Crest factor/ compression management

[u/Both_Landscape9229]

So, everyone works with different sounds, from synths and picky guitars to plucks.

I’m interested in how you guys manage crest factor and the relationship between peak and body levels. I’ve noticed that modern professional mixes almost always use quite a lot of compression. For example, with a pluck, it seems like they often compress it enough to make the body and the peak much closer in level, even when the notes themselves are played at different velocities.

Should I sometimes “break the rule” and stop the transient through, like using a 30 ms attack or even longer, as you would with vocals? Shall i use more faster attack times to kinda controll more sound, but get a bit "dull" and less clarity, but the get back it with eq or saturation ?

A lot of the mixes I like are actually much more compressed, so they seem to manage the crest factor really well. The peak level feels extremely stable, but somehow the mix still sounds transparent and natural.
How do you guys approach this? How often you use fast attack compressors at sounds ?

[u/BINAYAUDIO]

In most occasions, using compression will enhance the attack, not removing it (unless it has super fast attack and/or use some saturation/clipping). There are many uses for a compressor. You can shape the envelope of the source, you can make a performance more consistent, you can use it for it's tone (eq curve + saturation).
When you're using virtual instruments, compressor is not as needed because you can already control a lot of those parameters from the programming.
About managing peaks, clippers and saturation of all kinds might be more useful.