release not until attack has ended? compression

[ubik]

hello.


My question is regarding the Attack and Release of a Compressor, I'm a bit confused on the following..


Does the Release only kick in after the Attack time has ended?.. or is it in effect immediately after the audio drops below the threshold without needing to have the attack phase end yet? Or perhaps the Attack immediately stops once the threshold drops as well?



EDIT: Im running some tests here on a modelled waveform block.. much like the one in Bob Katz' book "mastering audio" and I think I'm seeing the release not kicking in if the attack is longer than the time before it drops below the threshold.. anyone have some input on this?


oh I'm using RCOMP from Waves by the way.. and just for the record i dont do any mastering.. im more of a producer/ getting into mixing

[gainreduction]

Release on a compressor could be thought of as "recovery" time. So when compression kicks in (how fast that happens will depend on the attack time) the release time is how long it takes for the comp to recover.

So that's the order of the events.

Hope this helps...