After attenuating (reducing) the loud sections, you can boost the overall volume of the signal using makeup gain because the signal becomes more consistent. This clarifies why compression is often described as making sounds louder, but that's only after makeup gain is applied. Take a look at the image below for a visual representation. ![[07. Audio Effects/Compression/_attachments/image-8.png]] ## Haircut Analogy You desire tall hair. However, at some point in the past, you had a bad haircut, leaving your hair all over the place. Some strands are sticking out and tall, but the rest of your hair is extremely uneven. You can't make your hair taller because doing so would cause the tallest strand to hit the ceiling, which is not a good look. This unevenness, with much of the hair being short and irregular, emphasizes the overall disarray rather than the desired tall, voluminous look. You can think of your hair as being uncompressed, with a wide dynamic range, showing a stark contrast between the tall and short strands.  ![[07. Audio Effects/Compression/_attachments/image-9.png|141x326]] So you decide to get a haircut. Now, your hair is completely even, although not particularly tall. It is, however, voluminous and uniform. Your hair is now highly compressed, meaning the difference between the highest and lowest strands is negligible, giving it a smooth and consistent appearance. ![[07. Audio Effects/Compression/_attachments/image-10.png|121x333]] But you now seek for your hair to be both voluminous and tall. Since you've evened out your hair by cutting it, it will now grow evenly. This allows you to achieve that tall hair look, making the bold statement you desired all along. The process of regrowing your hair after cutting it can be thought of as make-up gain, where the even growth adds volume and height uniformly. ![[07. Audio Effects/Compression/_attachments/image-11.png|97x271]] So now you've really made use of all of your headroom. The headroom is the amount of volume you can gain before hitting the ceiling. By evenly growing your hair, you've maximized your headroom, allowing your hair to be both tall and voluminous. You've made a loud statement indeed! ![[07. Audio Effects/Compression/_attachments/image-12.png]] See the video below. Notice how much softer the "out" meter is compared to the "in" meter. This shows you how much the compressor has reduced the signal's volume. By turning up the makeup gain, we can compensate for the lost volume and "grow our hair back." After turning up the makeup gain knob, observe how the output level has recovered. ![[Dyn3 Make-Up Gain.mp4]] Refer to the section titled “Makeup Gain” in [The Animated Guide to Compression](https://www.patches.zone/production-guides/compression-guide) for further clarification on this topic.