compressing back vocals

[crosstudio]

I like for my back vocals to be less dynamic than the lead, you know um... 'sit still' in the mix.

when i had a 700mhz cpu i mixed the back vocals tracks and then applied compression to the mix. Now i have the cpu cycles to compress the individual tracks, i've started compressing (as needed) the individual tracks.

how are you compressing your back vocals (individual, group, or not at all)?

what brand of compressor are you using?

what is your recorder (ie... digital hd, soundcard, analog reel, analog cassette)

 

[crosstudio]

oops, i forgot to answer my own question.

individual compression to each track

sonitus ultrafunk (vocals), waves multi-band compressor (mix)

PC --> sonar --> frontier design wavecenter/tango24

 

[LongWaveStudio]

for most of the modern pop stuff i do here, i compress the shit out of the backing vocals. I stick em through a nice compressor like the Focusrites, make sure they are very consistent in volume. in the type of pop music ive been doing lately, there needs to be a strong backing vocal, so i use a nice dose of compression to make sure every word is as loud as the other.

 

[JuSumPilgrim]

Well, it all depends on the genre. For ostensibly mainstream pop, rock or hard rock, ... anything that moves more than .5dB in any direction is unacceptable.

 

[CMiller]

I crush the hell out of them all at once. But since I perform all of my vocal parts, I think it's a little easier to get the original parts the same dynamically as you perform. Maybe not though.