Parallel Compression: fuller drums, the punch kept

How do you set up parallel compression on a drum kit, and why does it sound fuller with the punch (each hit's crack) kept? Say how the drums reach the compressor, how you set it, how you blend it in, and what Dry/Wet does.

Start each part with its opening words. Give a value or a direction for each setting: the words "parallel compression" on their own say too little.

Tick each point your words make.

• A send on the drums (Send A) takes a copy of them to a return track (Return A). The compressor goes on the return, so the drums themselves stay untouched.
• The copy is squashed hard: a low threshold ( dB here) and a high ratio (), so every hit is turned down dB; a fast attack, so the front of each hit is caught; a quick release; Makeup brings it back up.
• Return A's fader blends it in, well down ( dB here), so the copy's hits sit well under the drums' hits: the ghost notes come up dB, the peaks under 1 dB ( dB).
• Why: the untouched drums keep every hit's crack (each snare still falls dB in its first 70 ms); the squashed copy lifts the quiet parts (ghost notes, the room, the tails). Fuller, a smaller dynamic range, the punch kept.
• The same compressor on the drums' own insert squashes every hit: each snare falls only dB, the crack gone.
• Dry/Wet on one compressor does the same job in one knob: it mixes the untouched sound with the squashed one. 100% is all squashed; 50% is half and half; about % here is about the same as Return A's fader at − dB.
• Also worth saying
• The names: parallel compression, also called New York compression.
• Solo on the return lets you hear the squashed copy alone while you set it.

In Live and on a desk: the same controls