Applying audio compression?

When you compress you lose dynamic range so visually on the screen you would be squishing the track vertically, and compressing the peaks instead of chopping them off for a more solid line. It will be louder and punchier but you will lose the dynamic range of quiet to loud (the distance between peaks and valleys). It's often a compromise. Over compression can be disastrous.

Compression is used extensively in music mixing. (We won't go into the volume/loudness wars here…) Compression is used very sparingly in sound-for-picture.

The two places in film sound where (dynamic range) audio compression is most commonly used are on sound effects and dialog.

High compression levels make things "apparently" louder, meaning that although the sound seems to be loud, the volume is still relatively low. This is very useful for gunshots, explosions and vehicles during "action" sequences; the compressed sounds seem very loud without being abusive to the listener.

Compression is used very judiciously on dialog to give the DX just a little more "punch." This increases intelligibility and helps DX cut through sonically "dense" sequences. Although every rerecording mixer works differently I will put a very light compressor (2 to 1 at most) on the DX buss, but only after I have done all of the leveling, etc.

I'm sure that APE would love to chime in as he is our resident rerecording mixer.

There you go.

Thank you both for clarification.