hi!
i dont know if this is a bug or I am just too stupid:
by turning the compressor “dry mix” knob, the signal gets louder, not like with any other dry/wet knob I ever used.
to clarify, of course I matched the make up gain right, so if I bypass the compressor the volume stays the same.
how is this supposed to work?
thanks,
swantje
A dry mix knob on a compressor means that the compressor can work as parallel compression. Turning the knob all the way to wet and it will function as a normal compressor. Set it at let’s say 50/50 means you will get 50% of uncompressed sound and 50% of compressed sound.
The signal gets louder when turning it towards dry as you will then get more uncompressed sound through. This is working as intended.
Hope that makes sense.
sorry that doesnt make sense: of course what you describe is right, but the dry mix knob of the C9.5 compressor does not work that way.
at 50% setting both signals are added with full volume, not 50% of each signal (50%+50%), but 100%+100%.
It’s a dry mix knob. It mixes dry back in to the already compressed signal. It does not mix between the dry and wet.
So yes, as intended…I think some other comps with dry mix will operate the same.
It gets louder because the non compressed signal is louder than a compressed signal.
Grim, thats plausible, but I still wonder why? In any thinkable case I’d have to lower the volume manually after using the dry mix knob. In which scenario would I want to keep the same wet lvl and just add a dry level to it, without lowering the wet signal equally?
KHS, no, as I pointed out, I matched dry/wet.
It’s not about matching wet/dry the makeup gain is also applied to the dry signal. It is working as intended as both Grim and myself have stated above.
A compressor is a dynamic effect, when you compress you lower the overall volume of the signal. When turning up the dry mix knob you are adding more and more of the louder uncompressed signal, hence the overall volume will go up.
Again, working as intended and other compressors like the Fabfilter Pro C, which also have a dry mix knob, are doing the same.
I guess there is some kind of trade off if they turn down wet as they turn up dry, the effect of the knob (and so the mix) will be different depending on the compression settings.
But only the programmers know why they make this decision…there are certainly a selection that work this way so must be a fairly good reason.
Or maybe they add it as an after thought and it’s just easier that way.
Of course it’s no different from doing parallel compression the way you would with no mix knob. If you have comp and clean on two faders there is also no level matching.
It is just an unfortunate choice of words for that feature. If you read ‘DRY MIX’ as ‘DRY SIGNAL LEVEL,’ everything suddenly falls into place.
You matched levels with a full wet signal on the compressor. Once you introduce the dry, uncompressed signal, your levels are no longer matched as you have since adjusted the parameters of the compressors.
Using Hybrid String Ensemble for a 2-bar tune:
Track01 is No Compressor, output to Group.
Track02 is Compressor at 0% (Dry), output to Group.
Track03 is Compressor at 100% (Mix), output to Stereo Out.
(Identical compressor settings).
Output of Group (Track 01 + Track 02 i.e. uncompressed original signal + compressed signal) should be the same as Stereo Output of Track 03 (i.e. uncompressed original signal + compressed signal)?
Their respective LUFS are -14.1 and -15.0.
Interesting, annoying. . .
GO
Maybe I’m misunderstanding or maybe it’s a typo but
tells me that track 1 is uncompressed, track 2 is uncompressed (mix knob at 0%) and track 3 is compressed only (mix knob at 100%).
So you’re comparing the summing of two dry tracks with one compressed track which will, understandably, give you different levels.
From the manual:
Dry Mix
Mixes the dry input signal to the compressed signal.
If the knob is at 0% then you have a fully wet signal only.
I didn’t know that we were talking about a specific compressor. All the 3rd party software comps and limiters I use go in the other direction. 0% is dry, 100% is fully wet. (My hardware comps that have a mix knob work the same way).
Still, even under those circumstances, @Gil_Orms is comparing a summed dry and wet signal to a wet signal only. The levels will still not match.
I think the OP wasn’t clear about their routing. This sentence implies that the last routing includes both a wet and a dry signal although one would think that it’s just track 3 as claimed without the bus (or to be more precise the bus with one track muted).
The Steinberg compressor with it’s upside down understanding of the usual wet/dry convention adds to that confusion. Gets me e v e r y single time.
Indeed. For the first time in my life I just tried the standard Cubase compressor and I see what you mean. So, on all my other comps, 0% is completely dry and 100% is completely wet. On the Cubase comp, when the dry knob is turned up to 100% does that mean the signal is completely dry or is the compressed signal still in there?
Yes, 100% equals dry signal only. TBH I had to check once again just now because this confuses the hell out of me…
In all fairness: The manual is correct about its functionality and it says “Dry Mix”. Nevertheless, usually it’s dry/wet on almost all plugins including Steinberg’s other compressors. Picking a name so close to the well-established “dry/wet” and turning it upside down might not have been their best of ideas.
Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.
Thanks for clarifying.
Oh yes… 
On top some of team translation’s shenanigans and you are up for a real treat 
Are you sure? My understanding is that the Compressor plugin doesn’t allow a dry only output. I.e. the compressed signal will always be there 100% and the “Dry Mix” knob adds the dry signal to the output. I could be wrong though.
From the manual:
Mixes the dry input signal to the compressed signal.