Lead vocal compression + automation?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Segosha
  • Start date Start date
Yeah I guess I never though of it that way - namely "get a consistent level overall fed into the compressor." That would probably be a better way to go about it.

When I've tried it that way it's always been a mess. A nice attack in one section would pump and distort in another as the input signal got louder, etc. But maybe if you focus on getting a consistent level going in, those problems wouldn't exist.

Good thought.
 
Since I seem to specialize a lot in the milking of tu*d tracks,,, yeah :D , I find plenty of uses where once pre and post automation is laid in, juggling pre and/or post' and/or threshold lines to get out 'o whack stuff to play better.
 
I use compression for the sound of compression. Very rarely do I use it to deal with problem dynamics.
This is kind of what I'm talking about (from several posts back). A compressor kicking in 6dB of reduction doesn't sound the same as simply reducing the volume by 6dB...
 
In the several years of studying engineering, I'm still not 100% sure I understand this concept.
Not to jack the thread or anything, but do you have any supplemental reading that'd help with understanding the concept of "signal" vs "volume"? Because I always thought the signal level WAS volume level.

TO ME!! Its not signal level is the "level" of the actual signal inside the track not volume you can have a high level signal with low volume output wether it be master out or the actual fader if its post fader. (you ever turn down the "volume of the track but you still see the signal jumping above the fader position. Signal is not relevant to volume in some case IMHO, sometimes I see them as the same but other times I see how they split.
 
lesson #1 compression & how not to use it.
Fader automation is how you should mange volume and get the vocal at the right volume for each instance or change in dynamic.
Compression really is another, often very colourful, beast.
It's a mistake to use the compressor to raise or lower volume generally. I know because i've been down that path and some time later went back to everything i'd done previoulsy, removed the compressor & automated the volume faders. The results were uniformly better.
Lesson #2 - reverb & how not to use it.

so true!
 
Curious- do some DAWs not have clip or gain automation?
 
Curious- do some DAWs not have clip or gain automation?

All the other DAWs I know have had it for years. Some Pro Tools people are so insulated from the general DAW world that when they added clip gain with PT9 or 10 all the Pro Tools users thought it was some sort of manna from heaven. To me it was years of a glaring omission that should have been corrected by PT7. PT does have a gain function in Audio Suite, but it's a destructive process and clunky to use compared to clip gain. Now if Avid could just comprehend the concept of a proper solo bus...
 
Simply muting "everything but" doesn't quite qualify as a solo function. Soloing an aux channel shouldn't mute all the channels feeding it.

Ohhh, I mean you would have to set it up to go to a separate aux or like a head phones mix, with pre fader setting so when you do mute a track it doesnt mute a certain sound. But yeah I see what your saying
 
Or, for example, if you have an aux buss with a reverb on it. If you solo the aux buss to hear the reverb, it should keep the tracks feeding it unmuted...like every other DAW on the planet.
 
Ohhh, I mean you would have to set it up to go to a separate aux or like a head phones mix, with pre fader setting so when you do mute a track it doesnt mute a certain sound. But yeah I see what your saying

Yes, rather than simply clicking the aux channel's solo button...like every other DAW on the planet.
 
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