Audio compression vocals pdf

Compression is one of the most common processes in all audio work, yet the compressor is one of the least understood and most misused audio processors compressed audio is an everyday fact of modern life, with the sound of records, telephones, tv, radios and public address systems all undergoing some type of mandatory. A compressor will reduce the level of your voice when it becomes too loud, and provide you with a less dynamic, and more dynamically. In this guide, you will learn how to use eq and multiband compression to control and shape the tone of a lead vocal part. Its function is to make louder sounds softer and leave soft sounds alone. Lpcbased codec model the sound source to achieve good compression. Nov 11, 2011 in this tutorial well be looking at what dynamic compression is and the various functions that can be found on compressors like the threshold, ratio, attack, release and make up gain.

Depending on the playing style, you may get away with mild compression, but someone who goes from finger picking to slapping is going to need to have the compression turned way up. Ive kept these diagrams as simplified as possible with the sole intention of demonstrating whats happening to the audio signal green as it moves above and below the threshold red. He explains how to edit out breaths and other noises and fabricate a doubling effect for additional texture and vibe, and then brings in some plugins into the mixantares autotune, melodyne, and izotopeto tune. Learn the step by step way to use eq and compression together the audio engineers framework book 1 kindle edition by nyquist, nathan. Its possible to quickly dial in the right vocal compression settings, if you know what to listen for. I ride the vocals on the way in and then i ride them again before i compress them. What are your compression goals in audio mastering. Here are the five compressors you can see in use in the first screenshot. Now gradually raise the threshold until youre getting somewhere around 5 db of gain reduction. Compressing a lead vocal isnt always easy, but avoiding these mistakes will help you mix vocals that sound modern and musical. When used incorrectly, compression can quickly ruin a good vocal recording and make your music sound amateur and overprocessed. When used correctly, compression is a key ingredient for vocals that sound professional, modern and radio. When i use different compression settings on the same track for different sections in the song i.

For an indepth guide to getting the attack time right watch this video, where i share 3 simple tips. They have been chosen and set up to achieve sonic contrast between them, something thats a crucial element of this compression technique. Eq, on the other hand, is static and affects the whole track. They often react more slowly than other compressor types, but this can be desirable. Different instruments require different compression scenario. The following diagrams demonstrate various types of compression and expansion taking place. Jun 24, 20 these approaches apply lowcomplexity, lowcompression, and medium audio qualityalgorithms to audio signals. The compressor will do this for you, automatically. Mixing vocals how to eq vocals, compress them and mix.

Before i dive into advanced stuff and the plugin chains, allow me to say that you need some basic of knowledge of what compression, eq and reverb is. The more ratio you apply, the more compression takes place. In this guide, ill show you how to eq vocals, give you my personal vocal compression settings techniques and in general, youll see how to mix vocals and get them to sit in the mix properly. Im not sure how youd even get punch on vocals from using parallel compression unless youre talking about using the dry signal to put back a little of the dynamics back into the mix mixing the super leveled compressed signal with the dynamic original one. Right click here to download these are excellent references made for beginner and intermediate levels to explain how different types of reverbs, compressors, eqs and delays work and what the various controls and features do. After all this compression its pretty normal for breaths and sibilance to really jump out.

But certain types excel in certain applications, and understanding their function and design can be the key to choosing the right compressor for the job. But can achieve transparent, perceptually losslesscompression. If you level match the before and after on this second layer of compression, it should feel like the vocal just puffs out a bit at you. Audio mastering secrets the pros dont want you to know. Compressing vocals during recording used to be standard practice with analogue recorders, and was important to avoid distortion being caused by unexpected peaks. Dynamic range compression drc or simply compression is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds thus reducing or compressing an audio signals dynamic range.

Understanding audio compressors and audio compression. Because vocals are very transient nature, a good knowledge of overall audio must be understood to make the best of vocal compression. Audio compressors generally can be sliced into four categories. Here are some compression basics, different compression types, and some tips to try on your tracks. I know some people use parallelny style compression on vocals, but i never do. There is no onesizefitsall formula to vocal compression. Reverbs guide to audio compressor types reverb news. Try starting with a moderate to medium ratio of between 2. The algorithms are psychoacoustically based compression techniques, since they claim to reduce information in the sound signal that cannot be heard by the human ear anyhow. How to craft the perfect vocal with eq and multiband compression. The way we combine tracks is equal parts art and science, and involves utilizing a variety of tools to bring out the most emotional. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. By the end of this guide you will be able to apply.

In this tutorial well be looking at what dynamic compression is and the various functions that can be found on compressors like the threshold, ratio, attack, release and make up gain. Mixing vocals how to eq vocals, compress them and use effects. Using compression can make your tracks sound more polished by controlling maximum levels and maintaining higher average loudness. The famed teletronix la2a is an optical compressor that many producers swear by for vocals and mix bus compression. A good compression setting has a fast attack to catch the stray transient, a quick release so that the compression doesnt color the sound of the singer, and a low. The next, slightly less common way, is through upward compression also called expansion. Cuts will make instruments more distant so cut here if you need to pull something back without using volume. As a general rule of thumb, the more percussive an element like drums, the more hard knee compression makes sense, and the more connected an element like vocals, the more soft knee compression makes sense. The vocal should just sound a bit more thick, dense or husky whatever word makes the most sense to you. Music compression is the process of reducing a signals dynamic range. When i use different compression settings on the same track for different sections in the song i split them onto different tracks. While i typically will use compression after ive applied equalization to control for any mild volume changes that it maymight have caused, a good argument can be made that precompression equalization.

If you dont know how to do that, please read the manual for your daw software. Set your attack time to a mediumfast setting and your release time to a medium setting. Cut in the 50 100 hz area if they are getting too thick and interfering with the clarity of the lowend of your mix. It can also add extra punch to dance music, because it adds a dimension of feeling the bass instead of hearing it.

Compressing your vocals helps them sit on top of the mix. The lowest frequency range adds fullness to those bass instruments like the kick drum, toms and bass. There are a few different ways you could set up the multiple parallel compressors in cubase. Imagine a whisper and a scream on the same audio track. The ultimate guide to compression black ghost audio. How to set a compressor for vocals collaborate worship. But, keep in mind, dynamic range on a vocal is good, so you do not want to cut it too much, you simply want to make it manageable. Download a pdf of this post for you to keep forever. This has the function of taking sections of audio that are. Compressors and limiters are used to reduce dynamic range the span between the softest and loudest sounds. Mixing vocals how to eq vocals, compress them and use. If you ask those questions then youll start noticing something really important.

Analyze the audio and send only the sounds that can be heard. Vocal compression is a piece of cake once you know how to. The complete guide to mixing vocals pro audio files. The threshold is lower in volume compared to the vocals, the primary reason is that guitars need to sound a bit lower than vocals in the mix or else it will dominate the vocals. You need to reduce the dynamic range of most audio signals for them to sound natural on a recording. These approaches apply lowcomplexity, lowcompression, and medium audio qualityalgorithms to audio signals. The human voice is the most complex instrument we have to deal with, and in the following, ill.

With multiband compression, you can reduce and control certain elements of the tone only when the issue appears. Also, be sure sure to grab the free pdf cheat sheet below which will help you get your vocal compression right every time get vocal. To those that do not know what is compression, it is all about controlling the peaks of recorded signal. As ive talked in my compression tutorial, one of the primary aspects of compression is to bring the sound upfront with a. Your mix sucks waves edition its all about the vocals o nce we have created a frame for our mix as described in chapter 5, its time to focus on the vocals in many cases the most important instrument in the mix. A good compression setting has a fast attack to catch the stray transient, a quick release so that the compression doesnt color the sound of the singer, and a low ratio so that when the compressor does go on, it smoothes out the vocals without squashing them. Vocals have a wide dynamic range they can sing really soft or really belt it out. Then set your output gain to compensate for the 5 db attenuation. I like to use these on vocals where a good amount of compression sounds good or better than the same amount with another unit, and on drums for room mics or individual drum mics. A compressor takes this wide range of volume and makes it as narrow as you want it to be. Mixing vocals guide lets see how to properly eq and mix vocals along with some great compression settings.

The easiest way to understand how compression can be useful to a mix is vocals. I know understand exactly what to do when compressing vocals, etc same with choosing vocal takes, i no longer look for the perfect pitch and timed comp, but instead feel for the one that triggers my emotion i used to always follow rules, and when mixing drums, i always was. Audio compression techniques linear pcm pulse code modulation is a direct digitization technique for sound waves. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the eq and compression formula. How to compress vocals in 7 easy steps for pro results ledgernote. Dynamic range is the difference between the loudest and quietest parts of an audio signal. Audio engineer scott hirsch starts with comping the vocalscombining the best performances into one final vocal master take. Compression invites the vocals to the front of the stage. Ratio decides how the compressor reacts to the input audio signal. Now that we made some things clear about vocal compression and compression in general, its time to continue this mixing vocals guide by showing you my usual vocal plugin chain. No matter what digital audio workstation youre using heres the best daws. As always, when i share my chains i advise you to bypass the plugins to actually hear if youre improving the sound or not. Opto, meaning optical, describes the light sensitive circuits that control the compression amount in opto compressors. How should i set up my compressor for recording vocals.

When our knee is adjustable, we can control how gradual we want this transition to be. Mar 22, 2020 ratio decides how the compressor reacts to the input audio signal. How to craft the perfect vocal with eq and multiband. May 18, 2008 professional audio mixing is basically two steps. If you want to learn more about using compression on vocals and further improve your mixes, you can read my indepth guide to vocal compression and also download my free vocal compression cheat sheet below.

The melody and lyrics carry a song, so if your words and voice get overpowered in the mix, the listener will be lost. The complete guide to mixing with compression pro audio files. As vocalists move between different registers, the tone of their voice can change. At no point in my mixes will a compressor hit 10 db and little to nothing on the rest of the song. Understanding audio compressors and audio compression by barry rudolph. Compression is commonly used in sound recording and reproduction, broadcasting, live sound reinforcement and in some instrument amplifiers. A good vocal compressor is the cla2a by waves audio, it adds a nice color to a vocal and makes it rich. Thats how we should decide how compression we should add or not. Not all sounds in the sampled audio can actually be heard. Mpeg audio compression motion picture experts group an iso standard for highfidelity audio compression. Download our controls and features cheat sheet pdf. The vocal compression should be similar to the backing tracks. But when the vocal is aggressive you need to compress more. Vocal compression cheatsheet many bloggers will tell you what the perfect vocal compression settings are.