shit i forgot you wanted help, so here goes. For kicks you want a fast attack between 0.1 and say 11.9 ms, you have to listen to decide this as it varies from kick to kick, you'll also need a high ratio to really make it punch, i normally use about 12:1, but this also will vary form unit to unit because they all act differently. When you've set this have your kick drum playing then just move down the threshold, until the kick sounds like its really starting to hit you in the face, best to have it loud for this, don't go to far with this otheriwse the kick will start to sound like its distorting so just back up a bit and set it where you think it sounds best. on your bass it all depends on the sound you want and what style of bass it is. if you have a choppy fast attacking bass, you need to set the attack and release of the compression to fit the sound, so it turns on and off correctly. Once you've done this its all about experiementation with bass, because it can even sound nice if you over compress is and it distorts a little, so i would just advise to use your ears and whatever you think sounds best just go with it, normally if you are carried out for production you can normally tell what is best. and again the same goes for slow evolving bass set the atack and release accordingly and use the ratio and threshold to see what sounds best. With synths there isn't really any rules, the only thing i would suggest is to keep the ratio and threshold a lot lighter than with the kick and bass. and don't forget you fx chain make sure you apply compression in most cases first before and other effect, the reason for this is if you compress and delayed or reverbed sounds the delays and reverbs will get louder and it will sound horrible as it will coud your mix. However if you want this sound in your track you can do it, it just harder to mix your track with such things going on. If you need anymore help give me a shout.
what alex said..... but i'd just listen to it, if it sounds good leave it, if it dosnt keep tweaking till it sits right.... If it feels right its right:chill: somtimes just add a touch so you get the 'sound' of the compression, so its there but you dont notice it unless you look... same with reverb, i use just 1-5% reverb so you get a feel of it but it dosnt dominate... i dont think id ever fully compress sommit, got to let tha natural juices shine too lol! fuckin ell its complicated to explain, easy to show....
