Vocal Dynamic Processing in REAPER

[Music] hi I'm Kenny Choi Oh welcome to another one of my tutorials in this video I'm gonna show you vocal dynamic processing in Reaper now what do I mean by vocal dynamic processing that's the idea of controlling the level of a vocals comparing the high or loud parts to the low or quiet parts typically you want to even that out so you can hear the vocal over the music a lot clearer it doesn't jump out on the well parts and it doesn't get lost on the soft sections so have a track in front of me with the very dynamic vocal let's hear it sounds like running why I'm a ship got storm surrounded by love I'm here I'm son I can see God [Music] now just by hearing it or even looking at it we can see and hear how dynamic it is this phrase right here is a lot louder than this phrase right here so typically what you do in any da W is add a compressor which will control the dynamics automatically but with a modern D at W like Reaper we could do this a lot more effectively using a few steps so before I add a compressor I want adjust the level on each phrase and I could do that manually a few different ways the first way is to cut the vocal up into little pieces based on each phrase for instance I can go right here hit s to split it do the same over here then adjust the level up here make it louder and lower and go phrase by phrase adjusting each phrase to be more even but another way we could do this is using a pre fader volume envelope let's undo this and instead go right here Terron Ville opes and we're gonna choose volume pre effects now the reason I'm choosing this is afterwards we're gonna add a compressor and I want to hit that compressor with a similar level on each phrase if we choose this volume envelope it's gonna readjust after the compressor I want to adjust it before the compressor and also after the compressor I want to ride this vocal and we could do that with this envelope so for now we're gonna start with the volume pre effects envelope right here let's make it a bit bigger now all we have to do is draw in with our pen on the PC hold on control on the Mac hold on command we could redraw the envelope we'll start with this one being the same move onto this one make it a bit louder like this just draw it then draw it across like this so it looks even with this one let's hear it well this now sounds better but this one is still too low we'll do the same thing and just drag it across until the level looks the same as this one here in context this one's a bit too loud so bring it down drag it across here in context my ship got this was also too loud a little bit lower got stolen it's around this is too quiet so bring it up about 2 and 1/2 DB try that I'm a ship got storm surrounded by love stick this one's a little too loud little more to that storm surrounded by love still no this one's too quiet so bring it up there go bit more surrounded by love still alone around there this one's too loud go down about 3 DB see that notice how even this now looks too low I'm son I can see God and everyone but too loud I can see God it's gonna be a bit louder right here this could be a bit lower I can see everyone [Music] I'm Way too loud got a little more [Music] - quiet I'm the one cup a little more just can go down a little more good missin got more [Music] that sounds more even what's yer the whole thing back but before we do that notice one of the good things about Reaper and thus envelope is that we see the changes in real time if you want to see it before just turn off the envelope right here or bypass it that's what it looked like before he's quiet notes here these lab ones here and then afterwards looks like that now it's more important what it sounds like then what it looks like but if we can get it more even like this it's probably gonna sound more controlled so it's here cuz I'm a man on a horse running why I'm a ship got storm surrounded by love still I'm here I'm son I can see God right I'm the one couldn't change that sounds a lot better I'm gonna bring this note down a bit more I can see I can see God and everyone much better now the next step is to add a compressor because now we controlled it going into the compressor so the compressor does have to work nearly as hard it's not going to pump and breathe as we hit it too hard and it's not going to avoid compression on the quieter sections it's gonna compress a lot more evenly and compress every phrase or note so it's at a compressor to the track right here we'll go to the recom compressor which comes a three / I'm going to set this to four to one auto makeup gain bring this down a little bit and bring down the threshold until it compresses very evenly child on a horse running while I'm a ship cut the storm surrounded by love still on the earth I'm son I can see God see couldn't change I'm compressing about two or three DB with a pretty quick attack so grabs every phrase now let's try making the release a bit faster so it'll also grab or regrab each note in the phrase it'll react quicker cuz I'm a man I'm child I'm on a horse running why I'm a ship got the storm surrounded by love still I'm here I'm son I that sounds not more even another final step to get this vocal to sit in the track at least for a final mix is to add some volume automation let's go back to our envelopes right here and now we're going to choose the volume level this one's going to exist post-fader so it's going to happen after the pre effects 1 and after our compressor so we're doing this in stages and it's this one right down here I want to do before we write it is make sure we disarm the pre effects one because we don't want to write that one so let's turn this off here so just arming the volume envelope now we'll go to a mixer which I put right over here now if I switch this by right-clicking the touch mode we could ride the fader right here and it's going to write the automation right to this envelope right here but it's not going to rewrite this one right here so the order of processing we have this envelope we have a compressor and then finally we're gonna write automation to the track by manually moving the fader because I'm a man on a horse running while I'm a ship cut storm surrounded by love still I'm here I'm son I can see God I'm the one couldn't change and it looks like this when we're done - Automation written on the sample while this automation is still there now if you notice I never do anything drastic all my movements were very subtle that's because of the previous steps but controlling the volume with a pre-fader envelope and the compression a vocal is already pretty even the last ride of the volume automation is really just fine-tuning a vote would be very controlled at this point if we want to tweak it again because we're in touch mode you can go right to the section we want to work on let me make this phrase over here a bit louder just grab the fader let me get there then I can let go to punch out of the automation I'm gonna tweak it again that sounded better so now in three steps we control the level of a vocal a lot better first with the pre effects volume envelope then with the compressor and then finally by writing or writing the volume envelope automation so that's pretty much it that's vocal dynamic processing and Reaper I hope you learned something hope you can use it and I'll see you next time thanks [Music] you you

Channel: REAPER Mania

Views: 98,867

Rating: 4.9689693 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: pj14aKySE-4

Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 14 2017