Having the volume changes upstream of dynamics processing might be one reason. Pro Tools clip gain is upstream of everything, I believe. Reaper clip volume automation is upstream of track effects, but after any plugins on the clip. I'm going on memory, so I could be wrong.
I think it’s different than using compression?, which I still use after I gain level. Isn’t what I’m doing just automating the gain? There might be a way to do this automatically in PT but I don’t know how to do it other than how I go through the track manually separate sections and match the levels. It makes the vocal sound more intimate to me. When I’m done it sounds more like a record.
It is different. Back in the day when engineers would "ride gain" on a console, it was called, "hand limiting." The result is far more natural sounding than stuffing the signal through a compressor. As the late-great Bruce Swedien famously said, "compression is for babies."
In the old better days riding the gain was just mixing.
Waves Vocal Rider does the mixing technique automatically - for me it is a lot better than doing the track cut by cut.
Reaper is customizable in that respect - I believe by default, though, volume automation occurs *before* any track FX. But, you can move it around in your chain.
It is - the upside I could see here would be it would give you a lot more creative range in HOW you used compression downstream, once you got the vocal track to a point where levels were more stable, and you didn't need to lean on a compressor to do that. I mostly just record myself and I write instrumental guitar music, so there isn't MUCH need for me for this, but absolutely, doing some volume automation on a vocal track can be helpful, if the dynamics are pretty variable.
I still use Waves Vocal Rider after the manual editing. It’s a different sound to me.
I still use compression after I gain edit. To me it makes the vocal sound more like a record. I learned this by doing a deep dive on how Sheryl Crow recorded her vocals which always sound incredible on her records.
oh yeah, 100%. But, if you don't have to use it to level your vocals, because you've already done so via some judicious editing up front, it gets a lot easier to dial the compression in. It's kind of like the idea of running a couple compressors into each other (on bass I'll use one to control the wildest transients, then something softer and smoother for fattening, for instance) except your first "compressor" is manual.
Yes, exactly.
