Mixing...gates, limiters, ect.

[IL_Literate]

My group and I are recording an album that we plan to get mastered and pressed. I'm doing most of the mixing using CEP, but I am not too familiar with the program or features like gates, limiters, etc. So far I have been using the compression presets for vocals but I know that there is more that I can do to make our stuff sound more professional. I would like to be able to use a gate or limiter to remove the noise that occurs right before the vocals start and during breaths inbetween words. The problem is that I don't know how to adjust the parameters to get the desired effect...I don't know if I should increase/decrease the attack/release time or by how much, should I increase/decrease the threshhold, etc. Also, I would like to smooth out parts where there is a hard "p" or "t" sound. We have a pop screen for our mic, but there is still some popping that was picked up. How could I get rid of it? Any help that you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

[Kelly Holdridge]

The information you're looking for would fill volumes! I suggest trying out each of the effects, and pressing the "HELP" button for each. It's pretty intuitive, and each variable is explained in a well-worded short paragraph. I suggest going to help from the effects window because it will automatically find the appropriate table of contents for that particular effect.

I would start with HISS REDUCTION. If you record to tape before CEP, this is invaluable, and a tricky tool to work with...

[mrclay]

>..I would like to smooth out parts where there is a hard "p"..
Plosives are not too difficult to get rid of: Try to only select the area of the vocal track where the offending blast is (you could probably do the whole without it being noticeable) and apply an FFT filter so that all frequencies below 200Hz or so (you'll have to plot the graph) are either completely cut or drastically reduced. That should do it for the "p"s and "b"s