Do u compress the beat and vocals together???

B

BRYAN_..JAMARION_...

New member
I JUST compressed the instrumental with the same compressor as i used for vocals, and noticed it blended better.

do you guys compress the instrumentals???
 
Using the same compressor that you use on your vocals as on your instrumental will net you similar results as they are using the same treatment. Everything you bring to your sound will bring about some color, even the ones that claim to be transparent. The key is to add as little color to vocals as possible, so the original sound shines through. The key to the rest on your track is to use either, bring as little color as possible or use a color that brings a certain effect to the sound (THIS IS GENERALLY SPEAKING). So normal compressors aren't always good on a vocal track. A compressor suited for vocals would be better. So compressors ideally are an invisible effect, again, generally speaking, however there are times when you may want to use a certain compressor for a certain type of sound, like on a kick or something. So to answer you question, yes it is okay to have the same compressor on your vocals as that is on your instrumental, as long as it sounds good, but be careful, your ears may be tricked into thinking sounding the same means sounding good and that is not always the case. IMO I would use a different compressor for the vocals then what is used for the instrumental because they often have different needs of compression.
 
chris carter said:
Music and vocals all together and one buss compressor on the whole thing.
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Chris you are right nothing gives your track that audio glue like throwing it all on a buss. I do it that way sometimes but I like using serial compression instead of one compressor. Can you tell I like layers..lol I think it is more transparent than using a single one, plus for me I can't find a compressor that I like both on drums and vocals. C1 great on drums, don't like the sound on vocals, LA2A great on vocals, much too natural sounding for drums for my taste. I like having different compressors in the chain either way (buss or no buss) because you can get specific features or character from each one and this gives your mixes a unique sound that only that engineer can bring to the mix. I do like to use parallel compression to a buss but only on drums. Which compressor do you buss to? I have tried the Waves G and UAD's Neve clone.

---------- Post added at 09:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:42 PM ----------
BRYAN_..JAMARION_... said:
good info @ himbeats. thanks.





what are some of the "buss" compressors in the waves plugin???
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Really you could put any type of compressor that you have to use in a buss compression situation, but the best results are from the compressors that have dedicated processors to do this. Waves makes the master G compressor to be used on a buss.
 
BRYAN_..JAMARION_... said:
also is it buss??? or bus???

or both of them ???
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The proper term is "buss" and all it means really is group. Essentially buss compression is not much different than regular compression other than it is applying compression to a group of instruments or sometimes to the whole mix. For example most engineers' buss drums all together. You might put a compressor on a snare and then a different one on the kick and yet a different one of the tom, then once you put them in the mix they don't sound like they go together sonically. By grouping them together and then applying compression, this will ensure they are glued together. Groups, busses, aux, different names, but all the same thing.
 
I experimented with compressing the beat and vocals on a buss but it is giving me new problems.

When I use compression on the buss, when the singer is not singing, I think the beat is louder, and when the singer starts to sing, I can hear the volume of the beat drop slightly.

The compressor settings I used on the buss are:
Treshold: -6db
Attack: -1
Release: 1.2
Ratio: 2

When I use serial compression, the quality of the audio gets worse.

Can anybody help me out?
 
the important thing with this is paying attention to the amount of gain-reduction that is taking place and getting your attack and release to be smooth



how much gain-reduction is taking place in the compressor? it should only be a few dB's.

Is your compressor set to rms or peak? switch between the 2 and find which is smoother.

on the attack and release, you didn't give enough info. it could be in ms or us
 
flit said:
I experimented with compressing the beat and vocals on a buss but it is giving me new problems.

When I use compression on the buss, when the singer is not singing, I think the beat is louder, and when the singer starts to sing, I can hear the volume of the beat drop slightly.

The compressor settings I used on the buss are:
Treshold: -6db
Attack: -1
Release: 1.2
Ratio: 2

When I use serial compression, the quality of the audio gets worse.

Can anybody help me out?
Click to expand...

WHAT ARE YOU USING BESIDES A COMPRESSOR? ARE YOU EQ-ING BEFORE OR AFTER THE COMPRESSOR ,DID YOU ADD A LIMITER?

TRY EQ FIRST BEFORE ANY COMPRESSOR-LOOSIN THE TRESHOLD AND CHANGING THE RELEASE IF ITS ON THE BUSS THAT THE VOCALS AND BEAT MIX INTO. YOU WANT TO COMPRESS JUST A LITTLE HERE WITH A MIDDLE TO SLOWER RELEASE JUST ENOUGH TO PUT A LID ON THE PEAKS- BECAUSE YOUR MIX AND LEVELS SHOULD BE GOOD HERE.
USE A MULTI BAND. THEN IF YOU WANT EQ A LITTLE AGAIN .
NOW ADD A LIMITER. BEFROE YOU BUSS OUT TO THE MASTER
AGAIN THIS IS WITH THE BEAT AND VOCALS TOGATHER.

ON THE VOCAL CHANNEL ITSELF EQ IT FIRST- NOW COMPRESS AND USE A 2:1 OR 3:1 ratio, fast attack AND A MEDIUM TO FAST RELEASE-BRING UP YOUR MAKEUP GAIN - -THIS DEPENDS ON YOUR PREAMP SETTINGS.

TRY THIS AS A STARTING POINT
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun99/articles/mixcomp.htm
 
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KingRenz, thank you very much for your help.

I am only using a compressor on the buss of beat & vocals.

On the vocal buss of "verse 1" I used an EQ first than I added two compressors. I am not using any limiters yet.

Thanks again for your advice.
 
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I will always use compression for gluing things together.

Having compression on a group of a sounds essentially blends them all together. I might not even really be compressing, but I may have a compressor on just for the particular coloration a compressor has and use that to glue the sounds together.

So on my master, I will always have a compressor at the end for my glue. The individual sounds may or may not have additional pre-compression. If they do have compression, then it is actual compression that I'm doing as an effect for that sound...not for coloration. I leave that up to filters and eq's etc.

If you have a vocal that isn't sitting well in the mix, compression will sink it in there. Not saying rely on this...you still want to mix the best possible. Compression is the last step. I'll compress and still make changes to the mix with the compressor on as well.
 
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