The Make Up Gain is an option that some compressors have to create a gain compensation, that is, once the compressor has reduced the peaks of the signal, the make up gain takes the compressed signal and increases its gain. This is done to compensate for the loss of volume caused by the reduction created by the compression. The make up gain is measured in Decibels. For example, if the compressor reduces the original signal by 8 Decibels, we would want the make up gain to increase the compressed signal by 8 Decibels.
In the first frame of the following image, we see the uncompressed signal, in the second we see the compressed signal, and in the third we see how the Make Up gain has applied an additional gain. This helps to level all the peaks and at the same time increase the gain. We see then that the first image has a very changing dynamic, and in the last one, all the peaks have a similar gain, flatter and compressed but with a consistent gain. We can see that the make up makes the lower parts of the original signal increase and the higher parts decrease, equalizing the gain of the whole signal. This will subtract dynamism from the sound, so we will be careful not to abuse this option if we are working with a sound that requires dynamism, such as a guitar solo or a voice.
Become an expert in compression with the recommended book “ Compression in Music Production” (click on the image to go to the link):
