DAWs these days give you amazing visual displays of your audio material. This has revolutionized the way that music can be edited and created. But you hear a lot of advice to “mix with your ears” and to “let your ears be the judge” rather than relying on visual feedback when mixing or adjusting processors. Does that mean that you should ignore your compressor’s display when adjusting settings?
It’s true that your ears should be the final arbiters for any tweaking you do. But there’s a lot of valuable information shown in waveform displays and on meters. The height of the peaks, for example, can give you an idea of how much dynamics control you’ll need to apply. You may home in on particular areas of your audio, based on a waveform visual. Or if you’re compressing at the mastering stage and your goal is a consistent program level, the waveform’s appearance can help guide you as to how close to your target level you are during the process. Likewise, keeping an eye on the meters can give you a good idea of how hard the plug-in is working and how it is dealing with peaks and transients. So while you your ears are primary when compressing, don’t want to discount the value of the visuals.