Transparent Vocal Compression

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Good morning children! Today, we're going to talk about transparent vocal compression.

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Most records do just fine and actually sound better with a more compressed tone, because that's the style.

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Older records - different style - actually benefit from a more virginal, or undoctored tone.

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I know people who'd benefit from that too...

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Today, I'm gonna take the lead vocal from a jazz track and compress it to the level we need to get the tone we want but try and keep it as natural as possible.

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Here we go.

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This is a track I mixed.

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Singer's name is Sara Lieb, it's her record producer is Matt Pierson, they're both amazing, please check them out! It's a perfect example for what we're doing because it's a wide open sounding record, it's supposed to sound undoctored.

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I'm gonna play you the first verse so you get a vibe for what we're going for, and then, we'll go into the processing.

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Here we go! Cool! So, I just want to point something out, completely unrelated...

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I love this...

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They used a Bass Rhodes to double the upright.

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A Bass Rhodes is the bottom half of a Rhodes, in a little case.

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And I think it sounds great! So I'll play it for you.

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It's awesome! And then, you add the bass.

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It's really cool! But it has nothing to do with what we're talking about today.

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So let's go back to that.

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The first thing we should do is listen to the vocal raw, uncompressed.

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Listen to the base level, just how loud it is on average and then to the peaks, those words that stick out.

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Do they bother you? How much do they bother you? Check it out.

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She's obviously an amazing singer but still, she's got emotions, not a machine so she leans in, leans out, there's some louder and quieter parts.

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"Charms", "Want", "Dream", really stick out.

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So I propose we try and tame them with a compressor.

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To keep it fair to all parties involved we shall use the standard Digi compressor, which is actually quite great.

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How do you think about this? Well... I usually pick...

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a standard ratio, say 2:1, whatever worked for me last time, if I remember and then I'll start lowering the threshold to figure out where I want it to happen.

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Now, in the spirit of keeping things natural I want to compress as little as possible.

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For example, those first two phrases "When I want you, in my arms" I don't want to touch that, those are great.

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So that's my base level.

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I'm gonna set my threshold so that the compressor...

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only takes care of everything that's louder than my base level.

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Fair? Here we go! I don't have a number. I can't guess this stuff, I gotta try.

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I'll try here...

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So far, so good.

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That's a little light. So maybe if I lower... say here... 21.

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Let's check this out. I'm going straight to the louder parts.

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Pretty good.

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So, I like that! It's actually compressing when I want it to compress...

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but not enough.

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Some of the peaks are still too loud for me.

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So, then I'm gonna...

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augment the ratio.

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Meaning...

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I'm happy as to which part of the signal is compressed but I want more compression.

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To do so, I'm gonna raise my ratio. Say, let's pick a number...

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Say 10:1.

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Here we go.

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Loud parts only.

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Wow! I don't like that! I think it's too much, right? So... Oh, you may like that! That's where mixing branches out.

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You have your taste, I have my taste.

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I can't account for that. But...

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I'd say that's too much, in the spirit of what we're trying to do.

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So, let's go back down.

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How's 3, and change? That's quite nice, because it keeps the vocal right here it doesn't do this anymore.

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And it doesn't sound too squished, I like it! So that was threshold and ratio.

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Obviously the most important ones.

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Let's talk about attack and release.

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In this particular compressor, I have control over attack and release.

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Some compressors, like for example an LA-2A...

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no control over attack and release which is interesting to think about.

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Maybe people love the LA-2A on vocals because the attack and the release are actually, magically, set just right for vocals. What's to think about? In this case, I have choice, which is great.

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We're gonna be able to compare different settings.

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In this particular case right now, I have 2ms on the attack and 200ms on the release.

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I get a lot of tracks from producers where the attack is all the way down to the minimum possible.

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Why is that? But that makes sense! Instinctively, they're lowering the attack all the way down which means that the compressor is compressing everything.

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What does that do to the sound? Let's check it out! So this is where we're at right now.

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And this is the same, but with the attack all the way down.

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Listen...

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to the transients. Listen to the "hhaa" part of the vocal.

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Listen to the presence.

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Where is my vocal now, with a short attack? Just so you remember, this is...

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how it sounds with an open attack.

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Now, if you listen carefully...

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it's subtle! But you'll notice that the vocal goes from...

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here with an open attack to here, further back, with a closed attack because we don't have that presence thing because all the transients have been eaten by the compressor.

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Now, I kinda dug...

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some of what the short attack did for the overall gain control.

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So what I'm gonna try is to get that back but still have the presence.

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To do so, I leave my attack open and I'm gonna lower my threshold.

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Which means that the compressor is gonna start working earlier in the dynamic range...

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the same amount, with an open attack.

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And it sounds like this, check it out! I think it's a little too much. Maybe if I lower the ratio a bit? Check this out.

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I think that's a good balance. Now, it's tricky! You have the threshold, so how early into the dynamic range do we start acting? You have the ratio, which is, how much of it, above the threshold do we nuke the level? And then, there's the attack, it's like...

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how much of the presence do we keep in? And then, to make things further simple, there is the release.

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Can it be important? Oh yes! Check it out.

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Right now, I have a release of 200ms.

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We just heard it 4 times, I won't play it again.

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What happens if I shorten the release? Listen to...

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the steadiness of the vocal. Has it changed? Or, is it as centered as it was before? Listen to the space in between words, or the end of words. Check it out.

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So now it's starting to dance again.

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It's starting to, on the "Dream" word, kind of peek through and it's not as centered and solid, and kind of like...

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corseted, if you will, in place.

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I'll play that again, and then right away, I'll play a longer release.

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Short release first.

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Isn't it crazy to think that by changing that one setting which by the way is the setting that most people overlook all the time, the whole sound of the whole vocal is completely changed? There are ways to think about these things. I'm trying to walk through them and we do more in the dedicated compression videos, but...

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every setting has a certain musical impact on the tone.

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Being able to think about it in musical terms helps a lot...

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rather than looking at numbers.

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This is the way I think about things when I compress a vocal.

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Do I have the presence? If I lack presence, I push the attack open.

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Do I have the steadiness? If I want more steadiness, maybe I'll open the release a little bit so it's a little more together.

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Kept together.

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Are my quiet phrases left alone, or are they squished? Threshold...

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Are my loud phrases taken care of enough or not? Ratio. When you think of it that way...

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it's not so daunting to think that every single parameter has an effect on the other parameters.

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It becomes a more natural and more instictive way to setup the system.

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Now, I'd like to listen to these settings within the song, because ultimately, that's what it's about.

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But before we listen to the vocal within the track I'm gonna apply some make-up gain on the compression.

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Why is that? Well, if all you're doing is just tame a couple of peaks a little bit and you're happy with where your base track is in the song you don't need make-up gain really. You're just taming some peaks, right? Your base level is cool, you're taming the peaks.

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In this particular case, I'm kind of squashing the vocal quite a bit.

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Even though you don't hear it much, I'm squashing it.

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I'm probably gonna have to give some make-up gain, so that's it's loud enough on the verses, and stays just where I need it to be on the peaks.

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And I saw on the gain reduction meter that I lost 6 to 8dBs of gain on the peaks.

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So I'm gonna compensate by about 6dBs and see how that goes.

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Here's the song.

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So that's kind of perfect! It sounds kind of like a record.

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There's still one thing that bothers me a little bit.

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If you notice here, after this loud phrase there's a very quiet phrase. Check it out.

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So, "All I have to do" is getting lost.

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Here, there's two possibilities.

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I can be lazy.

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And I could take the threshold down, so that the peaks are reduced further so that I can bring the whole track up and then, this won't no longer be quiet.

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That's the road most traveled, I find.

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Although I am very lazy, I tend to not do that.

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Because it's gonna squish the whole vocal, just because of one quiet phrase.

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I don't like that! In this case, I would compensate by using automation take just this one phrase and raise it a couple of dBs and see how it sounds.

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It actually could stand another .5.

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Yes, you can hear .5dBs! Ok, .8! So that works! It is perfectly fine, and sometimes highly regarded to use a combination of compression and automation to set your vocal levels.

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It also works, not only for quiet parts, but for loud parts.

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Say for example...

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you have a peak that goes through your compressor settings.

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You have the right settings for the average thing, but there's one annoying peak.

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You could compress more, but then the whole track gets affected.

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You could use a two-step compression system which we'll discuss in a different video.

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Or, you could just go in and automate that peak.

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It takes more time, but it's more natural sounding.

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Since that's what we're trying to do, that may be the way to go.

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In this case, I'm happy with the way the whole verse sounds especially with that little quiet part raised.

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So that's one way to think about compression in the context of a more natural sounding vocal.

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Again, there's not one way to compress vocals there is, how do you want it to sound, and how do you get to that spot and there's a variety of settings. This is one of them.

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Et voilà!