Compressing Vocals

  • Thread starter Thread starter NeoMatriX
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NeoMatriX

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Hello,

I just purchased the mobile pre from M-Audio to use with Cubase SE. I hear that you still have to use a compressor for best sound. (Vocals) How can I go about connecting everything?
I have the following:

Behringer Autocomp
M-Audio Mobile Pre
Akg Mic

Thanks. . .
 
you probably would get a better result using a compressor plugin in Cubase instead. a compressor won't give you a better "sound" but will help you control the overall amplitude of the loud and quiet signals. especially if you have a vocalist who can't sing at a constant volume. however, if you want to utilize the compressor you have already still...run the mic into the compressor and then out into the mobile pre. :cool:
 
Okay, I tried to connect my mic into my compressor and the compressor to the Mobile Pre but I did not get any sound. I'm sure its because I have a Phantom Powered mic. My comp. does not have phantom power but the mobile pre does. What should I do? I really just want to use it as a gate.
 
Mic - pre - compressor - Recorder (Computer I presume in your case). Benny just made a mistake with the chain.

However I wouldn't recommend using it as a gate, because it's irreversible and bad gating sounds horrible. Much better to edit out unwanted background noises from the silent bits in Cubase. Really, unless you want to tame a vocalist with poor dynamic control / mic technique, I'd just leave the compressor out altogether. A plug in will give you much mor escope for experimentation afterwards.
 
I thought trying what you suggested Garry but my pre uses USB to send audio to my PC.
 
Well, you'll be better off following my other suggestion and missing out the Behri altogether. That's how your USB audio interface was designed to be used. But presumably the interface has an analogue out that you could run into the compresser if you insisted on using it? However that would only work if you also had a good sound card on your PC as you'd have to run an analogue out from the Behri into it.
 
Don't understand your question. Your M-Audio mobile pre has phantom power - plug the mic in, turn the 48V on and you're away. If you INSIST on using your behri compressor, and assuming you're recording one track at a time (as you only have one mic :)):

Plug the mic into channel 1. There is a 1/4" out for channel 1 - connect it to the compressor. Take the output from the compresser and plug it into channel 2 on the pre with the gain on that channel on the pre turned all the way down.

You will now be able to record one channel of uncompressed and one channel of compressed vocal onto your computer. The compressed channel will have gone through two AD -DA stages but after a bit you'll figure out you're better doing compression in Cubase like everybody said so you can sell the Behri and buy some pizza instead.
 
Garry Sharp said:
Mic - pre - compressor - Recorder (Computer I presume in your case). Benny just made a mistake with the chain.

However I wouldn't recommend using it as a gate, because it's irreversible and bad gating sounds horrible. Much better to edit out unwanted background noises from the silent bits in Cubase. Really, unless you want to tame a vocalist with poor dynamic control / mic technique, I'd just leave the compressor out altogether. A plug in will give you much mor escope for experimentation afterwards.
Click to expand...

Oops, guess I should have looked more indepth into that compressor. Plus, didn't know he had to use 48V. again, my bad. But I still add my vote towards using plugins instead of the Behringer you have.
 
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