Vocal Compression Mixing Trick
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- čas přidán 26. 10. 2023
- Mixing Vocals Compressor Plugin 1176 LA-2A Slate Digital FL Studio Pro Tools Cubase Ableton Vocal Mixing Compression Audio Mastering
#mixingandmastering #flstudio #audioengineer #musicproducer - Hudba
1176 LA2A classic compressor combo
I’ve been doing this intuitively!! Now I feel validated
🦾
VOCAL COMPRESSION ON A WHOLE NOTHER LEVEL COMING THROUGH MY MIND
WE ARE GOLDEN WIND
What works really well is to use a slower attack and release first. This is because the goal of the first compressor is to take as much of the work away from the “limiting” second compressor. The second compressor having a faster attack and release will introduce more artifacts to the sound, thus, we want the peaks caught by the second compressor to be as short as possible in terms of time duration.
Having a slower attack on the first compressor will make the peaks more pokey. That’d make your second compressor/limiter work harder and would make reduction a lot more audible. So if your goal is for the vocal to sound natural, a fast attack and release first will give cleaner results.
multi platinum mix engineer here , I NEVER do a fast attack first . I always like the peaks because it makes vocals feel real. On my 1176 I set the attack to 3 o clock and the release almost all the way to the right. Then I hit a Cl1b with about 3-4 dB of reduction with attack at noon and release at 9 pm. Works 95% of the time for all vocals for me.
Edit: I never knew prefacing my experience and knowledge in a passive and non confrontational way would result in so many of your soyboy fans getting triggered. Sheesh 😂 It’s called a resume and experience in context. I used to drive my attack all the way to the right on the 1176 and would often get clients disappointed with the peaks being shaved down that much more and noticed a higher percentage of them giving me less recalls after backing off the speed of the attack with the 1176 afterwards. Learn from me. Learn from the fact I’ve worked directly with Chris Brown , Eminem , and countless other big artists in the past. Learn from the countless times I had to recall my compressor settings and deal with it so y’all don’t make that same mistake. But if you like it then go off and do it. Your sound is your sound! But nah y’all just wanna be mad cuz I said I was a multi platinum engineer or get hung up on technicals and not general intention just like every kid I went to audio school with did when I took over front of house during every internship and they’d say the same shit while wrapping cables. 😂 . With all due respect, Get fucked ❤️
I mean that’s fair, but the slowest attack time on a 1176 is still 1 millisecond which is fast.
@@mixwithjerry yeah I meant to say I do do a fast attack but I dont drive it all the way. You can lose a lot of expression that way its best to control peaks manually after if anything wild pops up. Usually on my hardware units it doesnt give me the same issues plugins do
@@mixwithjerryexactly what I thought. With a 1176 it's always fast. Another "I know better 🤓☝️" comment without actually knowing how a 1176 works.
@@NOXBEATZdang multi plat engineer how does it feel to be corrected on your attempted correction by a CZcams guy
@@miguelmoreira5248 nah never said i know better. im saying my results have yielded better sonics than completely arradicating front end transients. I meant “I DO USE A FAST ATTACK UPFRONT , HOWEVER PUSHING IT ALL THE WAY TO THE RIGHT TAMES THE LIFE OUT OF YOUR VOCALS AND YOUR BETTER OFF TO BACK IT OFF A HAIR INSTEAD , YOULL HAVE A MORE REALISTIC SOUND WITH VOCALS WITH MORE DYNAMICS THAT WAY AND STILL RETAIN GLUE.” Theres a massive different between pushing the attack as fast as possible and backing it off to 9 pm or so. But keep longating an error with my comment god forbid I was half awake writing it. 🤣
Doing same with uad plug-ins
Peace
Works great giving clean vocals
This technique always works for me 💯💯💯
If only someone would build a dynamic clip gain wherein all the peaks and valleys in a waveform were marked and all one had to do is pull down or push up that waveform to uniformity.
Yessir them tight vocals. I remember a while ago your tips were a bit dodgy but your stuff is getting good and these tips are good 👍 hopefully you get much more interaction
8:1 on the first one?? Holy fck
Alternative suggestion: Moderate compression (5-7db) on the first one, then go down to very soft compression on the last
Exactly
Here are my steps to creating natural sounding vocal compression:
1. Go in and manually turn down the volume of peaks, consonants and sibilants of the audio itself, wherever it is the worst. Don't get lazy with this step, if you do it properly you'll notice you won't need a fast-attack compressor or a de-esser. Listen with your ears, not with your eyes.
2. Add a hardclipper as the first plugin in the chain to even the peaks that remained after the first step. No more than a couple dBs of gain reduction!
3. Add a 80hz hipass filter, since the low bass frequencies would otherwise interfere with the compression in step 4.
4. With all the previous steps finished, you won't need much compression at all. A smooth LA-2A style compression with no more than 3 dBs of gain reduction will be enough.
Stop relying on compressors to make your vocals fat, it's just an old trend. Compressors are incredibly musical tools that can breathe life into everything, but because of that fact they can also sound unpredictable. Manually adjusting peaks and sibilants will ensure that you remain in the control of the vocal, and it will remain predictable. You should control the compression, the compression shouldn't control you!
This is nonsense imo. Hard clipping a vocal?
That's so dumb bro
Clipper or limiter? Wouldn't a clipper take some flair out of the end of syllables
@@ChristRecords-ny7mtyou can use clipping on vocals but dont be a clown like this guy and use soft clipping instead. Clipping can be used to cut peaks but the key is to make sure its inaudible. You cam do the same thing on drums as well and even push it to that slight clipping is audible. They sound good on the shells.
Yep, I was taught to manually adjust the higher wave forms. You split them, so you can make them more even. Then add light compression.
Thanks man, that was super useful
Thanks so much bro
Thanks bro been using r vox and the la2a for this recently but trying to figure out what the knobs actually do more specifically lol
I think with the 1176 you can get away with a lot more compression. I also think this compression can work for like a folk or acoustic track but definitely is too little for like a rock or pop track
Slate is bae ❤️
Whatever works for you works for you as I believe just having one compressor on the vocal chain then having parallel compression is what makes it more fuller. There’s people that do 2 to 3 compressors and I ain’t hatin on that. This is just my take and my own personal experience with vocals and you can disagree or agree. Plus saturation really helps in the chain so that it holds warmth and grit with the eq settings too
And if you want to add fx like reverb, delay, etc, send your vocals into a "send" track and add it there. If you try to add reverb to a compressed vocal it can cause a lot of issues.
Great
I use 2, sometimes 3 🙌
pro tip use volume automation instead of two compressors for natural sound vocal
Always love your tips and tricks, keep killing it!
fet then opto is the standard for vocals
💯
How about vocal rider?
I don’t know why this never made sense to me until now. I always tried each of these plugins individually then give up everytime then just use a Vocal Rider plugin. Definitely trying both of these in series next time 👌
It has to do with the Attack and Release Time of the compressors I guess. I'm no pro, but I have read about how a Vari, FET, Optical etc are different to one another in this regard.
Another thing I like to do is use a light analog compressor and gate on the way in then you don’t have to do that extra compressing.
Can you expand on this please? Sounds interesting
@@alejandromartriv3441 it’s just taking the debate over digital and analog and putting them together. Many producers I’ve worked with are die hard analog and others are digital. I like to use a rack compressor gate for my mic and give it a slight compress on the way in with a little gate if I don’t have a sound deadened room. I just feel you get a cleaner sound when you compress a little on the way in. Not a lot just a little bit.
Hey jerry, what about the parallel compression knob? What’s your approach?
A preset for this will be vital. Please 🙏🏽
It Is Better the opposite order. 1176 compresses ALL the peaks over the threshold, Just because It has a very . fast Attack. With LA-2A the fast peaks pass instead through it not compressed.Try
Just to point out tho....not using any automation (after compression) or clip volume adjustment (before compression) marks the weakness in a vocal mix
My boy w vmr god 😂
Fair enough, but the vocals on this video sounds extremely artificial and over processed. Dont over do it
Why did you pin this?
if youre offended by this comment, therefore pinning it, take it with a grain of salt.
I noticed you said use a compressor with a fast attack, but the attack parameter on the first plugin, youve set to between 5 and 7, essentially activating the compressor only after those high peaks, personally i also wouldnt use a 8:1 ratio, that could be why im hearing your vocals in this video sound quite muddy and over processed. Though im not familiar wiht that plugin youre using, but id assume since the ratios are so high it might be more applicable for drums and and sounds that do have a fast attack and quick release.
Then, your release time is set all the way to the right which is then going to start bleeding into the next few transients on the wave, preventing consistency.
I dont know about you but 5dB of gain reduction on vocals seems a bit drastic. Im not sure what the application of your processing method is here, but compression is finnicky and can mess up your signal drastically, thats why i say that i think your vocals in this video sounds over processed.
If you dont agree with any of my points, i wouldnt mind having a discussion about it since youre putting me in the spotlight in the comments here, lets see what you have to say.
Doesnt sound artificial at all 😂
@@jackcerven2415 its a term, not literal
So, i read your comment, and fair enough, i did not understand that the plugin has swapped parameters, and I admit i am ill informed on the . I assumed that the number 1 would be a 1ms attack verses a 50ms attack on the number 7. Thought i still stick with most of the things I said. You replied in your comment saying something about having a lower ratio makes the threshold more reactive which doesnt make sense to me at all since a lower ratio would mean less gain reduction per dB so how could the plugins be more reactive if your ratio is lower?
Nevertheless, each to our own, its all dependent on the desired outcome of said technique.
go cowboys
Dude, I have trouble figuring out how to leave a voicemail, and you want me to do THIS?! 😜
What about upward compression?
My problem is the opposite - my vocals come in too quiet (the Scarlett Focusrite 3 gen + Windiws 11 is a BAD combination), so I am at about -30dB, and I have been advised to use compression to make it louder.
Any tips on how to do that?
1 minute compressor tutorial with slate plugins
hey dude i heard you like compressors so i compressed your compressor with a compressor that im using to compress the compressor ok bro?
wow i want try it. Where can I get the plugins
i think they are slate plugins
i just realised that people say "fast atack and fast realease" instead of the opposite. what i see on your parameters, thats a very slow atack and release based in my 25 experience as sound engineer.
1176 compressors are backwards. All the way to the right is fast. All the way to the left is slow.
Analog, one compressor.
Wait…is that a cowboys hat?!?!
theo von as an audio engineer
bro what is this comment section💀 im surprised by the amount of beef
Fast release time-has the release time as slow as it can go
No that is incorrect. All the way to the right with the knobs on a 1176 compressor is fast and to the left is slow. Same goes for the attack knob.
deess before you compress
I know what compression does,i just still don't understand it 😂
The audio of the normal speaking already beeing overcompressed *for my ears:
Overcompressed is subjective. Everything in my voiceover chain is intentional.
@@mixwithjerry that's true though
@@mixwithjerry not everything has to emulate nature that's true but if you do want to enulate from my pov it sounds a little overcompressed
Your vocal would be way better if you record it with proper gain, mic, placement and acoustics...ae
PA > SLATE
Why is the goal to just do the peaks?
So the second compressor can have a consistent and uniform signal to deal with. The peaks would really throw the second compressor off and make it work hard, which often results in a sound that is undesirable.
@@mixwithjerry have you tried it ?
@@Iddcstudios I mean I’m the one who made the video… yes
And then everything sounds flat and boring because there is no variation left. You have to leave some room for the natural human voice to come through. The same can be said about the overuse of auto tune. Everything ends up sounding dead an uninspiring
Someone suggests to use 2 compressors for a total of only 6-10 dB of gain reduction and this is your comment?
@@mixwithjerry You know 3 dB increase means twice as loud right? I would start with the first compressor but I would be very careful with the second one and always listen before adding compressors by default. You need to clearly hear variation in output between the quiet and loud moments. It usually end up sounding more engaging then. But everything is a balance
@@jwester7009 whatever works for you
dude, it's clipping...
You’re incorrect
tf was that singing 🤣
Whats a compressor? 😀
Way too much compression dude.
Never thought I’d hear someone say that 6-10 dB of compression is too much.
@@mixwithjerry If you're pushing more than -6 on one compressor on a Vocal you probably need to manually automate the volume before you start your compression chain. You can also hear that its too much. It doesn't sound natural at all.
@@domdraper3221 I never said to push a single compressor more than 6 dB. Did you watch the video? I said that it completely depends on the vocal recording, but to aim for around 3-5 dB on the first compressor and around 5 dB on the 2nd compressor. If you don’t like the voiceover, that’s fair.
@@mixwithjerry you said in your comment that you never thought you would hear say that 6-10 db gain reduction is too much. I have heard many professionals say it, and you can also hear that it is too much. I guess if you are wanting that smashed sound you should do it. Other wise you haven't done the house keeping on the audio file before you start processing it.
@@domdraper3221 Yeah I said 6-10 dB of total compression. I never said to push one compressor past 6 dB. The whole point of my video is to spread it out across multiple compressors so that one compressor doesn’t work too hard. I thought I did a pretty good job of explaining serial compression and also provided an audio example at the end. By the way, my voiceover has nothing to do with what I’m teaching in the video. The processing on the voiceover is intentional and many people leave comments on my videos saying they like it and want the plugin chain. Again, if you don’t like it that’s okay and it doesn’t have any effect on the info I’m sharing in my video.