A compressor sets the boundaries for the strength of a signal. It squeezes an excessive signal back within the set boundaries and adds sustain by returning the compressed decibels to the moderated signal.

The compressed sound is thicker but is achieved at the expense of dynamic range as the variations in volume are limited. A noise gate is also a type of compressor which restricts any signal below a set level.

Threshold determines when the compression takes effect, ratio controls the amount of compression once the threshold has been exceeded, and gain is the output volume. Compression is a levelling factor when using effects combinations such as this example using phaser.

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