Any Idea how to fix compressor swelling in recording?

[Lucian]

I have been trying to fix a bad bass recording where the player used a compressor pedal while recording. The problem is the volume swells on held notes. I have tried hard limiting, gain riding and re-compression with limited results.

I am meeting with him for lunch today and will ask if he can rerecord it and he probably will try but hate that I am at a loss for fixing this if that option was not available. So, what would you do if you were stuck and had to fix it?

Any Ideas?

Edit: Well he couldn't make to to lunch so I am thinking I will run Hornet's Autogain VST on it with a steady sine wav as a reference and see how that turns out.

[ashcat_lt]

Heavy handed distortion!

No, seriously!

Have you tried an expander? Or like ReaGate with the mix turned down a bit? I'm sure if you really got in there you could automate it into something usable, but it would take forever...

Just distort the thing and be done!

[Sonic Vampire]

the problem is probably not just volume

the compressor is possibly taking out bottom end when the transient hits which is then returning as the volume swells

have you tried automating EQ as well as volume

multiband compression may help too

[HoRNet]

Hi I'm curious to know how the AutoGain worked in such a bad situation

otherwise i will distort the thing too and maybe low pass it with some kind of envelope follower to give back some sort of attack...almost what you do when you create a bass sound on a synth, at the end of the day if you distort hard you get close to a square wave so you can approach the problem as if you were using a synth

Saverio

[Andy Hamm]

try an expander

[ashcat_lt]

Honestly, I think that IF it's actually bad enough that dude agrees it needs to be fixed AND it's important enough for him to want it fixed THEN he should go back and re-record it. The whole thing is his fault to begin, and I just can't imagine any reasonable person would think any less of you if you were to explain it tactfully.