Long compression attacks fail to compress transients unless a "look-ahead" is used to start compression attack before transients hit. Look-ahead doesn't actually look ahead; it delays the sound to be compressed. I used Pulsar Delay to get a 20ms "look-ahead" with a 20ms attack on the compressor.
For the first 16 bars, this example alternates between look-ahead/non-look-ahead per 2 bars. Every 4 bars the compressor threshold is set to 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, respectively. I tried to set the make-up gain so that each setting is at about the same perceived volume. Last 8 bars are uncompressed.
Notice that the look-ahead doesn't have the transient at the kick drum.
WoW! This is very interesting. You can see the effect of compression on the waveform. In other DAWs there are compressors with attack to 0ms. Eventually you could manipulate the volume of the synthesizer that you want to compress with a 1/128 rise. But the rise in volume also has its dynamic response so you have to go guessing. But it also works.