hi guys
want to your opinions on how you record vocals. what type of processing (compression) settings would you recommend for getting a good level onto disk?
or do you not add compression before you record to disk?
was gonna use about 3:1 with GR only applied when the vocalist is medium to loud. attack and release set as fastest…
ideas?
thanks!
I do not add compression till the editing portion. Make sure that when doing the recording, you’re leaving plenty of headroom. Rule of thumb is about -6db. You should always record dry though.
really? always thought you should add a little compression to improve the noise to signal ratio and also to help to stop clipping
A recording that you’ve taken should probably be lightly compressed or limited just to bring up the levels.
You’ll find with recordings often that the first part of the sentance tends to be lounder than the rest so it becomes a problem when putting it in the mix.
[quote]roben (30/04/2010)[hr]A recording that you’ve taken should probably be lightly compressed or limited just to bring up the levels.
You’ll find with recordings often that the first part of the sentance tends to be lounder than the rest so it becomes a problem when putting it in the mix.[/quote]are you tallking about pre or post recording.
my question is in reference to getting a good level onto disk, not the processing after.
thanks for the advice
Well if you record a vocal raw, with no compressor over it, you’ll find that the first part of the first word of the sentance sounds lounder than the rest.
It’s almost like the same as a plosive but it’s not a plosive obviously.
In radio a lot of the mics are put through a compressor so when the DJ talks it doesnt have this problem, ie: the 1st part of sentance loud, the 2nd part quiet.
Yes ok it’s talking, but its the same concept, you can still get the same issues with singing.
I was going to show you some images but my computer is being gay and won’t ‘print screen’ right now, i’m sure you get the idea though.
[quote]roben (30/04/2010)[hr]Well if you record a vocal raw, with no compressor over it, you’ll find that the first part of the first word of the sentance sounds lounder than the rest.
It’s almost like the same as a plosive but it’s not a plosive obviously.
In radio a lot of the mics are put through a compressor so when the DJ talks it doesnt have this problem, ie: the 1st part of sentance loud, the 2nd part quiet.
Yes ok it’s talking, but its the same concept, you can still get the same issues with singing.
I was going to show you some images but my computer is being gay and won’t ‘print screen’ right now, i’m sure you get the idea though.[/quote]
Singing is different then the radio.
Listen, if you compress the voice during the singing, you cant get it back. If you just record dry, then you can change whatever you want afterwards. Including compression!!
I sat in on a recording session with Sander Kleinenberg in the fall. I saw what he did. No compression…
Now… You have different mics that you can use to get a different tone to their voice. Thats different.
Howie is right, just make sure that you don’t clip the input.
You don’t need to record the signal all that hot, with modern sound cards noise really isn’t an issue (from D/A converters).
Put your DAW in to 24 or 32 bit mode for best results and just focus on finding a right place to record, use a laptop if you can to avoid fan noise.
BTW software compression/limiting is not going to help you if you clip an input of the sound card.
[quote]howiegroove (30/04/2010)[hr][quote]roben (30/04/2010)[hr]Well if you record a vocal raw, with no compressor over it, you’ll find that the first part of the first word of the sentance sounds lounder than the rest.
It’s almost like the same as a plosive but it’s not a plosive obviously.
In radio a lot of the mics are put through a compressor so when the DJ talks it doesnt have this problem, ie: the 1st part of sentance loud, the 2nd part quiet.
Yes ok it’s talking, but its the same concept, you can still get the same issues with singing.
I was going to show you some images but my computer is being gay and won’t ‘print screen’ right now, i’m sure you get the idea though.[/quote]
Singing is different then the radio.
Listen, if you compress the voice during the singing, you cant get it back. If you just record dry, then you can change whatever you want afterwards. Including compression!!
I sat in on a recording session with Sander Kleinenberg in the fall. I saw what he did. No compression…
Now… You have different mics that you can use to get a different tone to their voice. Thats different.[/quote]
I didn’t say to compress during recording??!
[quote]roben (30/04/2010)[hr][quote]howiegroove (30/04/2010)[hr][quote]roben (30/04/2010)[hr]Well if you record a vocal raw, with no compressor over it, you’ll find that the first part of the first word of the sentance sounds lounder than the rest.
It’s almost like the same as a plosive but it’s not a plosive obviously.
In radio a lot of the mics are put through a compressor so when the DJ talks it doesnt have this problem, ie: the 1st part of sentance loud, the 2nd part quiet.
Yes ok it’s talking, but its the same concept, you can still get the same issues with singing.
I was going to show you some images but my computer is being gay and won’t ‘print screen’ right now, i’m sure you get the idea though.[/quote]
Singing is different then the radio.
Listen, if you compress the voice during the singing, you cant get it back. If you just record dry, then you can change whatever you want afterwards. Including compression!!
I sat in on a recording session with Sander Kleinenberg in the fall. I saw what he did. No compression…
Now… You have different mics that you can use to get a different tone to their voice. Thats different.[/quote]
I didn’t say to compress during recording??![/quote]
I know, I wanted to say something about the point you made about ducking but I forgot. The reason they compress on the radio is so that you can hear their voice when something else comes in. I think they have a routing on a bus with a compressor so that everything but the voice has to go through that channel. They when something plays when the voice is speaking, it ducks it.