Is there a faster way to level out vocals?

Hey Sammo,

In Protools you don't have to chop/break the wav. You can just use clip gain creating new points like any other kind of automation.
It's still time consuming, all the same.
I used a demo of Waves Vocal rider a while back and actually found it to be really good! It might be worth a look.
I didn't buy it but right now I'm wondering why I didn't. Maybe I was broke that month. (odds are good).

Of course the "I don't want to hear it" answer is that you singer could most likely work the mic better if there's a pressing need for heavy automation,
but I concede that often there's still need for automation, regardless.
It's just one more thing to consider.

Welcome to HR! :)
 
Hey Sammo,

In Protools you don't have to chop/break the wav. You can just use clip gain creating new points like any other kind of automation.
It's still time consuming, all the same.
I used a demo of Waves Vocal rider a while back and actually found it to be really good! It might be worth a look.
I didn't buy it but right now I'm wondering why I didn't. Maybe I was broke that month. (odds are good).

Of course the "I don't want to hear it" answer is that you singer could most likely work the mic better if there's a pressing need for heavy automation,
but I concede that often there's still need for automation, regardless.
It's just one more thing to consider.

Welcome to HR! :)

thanks bro! welp looks like there isnt a shortcut to this step is there:(
 
Without handing over decisions to AI, I don't think so.

What you described in the video is possible (midi/hardware automation) but the caveat you described is also true.
If your decisions lag behind by X then the automation will lag behind by X.

I've never tried it but it's technically possible to ride automation and then shift that whole automation to the left by whatever you estimate your reaction delay to be.
I've no idea how useful or musical that will be.

How dynamic are we talking here? I generally don't recommend a compressor in place of automation but if we're talking about small amounts maybe a comp would do just fine?
 
I often use parallel on vocals, works great. Another trick is to put a fast acting compressor, almost a limiter before the easier acting compressor and have the 1st compressor only grab the loudest peaks, then the following compressor smoothing the rest, I like this too. The choice between the 2 methods is the vocalist and the type of song. Have a look at the video which shows double stacked compression a bit like I am suggesting.

I actually like the sound of compression on vocals however you need to have the settings correct. Try some of the compressor presets but adjust the gain and threshold to suit what you have. Using a compressor is sure faster then

Alan.

 
In a situation like this, I'd almost consider exporting the vocal--leveling/normalizing it in Audacity, then re-importing it. Don't know if that would get you where you want to be though.
 
In a situation like this, I'd almost consider exporting the vocal--leveling/normalizing it in Audacity, then re-importing it. Don't know if that would get you where you want to be though.

No don't do it, can't be undone, normalizing is not the answer, I have never normalized a file.

Alan.
 
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