djclueveli
New member
i got this article from emusician.com
Compressing the Singer
A singer’s performance is unarguably the most critical aspect of a vocal recording. Crucial, too, is the quality of components in the recording chain. But another area that’s important, and that will have an impact on the editing and mixing processes is the quality of the recording itself. Was it recorded with enough level? Were the dynamics kept under control? Was there any distortion?
I asked the six producer-engineers (Steve Addabbo, Bob Power, Johnny “Juice” Rosado, Rail Jon Rogut, Rick Sheppard, and Ed Stasium) how important was it to try to record vocals as close to 0 dB as possible? The general consensus was that—given a 24-bit recording with its increased headroom over 16-bit—it was better to aim a little under 0 dB to help minimize the chance of going over, than to try to get the hottest possible level to disk.
“The old-school guys always say, ‘Go for the hottest level; use up all your bits,’ and it’s 6 dB per bit,” says Rogut. “My attitude is, if you’ve got 6 dB to play with, keep your level at least -6 dB or -5 dB.”
Addabbo echoes that sentiment: “The last thing you want to do is to push it too hard. I think in digital, we’re always fighting to get enough level on, so that we’re in a really high range of definition. So the converters can perform their optimum. But you don’t want to go over that limit, because it’s just a brick wall up there.”
Rosado says he’s too often given vocal tracks to mix that are clipped, and he routinely tells clients to record their vocals with the peaks around –6 dB. “I prefer to leave some headroom on it,” he says. “Because if it’s too hot, it doesn’t give you room to play with.”
However, too low isn’t good either, because you can lose quality. “ A lot of people mistakenly think, ‘Oh, it’s digital, it doesn’t matter,’“ says Power.
There was also wide agreement that compressing lightly to disk is a good idea to tame a singer’s dynamics and maintain optimum levels. “It’s important that people understand that the issues that surround good consistent level on the input of a digital converter,” says Power. “Obviously, whatever you do inside the box is way, way, downstream of that.”
Addabbo and Stasium both said that they supplement the compressor by riding the mic preamp during recording. “I’ll always ride the vocal,” Stasium says. “I’ll push it up a wee bit, and then during loud passages, I’ll back it off. I want to get that level so that it sounds like a naturally flowing vocal.”
There was general agreement that the compression settings for recording vocals should typically have ratios between 2:1 and 4:1. Make sure to set your compressor carefully, because you can’t undo compression once it’s recorded onto a track.
“There are two ways to really mess up compression on the way in,” says Power. “One is to slap something too hard most of the time. In that case, you don’t hear any pumping, but the other negative artifacts of compression, particularly harshness, sibilance, and lack of dynamics are accentuated. The other is to try to set the compressor too subtly, without compressing too much. In that case you can end up with pumping, which can result from a combination of factors of attack and release. It’s a tricky thing.”—Mike Levine
they say to record vocals kind of hot so u wont loose any quality. they suggested to keep the level around -5dbfs but everybody on here always says to keep the level around -18dbfs so isnt that too low?
Compressing the Singer
A singer’s performance is unarguably the most critical aspect of a vocal recording. Crucial, too, is the quality of components in the recording chain. But another area that’s important, and that will have an impact on the editing and mixing processes is the quality of the recording itself. Was it recorded with enough level? Were the dynamics kept under control? Was there any distortion?
I asked the six producer-engineers (Steve Addabbo, Bob Power, Johnny “Juice” Rosado, Rail Jon Rogut, Rick Sheppard, and Ed Stasium) how important was it to try to record vocals as close to 0 dB as possible? The general consensus was that—given a 24-bit recording with its increased headroom over 16-bit—it was better to aim a little under 0 dB to help minimize the chance of going over, than to try to get the hottest possible level to disk.
“The old-school guys always say, ‘Go for the hottest level; use up all your bits,’ and it’s 6 dB per bit,” says Rogut. “My attitude is, if you’ve got 6 dB to play with, keep your level at least -6 dB or -5 dB.”
Addabbo echoes that sentiment: “The last thing you want to do is to push it too hard. I think in digital, we’re always fighting to get enough level on, so that we’re in a really high range of definition. So the converters can perform their optimum. But you don’t want to go over that limit, because it’s just a brick wall up there.”
Rosado says he’s too often given vocal tracks to mix that are clipped, and he routinely tells clients to record their vocals with the peaks around –6 dB. “I prefer to leave some headroom on it,” he says. “Because if it’s too hot, it doesn’t give you room to play with.”
However, too low isn’t good either, because you can lose quality. “ A lot of people mistakenly think, ‘Oh, it’s digital, it doesn’t matter,’“ says Power.
There was also wide agreement that compressing lightly to disk is a good idea to tame a singer’s dynamics and maintain optimum levels. “It’s important that people understand that the issues that surround good consistent level on the input of a digital converter,” says Power. “Obviously, whatever you do inside the box is way, way, downstream of that.”
Addabbo and Stasium both said that they supplement the compressor by riding the mic preamp during recording. “I’ll always ride the vocal,” Stasium says. “I’ll push it up a wee bit, and then during loud passages, I’ll back it off. I want to get that level so that it sounds like a naturally flowing vocal.”
There was general agreement that the compression settings for recording vocals should typically have ratios between 2:1 and 4:1. Make sure to set your compressor carefully, because you can’t undo compression once it’s recorded onto a track.
“There are two ways to really mess up compression on the way in,” says Power. “One is to slap something too hard most of the time. In that case, you don’t hear any pumping, but the other negative artifacts of compression, particularly harshness, sibilance, and lack of dynamics are accentuated. The other is to try to set the compressor too subtly, without compressing too much. In that case you can end up with pumping, which can result from a combination of factors of attack and release. It’s a tricky thing.”—Mike Levine
they say to record vocals kind of hot so u wont loose any quality. they suggested to keep the level around -5dbfs but everybody on here always says to keep the level around -18dbfs so isnt that too low?
