Hard knee vs. Soft knee Compression/Limiting?

[timaeus222]

I've tried both extensively now, and I'm wondering what situations people here use each for. I personally use hard knee on drums and percussion, and soft knee on the master. Just recently discovered that soft knee seems to work way better at handling supposed overloads when I switched from Fruity Limiter to TLs-Pocket Limiter on a packed DnB track (still have been using TLs for a long time though; just haven't seen a drastic improvement until now).

[SnappleMan]

I use whatever sounds better in any given situation. I like using a soft knee on drums to really get the snap out of them, if that's what I'm going after. I almost always limit with a hard knee so I can push the gain and not clip as much.

[SonicThHedgog]

I've tried both extensively now, and I'm wondering what situations people here use each for. I personally use hard knee on drums and percussion, and soft knee on the master. Just recently discovered that soft knee seems to work way better at handling supposed overloads.

Softer knee I use when I need to make a compressor when I need the transition from compressing to not compressing to be soft or the opposite when it to be sharp.

things like drums depend on what im working with.

vocals I use a ratio or 1.5.1 with pretty low thresh and mild knee (depending on what im working with)

things like synths and instruments, I usually dont compress often, but I low ratio of 1.x.x to 2.0 and a mild or soft knee depending on what im working with just to make it sound warm

on my master track, I usually don't compress and just EQ unless I think the track needs compression to add some warm, power or something. (or if I want to add something/fix something to the track, a multiband. usually when I want a band to dominate the others which im starting to do more often.) then I limit depending on what song/genre im working with.

I really only compress when I feel I need it.

[Ryan Jobson]

Yeah you gotta use your ears and use hard or soft knee when they sound best... sometimes you really want the compressor to activate as soon as the transients for drums goes past the threshold... other times you may want it to ease into compression with a softer knee. There are not any rules really...

But for what it's worth, I mostly use harder knees for drums and stuff, and softer compression for pads or sounds where i want the compression to gradually come in or where it needs it