How to adjust an compressor/limiter to achieve best sound on a vocal track.

  • Thread starter Thread starter anppilot
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anppilot

anppilot

Never Act Like U Know All
Hey yall. I dont know if this question has ben asked before, or how many times before. If it has, please refer me to the post that you know of. I hate to re-ask an age old question.

Anyway, I just purchased a dbx 266XL and If any of you have ever used this, or a equivelant compressor/limiter before, please tell me where to set this thing to be used on vocals ONLY. This DBX will never be used for anything else except vocals. If you give me a great set-up for it, Ill glue the knobs in place !!!
:D


Thanks in advance,
Mike
 
Sorry dude.... there is no "one" setting for vocal use - it varies totally from day to day, depending on the mic, and most importantly, the vocalist. Even the same mic with the same vocalist on 2 different days might require different compressor setting changes.

A compressor is the one processor that you have to learn HOW to use it to set it correctly, instead of having "presets". You can't simply dial-up a setting and have it work in all situations.

Check out Shailat's article --> http://www.Geocities.com/Shailat2000/Compression.html for more info... then you need to play with your unit (the compressor! ;) ) to learn what the settings do and how to use them.

Bruce
 
Compressor/Limiter

Well as far as I know there is no pre-set for vocals simply because each vocalist and song will be different.

What do you want to achieve with the compressor. To much will remove the dynamics from the track and to little will do nothing at all.

Home Recording Magazine has published a bunch of articals on compression and they are very good. I'll try to find the dates and let you know.

As for the settings, make sure you are farmiliar with what compression is and does then experiment with the settings.

Personally I don't use very much unless it's really necessary.

Hope this helps

Bob
 
Every thing everybody else said here is the right thing to say.

I'm going to go against my own advice here and give you a basic setting but dont take it as a preset. This is no more then a general starting point and should change acording to need -style - singer - Tempo - wanted effect.

Start by asking why are you insisting to use compression?
Remember that any processing of any kind tends to change the natural color of your track as well as potentialy damage it. You are going through another curcit and have to gain stage again and be carefull not to overcompress and...and...and.....
Are you sure of the need to track with compression?

Vocals - start off with a 3-5ms attack time and a 1/2-1 sec release time. Ratio - start with a 3:1 and set the Threshold to reduce the gain by 2-6dB at the peaks only. Depending on the above you might need to make the release longer to 2 secs acording to tempo or style. You might need a higer ratio like 7:1
again depending........

In practice I ask the singer to back up a bit during very loud parts
and when I track with a compressor, I make sure it barely goes into action if at all. It's more of a security issue.
I aim for the compressor to hardly go into action and if it does then the reduction at very loud parts should be around 2-4dB.
If the vocals are understandable and they sound good with no
compression problems like pumping or breathing - exaggerated sibilance - dull sound - added unwanted noise - losing the natural sound of the vocals - lose of dynamics, I know am ok.

Compression is at its best when you cant hear it !.
I cant remember were but I read a story of a engineer that claimed his compressor was doing a great job on the track untill somebody pointed out to him that it wasnt pluged in............
Embaressing as that is, it still holds the truth.

Good Luck...your going to need it :)
 
Re: presets

O.K. I have a confession to make-I'm using a preset! It's on the Presonus
Blue Max compressor, preset #1. I figure that since it's the gentle
compression ratio of 1.8 to 1 how much harm can it do?
So far it sounds fine to me, and if the vocal track needs more compression
it can always be added later. What do you guys think?
 
Asuming your compressor itself is transparent and it isnt compressing all through the song and you have set the gain propely I doubt you are doing any damage.
There might be a problem with the attack setting with the vocals
but if it sounds ok then it is.
 
anppilot,

I have the 166xl and I will tell you this that you made a real good choice for a compressor as far as ease of use and the sound that you can get with it

Dbx because of the "over easy" and "auto settings for attack and release..which in my opinion are the hardest settings to obtain and maintain transparency or simply compression that you cant hear..makes this compressor so easy to use...

Start with a ratio of 4:1 and a threshold of -10db..from there just simply watch your gain reduction meter and your over easy indicator. I have found that a gain reduction of about 4db with the over easy indicator being lit up sounds just great. If you are not in the over easy range you get the red light. If you are staying in the red you are more or less using a hard knee compression and you change that by simply adjusting your threshold higher..higher would be towards the positive numbers
always making sure first that you are not overdriving your mic preamp and sending to hot of a signal to the unit in the first place.

If this is not clear to you or if you want a more in depth understanding of whats happening when you use the over easy mode and the auto settings...I believe its covered in the manual and if not holla back ..

Good luck!
 
Do you guys think that a good rule of thumb, for the technically
challenged like myself, is making the lead vocal approximately
the same dynamic range as the backing tracks. For example if on
a digital system where you're hitting approximately -13db to -3db
(to avoid clipping) on the backing tracks, why not compress the
vocal to sit in about the same range? Maybe someone could take the compression parameters suggested here and then adjust by
ear to do it. Of course there's an assumption here that the
vocals needs to compressed (as it was over a 10db "swing")!
 
Compression

Well first thing is, I wouldn't use any compression while tracking unless I absolutly had to.

In my opinion...... "Only mine" 4:1 is a little high I woud think you would only want to get a little control over the vocal I would start with 1.5-2.0:1 as a ratio and work up from there if necessary. Unless you are trying to do something different.

I personally use compression just to tighten things up a little. if on a vocal just to bring the soft and loud passages a little closer together. This can also be achieved by good mic technique.

Bass guitar .. again to smooth it out.

Kick and snare ... depending on the sound I want to achieve.

Hope this helps
 
digital or analog

This may seem like a dumb question but what are you recording to. Digital or Analog. If tape, how wide and what speed. The reason I ask is that your compression needs might vary depending on what you use to capture the signal.
 
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