Goriila Texas wrote: ↑30 Aug 2019
How does 2:1 ratio equal infinity on a parallel channel? Can you go into greater detail?
Think of it this way: Infinity to one means that for every one dB up, there is an opposite dB down. And 2:1 means for every two dB up, there is an opposite 1 dB down. So it's 2 up/1 down vs 1 up/1 down when described this way.
In this way of looking at it, "no compression" (dry) would be described as "for every one dB up, there is an opposite ZERO dB down (1 up/0 down).
So if you add a 1/1 (inf:1) to a 1/0 (no compression), you get 2/1, right?
In other words, when the dry signal is going 1 dB over the threshold, the inf:1 signal is going zero dB over the threshold, and when combined you get half of each, equal to 0.5 dB over the threshold. Technically you get a hotter signal, but you have to subtract 6 dB when adding two channels together in order to account for the summing of two channels.
Which also means when the dry signal is 2 dB over the threshold, and the inf:1 signal is zero dB over the threshold, the combined result is also half. This is equal to 1 dB over the threshold, and we already know that 2 dB up/1 dB down gives you a 2:1 ratio.
Hopefully that makes sense, never had to think of how to describe it in words. All I know is when you set up two MClass compressors this way on two identical channels (or one normal channel and one parallel channel), and invert the polarity of one, you get perfect cancellation.