where to find sound basics abt compressors etc

What is a compressor or limiter - what do they do is there a good place to go to find out about the basics of sound? Oh I have just looked at the sicky thread Recording the basics - that should do it. I thought it might just be about the basics of recording but it is more than that. HMM having clicked on a few links there I didnt find what i wanted. A simple walk through of basic terms like compressing and what it is good for etc.

See here: . Also using Google, to search for a specific term you don't understand, will bring you a wealth of information. :cool:

Thanks very much for that helpful explanation, after understanding some of these terms then there is the question of in what order you apply compression, eq, normaization etc. I suppose there is no answer either as it will depend on what you want to achieve.