I came across this article ( http://www.loopblog.net/tutorials/studio-and-gear/studio-techniques/fattening-drums-with-multiple-busses/ ) and they mention compression ratios of ‘8:7:1’ and ‘1:5:1’.
Can someone please enlighten me to what the 3 digits represent? Obviously a 2 digit ratio is self explanatory, but does the 3rd number (I’m assuming the first) represent the threshold (not sure how) or is there some other magic behind this science?
BTW - has anyone tried the theory in the above article? Sort of another version of parallel compression I guess.
Thanks!
Oh man! Thanks for the enlightenment.
I thought may be the case, but figured it was some high-end setting that may only exist on expensive compressors that I didn’t yet know about.
Now to find whether the info on the website I found makes things sound better or worse!
I have to admit I’m more than skeptical . . . . .
Hi funkygas,
I’ve not tried the tutorial above, but I recently purchased Steven Slate Drums (EX version) and its totally blown my mind - awesome value for money and they sound lush! Anyway I’ve been playing around with compression on drums as its intriguing how producers approach it (i.e. using multiple buses and multiple forms/types of compression at different stages etc) 
Kinda deep!
Anyway, as such I thought I’d send you a link to the tutorial below by ‘Steven Slate’ as it takes on a similar form and provides a before/after mp3 comparison which is useful. Also there is a nice overview by a poster called ‘bkkornaker’ just below the tutorial which sheds some light on how different compression settings affect drum sounds etc.
http://www.stevenslatedrums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1626
If this is totally useless to you, please just ignore - I’m sorry I just have drums on the brain at the moment! 
Regards,
Kat 