compression during recording to prevent clipping?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Falopo
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Falopo

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Hi, i just got a brand new vocal mic (at4047) and i love it. it sounds great. I want to get the best vocal sound thati am able to get, obviously.
I was wondering how many of you use a compressor before recording to avoid extreme level changes and to prevent clipping.

Say for instance if a vocalist is going from slightly soft vox to really loud maybe even screaming vox then back down.

my experience with this is that it clips so i turn it down. but then the lower singing isnt as crisp. and if they move away when they sing louder it loses that close to the mic sound.

anyways i guess im just wondering if that would be the solution to my problem? ive heard mixed things inthe past about it. but i just want it so it wont peak. a light compression maybe
thanks for your input.
 
I tend to limit - Gently - on the way in if I'm going to do anything.

It's easy to compress after limiting. It's very hard to limit after compressing.

Get the loud parts to just start gain reduction - Barely.

As far as the "on the mic" sound, the only way is to keep them "on the mic."

A stool behind the vocalist may help. Tell them that they'll trip over it if they step back. :eek:

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
well i have several plugin compressors but i dont think that i can use them while recording, atleast im not aware that you can. so my conclusion is that i should by a compressor/limiter and use some light limiting while recording. any suggestions for a decent limiter?
 
For the most part any setting with a ratio higher than about 10:1 is considered limiting. And there's always (infinity):1 which is as limited as you can get on any particular unit.

Attack and release will have to be toyed with a bit. And you should STILL leave a few dB of headroom for whatever gets through the comp/limiter.
 
10:1 ?

So it would be OK to use a ompression ratio of 10:1 on vocals? Wouldn't there be some artifacts of doing that? Like more 'ssssing' for example?

Up to now Ive used a compression ratio of 2:1 on lead vocals and relied on backing off the mic at loud parts, but can I increase it to 10:1 and get away with it?
 
improve your mic technique and you won't have to do any of that
;)
 
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Re: 10:1 ?

glynb said:
So it would be OK to use a ompression ratio of 10:1 on vocals? Wouldn't there be some artifacts of doing that? Like more 'ssssing' for example?

Up to now Ive used a compression ratio of 2:1 on lead vocals and relied on backing off the mic at loud parts, but can I increase it to 10:1 and get away with it?
Click to expand...

And so the answere is: All of above.
Good mic tecnique minimizes the need for limiting, but compression/limiting could be part of the end effect you're going for anyway.
Moderate ratios and speeds are a safer bet but (may) only get you part of the way there -and don't really 'protect' much of anything.
10:1's artifacts might be just the ticket for that style. Unless you happen to get it wrong, in which case we get to do it over even if it didn't clip.

:confused: :D
 
Re: 10:1 ?

glynb said:
So it would be OK to use a ompression ratio of 10:1 on vocals? Wouldn't there be some artifacts of doing that? Like more 'ssssing' for example?

Up to now Ive used a compression ratio of 2:1 on lead vocals and relied on backing off the mic at loud parts, but can I increase it to 10:1 and get away with it?
Click to expand...

Try using 10:1 with a pretty high threshold, so that its only compressing the really loud peaks.
 
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