#HOW TO COMPRESS VOCALS HOW TO#
#HOW TO COMPRESS VOCALS PROFESSIONAL#

The first thing you have to remember is that it is not about where your knobs are set, it is about what the gain reduction lights are telling you. These lights are very helpful and will help you navigate each signal as you set the compression. This is showing you how many decibels your compressor is reducing the signal. Most compressors have four or five little red lights on them with negative numbers beside them. It is important to note that if you are receiving a lot of gain reduction it is most likely that you need to loosen the compression before giving a microphone six or seven dB of make up gain. When you start compressing you may loose a little bit of gain, so you use this function to give you a touch more volume. For instance, if a vocal starts compressing because the singer hits one high note that is louder but the Release is set to wait for half a second it may lower the vocal too much on the next note. Also, just like the Attack function, it's important to spend some time to dial this in correctly. Like the Attach control, Release is also measured in MS (or milliseconds). The Release function controls how long the compressor reduces the gain of the signal. Remember that compression is not a вЂњset it and forget itвЂќ application. If it does either of those things, the effect is essentially useless. It is important that you spend some time adjusting this control because you do not want the compressor to kick in too fast or wait too long to kick in. The control know tells it how fast and how slow to start. The Attack control is used to tell the compressor when to start engaging in milliseconds (MS). Likewise when set at 4:1 (or 4 to one) the compressor will only allow a 1 dB increase for every four decibels that exceed the threshold. If you select 2:1, every time your input signal exceeds the threshold by two decibels, the compressor will only allow a one-decibel (1 dB) increase. The Ratio typically has numbers on it that look like this 2:1 or 4:1 etc. The Ratio knob is what happens once the Threshold decibel is engaged. When you set this knob to a specific decibel you are essentially saying вЂњstart compressing here.вЂќ The dial usually ranges from at least -20 to positive 10.

#HOW TO COMPRESS VOCALS HOW TO#

So we will look at what the compressor does and then some techniques and ways to learn how to set compression.ДЄ Threshhold controls where the compressor starts to work. However, to experiment you must understand all of the parts. One doesn't learn how to use compression simply by understanding what all the knobs do. It can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Since most church vocalists are not trained professionals, we can improve the sound of the vocals in our audio mix by adding compression to each vocal channel.Д¬ompression is one of those things that takes time and energy to learn. Through experience, they also learn how to listen and blend when singing together.

#HOW TO COMPRESS VOCALS PROFESSIONAL#

Professional vocalists are trained to sing at a consistent level.

How to compress vocals