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That's a better question.
The controls on a compressor (usually attack, release, ratio and threshold - some have more controls, some less) all work together to affect the sound. The way a compressor affects sound is it pulls the volume down (once the volume of the sound is above the threshold), then brings it back up according to the way you've set up the controls - the attack determines how quickly the volume is turned down, the ratio determines how much it's turned down and the release determines how quickly the volume returns to full (when the volume of the sound drops back below the threshold).
To address your question in practical terms - in deciding your attack time, it's good to be aware of the sound's transients - is it a "sharp" percussive sound or a "soft" arpeggio-type-sound? Look at the waveform of a sound with a sharp attack transient, like a hihat sample - it will have a lot of energy right at the start, the initial "hit" - this will be much louder than the rest of the sample's waveform, and give the sound it's sharp sound. If you were to compress this sample with a very fast attack time, the volume would be turned down very quickly and the relationship between the initial hit and the rest of the hihat sample would be changed drastically - the sample would be dulled/ softened in a major way. The sharp character of the hihat would be changed. Whether or not you want this is a creative artistic decision. For soft synth sounds, with no sharp attack transients, a fast attack time could well be fine - the compressor will just react when the synth's volume goes over the threshold, whether that volume happens to be at the start of the sound or not.
That's the main consideration I have - is it a "hard" or "soft" sound that I'm compressing, do I want those attack transients to come through or not? Of course, how drastically it affects the transients also depends on the threshold and ratio - you can't just look at a single control on a compressor in isolation. Experience will help you here - there are many "right" ways to use a compressor, many great engineers use different approaches.
Regarding the release time, there are a few considerations - if the release time is very quick, the volume will be turned back up very quickly once the sound's volume falls back under the threshold, which can result in an audible "pushing up" of volume - pumping. This can be a useful creative effect - your choice. The release is also related to where the threshold is set - if the volume never goes back under the threshold, the compressor won't ever release, won't ever let the volume go back up to full. Assuming the threshold is set so that the release portion of the compressor comes into play, a common way to set it is so that the compressor has fully released by the time the next sound hits the compressor. Though it's important to listen to whether this sounds "musical" - whether it fits the groove you have happening. Potentially a slight adjustment will give you something that isn't only effective, but that also enhances the groove.
Really though, it's good to work out what you want a sound to do, know what the controls on a compressor do, then spend some studio sessions focusing on how to apply compression to sounds. Using compressors and hearing the results will likely help you much more than any amount of reading.
Then you'll have an awareness of why some people will *sigh* when asked how to compress a sound, without a) an audio sample of the sound and b) a clear description of what you want to do to the sound.
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