Recommended Ratio Settings for the Compressor

[Black Dog Bluez]

What is the recommended ratio to use for compressing talk; and also vocals accompanied by acoustic guitar, and just acoustic guitar?

It seems if you go too high past 2:1 it starts to become too harsh. I would guess lower better but of course if you want to compress more you have to go higher (3:1, 4:1 etc., towards 10:1).

I can't seem to find a straight answer on this anywhere. Tons of info on-line but nothing too concise or to the point?? Maybe I already answered my own question here but I sometimes can't seem to tell when I'm hurting the audio by using too much of a ratio. Any input appreciated, thanks.

[Black Dog Bluez]

Found this old tutorial. Does anyone disagree with this video, I'm curious? Best I've seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcEQJBO1Kj0

[Trebor]

... It seems if you go too high past 2:1 it starts to become too harsh. I would guess lower better but of course if you want to compress more you have to go higher (3:1, 4:1 etc., towards 10:1).

The hardness of the compression is a factor , not just the compression-ratio.
Try compressors other than Audacity's native one , e.g. Chris's compressor.

[Black Dog Bluez]

thanks trebor -- tried but--I dunno--to me seems SC4 is the best --of the 3 anyway. I like the way SC4 is more loudness curbing than just peaks