How do you get this vocal dynamic?

[jerberson12]

Please check this link.
Payphone - Maroon 5 Ft Wiz Khalifa (Alex G Acoustic Cover ft Jameson Bass) Official Cover Video - YouTube

How do you get this vocal dynamic?
It sounds like heavily compressed with auto gain on? That's the best what I can think of....
Also, do you think they use a high end mic and high end mic pre, like the neuman's and avalon/focusrite mic pre?

I am trying to make my vocal dyanmic sound like that with my software compressor, its a WAVES Compressor.
But even I heavy compress it, the high DB's sounds squished and the low DB's still sound a little low.

On the link above, her vocal sounds like its being pulled evenly into the mic evenly. I hope its just a compressor setting with an auto gain. My software compressor does not have an auto gain auto attack nor auto release but I really hopefully its that so I know what to buy for a good compressor.

 

[MrWrenchey]

Auto-gain is from Satan. Never use it.
No, but in all seriousness, I wouldn't suggest auto-gain. It's not doing what you probably think it is (from the sound of things).
If you want a nice video on how to transparently compress vocals like this, puremix has a GREAT one for around $20... That might be expensive for a video to you, but PureMix is one of my favorite sites. He teaches a lot in a 20 minute video. He'll even give you the files to do it yourself.

Transparent Vocal Compression - PUREMIX

Basically, what you need to do to get an even "pull" is to lower those higher volume sections with your compressor. It doesn't sound like she's doing much belting, so I assume it was fairly easy for her to get a fairly level response out of the original recording. If there were any peaks that were slightly louder, I assume the people mixing this just threw a quick attacking compressor (around 2-5 ms) to quickly catch the peaks, then just set the threshold to catch just the higher notes, and the ratio to squish down those peaks enough to make the sound sound more uniform.
I'm not sure if that's exactly what you're asking... I was a little confused about exactly the sound you were going for here.

 

[Massive Master]

I'm not hearing a lot of compression at all on that vocal... I hear louder, softer, actual dynamics.

Sounds like decent control more than anything else. I'd certainly bet there's an amount of volume automation (which should be the first line of defense every time anyway), but the dynamic range of the source sounds very natural.

THIS one on the other hand (linked from that vid)... Starships - Nicki Minaj (Alex G ft Shaun Reynolds Acoustic Cover) Official Cover Music Video - YouTube There's something hitting the heck out of that (should've gone with a LA2A).

 

[RawDepth]

Please check this link.
Payphone - Maroon 5 Ft Wiz Khalifa (Alex G Acoustic Cover ft Jameson Bass) Official Cover Video - YouTube

How do you get this vocal dynamic?
It sounds like heavily compressed with auto gain on? That's the best what I can think of....
Also, do you think they use a high end mic and high end mic pre, like the neuman's and avalon/focusrite mic pre?

I am trying to make my vocal dyanmic sound like that with my software compressor, its a WAVES Compressor.
But even I heavy compress it, the high DB's sounds squished and the low DB's still sound a little low.

On the link above, her vocal sounds like its being pulled evenly into the mic evenly. I hope its just a compressor setting with an auto gain. My software compressor does not have an auto gain auto attack nor auto release but I really hopefully its that so I know what to buy for a good compressor.

That girl has the kind of voice that doesn't need much compression. She has a strong (upper mid-range) voice that happens to cut through on almost every word. Even her quiet words aren't that quiet. Some other types of voices have to be hit harder to bring them out.