Live Mixing Vocal Compression

I wish i could do that too.

Live mixing vocal compression.

Some recording engineers think compression is a must for vocals. If you want to learn more about using compression on vocals and further improve your mixes you can read my in depth guide to vocal compression and also download my free vocal compression cheat sheet below. Compression settings for lead vocals should be as natural sounding as possible. You can use compression on vocals to just even out the performance and to create an effect.

Rather than using one heavy compressor with a 10 1 ratio that s applying 10 db of gain reduction it s better to use multiple compressors that each chip away at the. There is no one size fits all formula to vocal compression. And i don t want to mislead you. At this point you re done.

It evens out the often erratic levels that a singer can produce and tames transients that can cause digital distortion. If you must use compression we recommend trying a ratio no higher than 3 1 for live use along with shorter release attack times. Because humans are expert listeners any small unnatural sounding volume jump or dip will be noticeable and detract from the power of the melody and lyrics. To achieve subtle natural sounding compression on your vocal it s best to use multiple compressors throughout the mixing process this is called serial compression.

In a live setting try dialing back the compression settings if you re using compression at all on your vocal channel and instead use the volume fader to control how the vocals sit in the mix. But the truth is it s not that easy. Lead vocals in pop and mainstream music are the centre point of the mix. Your vocals should sound 100x better than they did before especially if you followed all of the other vocal mixing steps mainly equalization first.

There are no magic settings that work 100 of the time. Heck it d certainly save me a few keystrokes.