[Jak]

I know how stupid i must sound, but i dont know how to use a compressor, let alone most of my other sound processing plug ins. I got the free bomb factory plug ins, but the only thing I hear is the volume going up when I change the settings, why dont I just turn up the volume? Obviously a compressor does more than simply change the volume, otherwise, Id just push up the faders. So could someone tell me what the gain, thresh, ratio, attack, ratio, input, output, and release all do? Or point me to where I could find out.
Thanks a lot.

Alex