the popcorn in China. And check out how the music fades in—a weird clicking as Eric Bana moves through the station, sounding like crickets and bugs and turning into off-kilter EDM.
Good lord, what a scene! Shot all in one night at a train station in Berlin.
So, your homework is to watch Hanna if you haven’t seen Hanna. And if you have seen Hanna, watch it again.
Thanks to everyone who played last week’s ‘Guess the Plugin’ game. I am sorry everyone lost but better luck next time. Which will be soon…
Have fun in the studio this week. Watch Hanna. At least try the demo of the DLC-2. It’s incredible.
Warm regards,
Luke