Vocal Compression - How to Mix Live Vocals (feat. Jon Thurlow)

vocals are your most important input and they're the most dynamic one today we're gonna look at vocal compression if you miss the vocal EQ tutorial there's a link in the description below [Music] both of compression pins it in place so we can stay in your face we want to have vocals that are clear and every part of the phrase from the loud parts on the quiet part compression can shape the dynamic range of a vocal but it can also shape the tonal vocal and that's what we're gonna go over today now my goal with vocal compression is not to have it so that my fingers go off the faders and it rides it automatically the whole time I'm still going to be engaged with the faders and riding them up and down as the music needs it what I don't want to do is have to chase them around where each part of the phrase or each part of the vocal range I want to have hands off for that I want to be in the music and be feeling it to take the dynamics up or back down when it needs to be gentle set it and forget it is for chumps and rotisserie cookers now compression can also change the tone when singers go from low and quiet to high and loud there's a really big tone difference and the compressor can help us with that too when I'm setting up my compressor I go ahead and set the threshold all the way up so that I'm not compressing it all I preset my ratio to four to one and I set my knee to soft this gives me a nice gentle transition between in compression and out of compression when the singer is going from the really quiet parts to the really loud parts I'll also go ahead and preset my release time to about 250 milliseconds and I'll set my attack time to anywhere between 12 and 15 milliseconds first starting place now with these starting places I'm gonna listen and start to roll down my threshold until I get about the amount of compression that I want then I'm gonna really hear what the tone change is happening and then I can adjust my attack time slower or faster depending on what tone change I want to make alright watch how on the compressor their gain reduction comes back up for the quieter parts of the phrase this helps even out the phrases so that all of the lines come back up and stay in our face remember compression pinzón in place so we can stay in our face [Music] alright now let's listen to that same line without compression you come [Music] she here on the first line how death kind of sunk back into the mix when life kind of dreary jumped out at you we're trying to even it out so that it's smooth through the whole phrase of what they're singing all right now let's listen to the transition between the first and the course and watch how the compression pushes harder on it so that it can stay in one place we're still gonna ride our faders we're still gonna make sure it's out on top but it's gonna make it a lot easier for us to not have to shoot at a moving target all the time [Music] you are designed come as a healer shut your name all right so you see how it didn't jump up too much let's listen to it without compression this time and hear the difference died [Music] you are desire tehila all right so you can already see how it smoothed out our transition when we had the compression on and it got a lot more jumpy when we took the compression off this is one of the things that compression it's gonna make you sound more professional it's gonna make your vocals feel like they're right in one place and you're not chasing them around in your mix so much now the other part of compression is the tone change one secret to compression is that a faster attack time makes it thinner while a slow tack time makes it thicker when our voice gets harsher when they're singing louder and higher we want to counteract that with a slower attack time rather than a faster attack time sometimes a really fast attack time can be helpful but it has to be used more sparingly these slower attack times can get you a lot of compression and not destroy your vocal all right let's listen to this opening line of the course with a faster attack time and then a slower attack time and notice the difference [Music] all right let's slow it down and see what the difference is huge design camisa healer you notice how it got thicker when we slowed down the attack time now that's the trick that's gonna make you a pro now your compressor might have a peak mode or RMS mode on it RMS is going to be essentially slower because it's looking for average signal levels but peak mode is gonna respond to the instantaneous changes of the input level so let's turn our attack time pretty fast and then switch back and forth between peak mode and RMS and hear the difference [Music] shut your name over Dima you what that one we want shut your name do you notice that what as we went into peak mode it got a little squashed when we went back to RMS even with a fast attack time it felt a lot more open so again peak mode runs slower RMS mode you can run faster for release times I set my release time about 250 for vocalists now if you have somebody that has a lot of syllables coming at you really quickly a faster release time is gonna help you get those back up so that it's more even that also works well on preachers and speakers so keep that in mind now one place where vocal compression really comes in handy is in background vocals without compression the background singers come in and out in their different parts watch as we compress it they're gonna stay a lot more consistent and you're gonna get that fuller sound [Music] come in your power shut your name oh gosh you are the bunny Dima you are that one we want come in your [Music] you hear they stayed more consistent in the mix and so that our blend got a lot better especially as their parts are moving up and down and in and out they're moving into different parts of their vocal range it's gonna stay a lot more consistent when we compress them now one part of compression is gain structure we want to make it so that we're setting ourselves up for success we're not having to chase our faders around our faders are working for us so if you end up using a lot of compression and so then you have to push your fader up to make up for it the make up gain is the place where you can boost that up so that you can bring your fader back down to zero setting our faders at zero gives us the most control over our balance and fine tuning the adjustments for our levels now sometimes I can really squash my vocals and get that really in your face sound but if I've got a really noisy stage like a drum kit that doesn't have any shield or a really loud PA that's really close I'm gonna run into feedback problems or I'm gonna run into noise problems that's what I'll have to run my compression a little bit lighter and use a little bit more of my digital compressor there's some text that will say that you can't ever go past 6 DB of compression on vocals but if you get the attack in the release time set right I can go to 10 or 12 DB of compression without any problems as long as the noise issues aren't there now another caveat is this is not what I send to their monitor mix they need to be able to hear a mostly uncompressed signal going to their ears so if I'm running one channel that's going both to front-of-house and two monitors I'm gonna run the compression a lot lighter in that situation over compressing a singer in their monitor mix is a surefire way to get them to push too hard into strain and they'll have pitch problems and that's no fun for anybody when someone says a line from a lyric of a song do you automatically start singing it do you harmonize or the radio jingles you may have musical Tourette's musical Tourette's is a real disease with real symptoms although there is no cure you can't annoy all your friends now you know how to compress vocals like a pro you're gonna have an easier time getting a great worship mix and keeping your vocals out in front be sure to check out my other tutorials and comment below to let me know what you thought it's subscribed and doing the little bell so that you can get notified every time I post a new video I've got new content coming out every Thursday to help you make every worship makes an enjoyable one we'll see you next time [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Attaway Audio

Views: 90,996

Keywords: how to, how to compress live vocals, how to compress vocals, vocal compression, vocal compression techniques, vocal compression explained, live vocal compression, how to mix live vocals, mixing vocals with compression, mixing vocals, vocal mixing tips, vocal mixing tutorial, how to mix vocals, jon thurlow, how to set a compressor, compressor for vocals, compression for vocals live, vocal mixing techniques, vocals, love sound 101, mixing for worship

Id: vcdwTwAXjmg

Length: 8min 58sec (538 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 28 2019