I also had a hard time at the beginning of this game, it was so annoying that I called the computer a liar and I almost broke my screen lol. My solution to pass the levels is to listen to the snares or percs transient (and ignore the rest of the drums) and also to make mentally a kind of level match not to be influenced by the decibels. Finally the lowest transient is the right answer. Good luck with this game!

yeah its tricky cause maybe one example:
You listen for precussion get louder cause of compression and in the one level it works fine but as you progress they rise the whole volume of the uncompressed track and you get fouled

I think we tend to always apply makeup gain when we compress audio while we're working on our own music, so compressed audio is almost always also louder in our experience, so we associate more compression with more loudness. But Dr. Compressor does not usually apply enough makeup gain to make the compressed signal sound louder than the uncompressed (or at least the less-compressed) signal. So it's mostly about the transients, but this has limitations as well, as there are times when the two choices seem to have the same attack time but with different ratios, so in this instance the transient doesn't help much and we need to rely on the ring. BL, I listen for transients first (more punch = less compressed, or another way is that transients can somehow be felt as well as heard, so getting to know the particular feeling of transients helps here), and then I also try to back it up with the ring. But this isn't foolproof either, as there are times when the ratio is the same and the attack time difference between the two choices isn't great enough to produce a noticeable difference in the ring.

See this post from https://www.soundgym.co/space/talk?id=NASZ2448MAR&t=T5VAGP443B8
Noam Gingold - Aug 20, 2020
The parameters for dr. Compressor are always the same. As written in the game description the attack is very fast (close to 0) and the release time is also very short. Only the threshold is getting a bit higher with each level/stage. Distorted reality also presents a very simple saturation process, while the drive parameter is a bit higher with each stage/level. Drive and threshold values are not meaningful by themselves because their effect also content dependent. The effect of lower threshold or higher drive is the same as if we keep these parameters at the same value and raise the audio content level. So these exact values will not add anything to your understanding of what you hear.

Can you point me to where it is written that attack/release parameters are the same between sounds, and only the threshold is different? And what about compression ratio? The game description only says that attack and release are very short for easier recognition, NOT that they are identical. There is no mention at all of ratio or threshold in the documentation. I'm not able to find support for Noam's assertions that a) ratio, attack, and release are constant between samples and b) only the threshold changes as the game progresses.

@Noam Gingold is the Founder & CEO of SoundGym. So if he posts info about how the games work, then I take it on good authority he knows what he is talking about. Anyways, best not to get caught up on what the parameters are and just listen for the difference in the two samples. Cheers!

Glad to know that about Noam.

But what you're saying and what he wrote are not the same.

He did not say that the parameters between options in each question were the same except for the threshold.

He only said that the only difference as you progress through game levels is that the threshold becomes higher at higher levels.

Maybe he means that the threshold gets higher on BOTH samples regardless of their other settings, but this is also not made explicit in what he wrote.

Ratio, attack time, threshold, and release time could ALL be different between samples on each question without contradicting Noam's statement.

I cut and pasted Noam's post from Aug 20, 2020.
None of that is my comment on how the game works. So, I'm not sure about what part your referring to with 'But what you're saying and what he wrote are not the same'
From personal experience, once I gave up on overthinking about what the parameters may or may not be, my performance in the games improved.

Sound advice, and you're right - evidently I was putting words in your mouth.

I'd still like to understand what they're doing with the settings :).

With Dr Compressor the attack and release are very short, and the ratio is 1:8. All parameters are always the same as metioned above, except the threshold.

Awesome, thanks for clarifying!

yeah be reasonable the high ratio give change in threshold much power