I was looking at compressors and...

[Bones]

I feel like im looking at controls for an alien spacecraft!!!!!
for ex
http://www.behringer.com/EN/images/ligh ... ve_XXL.jpg

I have absolutely no idea what one single knob on this does!!

[Doug Hart]

There's a lot to explain there...

Read this a few times
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_understa ... index.html

then read this about 10 times
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression

That should give you a pretty good understanding of compressors.
If you have more specific questions after reading those... ask away.

Compressors are an extremely useful audio tool. I run 24 of them on my 32 channel mixer.
But used improperly, the results can be disastrous.

[Sydney]

http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/proce ... o-use.html
http://www.rane.com/note134.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXCaKStVAEs
And
http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewt ... 36&start=0

Syd