Your Opinions on Mixing Techniques - Compression

[Razor7Music]

Hi Group--

I've got a project that has multiple tracks of backing vocals. One part has two tracks of the melody (in unison), and one part has two tracks of the harmony (in unison) - all singing the same lyric. (4 tracks total).

All four tracks can use some compression to level out their dynamics. Would you, use 4 instances of a compressor with one compressor per track, or would you assign multiple tracks to the same compressor? Maybe the two tracks singing the same part to one compressor, and the other two to a 2nd compressor?

Say that computer resources are not an issue.

I'm at the mixing stage of the production.

Looking forward to your opinions!

[Len911]

I would send them all to a buss with compressor. That way you could still tweak the send volume for each track individually, while keeping them within the same dynamic range. For the same reason you use a stereo compressor or two linked mono
compressors on a stereo signal.

[eeoo]

I'll usually do both, tame the peaks a bit with an insert and then send them all to a buss compressor to glue them together a bit.

[Razor7Music]

Thanks, Len and Eeoo! I appreciate it!

[MBantle]

Hi Group--

I've got a project that has multiple tracks of backing vocals. One part has two tracks of the melody (in unison), and one part has two tracks of the harmony (in unison) - all singing the same lyric. (4 tracks total).

All four tracks can use some compression to level out their dynamics. Would you, use 4 instances of a compressor with one compressor per track, or would you assign multiple tracks to the same compressor? Maybe the two tracks singing the same part to one compressor, and the other two to a 2nd compressor?

Say that computer resources are not an issue.

I'm at the mixing stage of the production.

Looking forward to your opinions!

I really like your post! Compression is the single thing in mixing that really surprises me every day...the possibilities to shape a sound are endless (think of de-essing, multiband compression, side chain compression, dynamic EQ...you name it). One of the techniques I discovered far too late is to pay 'meaningful' attention to the millisecond values. Depending on the style using exact values that correspond to 'calculated' values (think of calculating decay time at a given tempo) really makes sense and cleans up a track. And, I agree: Using multiple compressors in a row for different purposes can also help achieving that very natural yet tight sounding result.

[Noego]

Yes I always work with individual tracks first to make sure the harms dont have big dynamics on their own and there attacks and releases are similar and then I send it to an outboard compressor but you can route them all to a buss and assign a stereo plug in to glue them up. Being careful not to have too fast attack as you will lose transients.
I also put another buss to a doubler or pitch shift sometimes if you need to make them etheral not just organic. Careful a little goes a long way.

Hope that helped.

[Razor7Music]

All great helps. Thanks!

[waveheavy]

If resources aren't an issue, I would use a couple of compressors each hitting a little on each vocal track. If more than that is needed, then it would be better to go into the waveform of the track and edit the gains. (Rule of Thumb Law: compress often, but only a little.)

[Kolstad]

I would automate the input gain on the vocal tracks to get them more even, first. That way the compressors dont have to do so much work, so it sounds natural (assuming thats appropriate for the genre).

[tonedimension]

I tend to address any larger level issues within a region using clip gain adjustments before heading to compression and I feel like that can be an important first step. regarding the comps, I like something that has a wet/dry blend so that I can do parallel compression right there on the channel. Or, just send each to a buss and compress the snot out of it (one or a couple compressors in line) and control the blend to taste. You get a bit of dynamics from the uncompressed track and the "in your face" feel from the compressed buss.

Many different ways to do it and thats just a couple of my thoughts. Hope this helps a little.