Live Mixing Vocal Compression

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.

Live mixing vocal compression.

There is no one size fits all formula to vocal compression. 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. If you must use compression we recommend trying a ratio no higher than 3 1 for live use along with shorter release attack times.

Some recording engineers think compression is a must for vocals. Lead vocals in pop and mainstream music are the centre point of the mix. Let me state up front that there s no single setting you can use for every vocal track. 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.

It evens out the often erratic levels that a singer can produce and tames transients that can cause digital distortion. At this point you re done. I wish i could do that too. Heck it d certainly save me a few keystrokes.

And i don t want to mislead you. Many bloggers will tell you what the perfect vocal compression settings are. But the truth is it s not that easy. 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.

Compression settings for lead vocals should be as natural sounding as possible. Compressing a lead vocal isn t always easy but avoiding these mistakes will help you mix vocals that sound modern and musical.