Vocal Compression - How to Mix Live Vocals (feat. Jon Thurlow)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- Stop chasing around vocals in your mix. Compress vocals the right way, and you'll sound like a pro.
In this vocal mixing tutorial, I'll show you how to compress live vocals, and show you with the real live vocals from Jon Thurlow's "Shout Your Name."
Check out the Vocal EQ tutorial here: • Vocal EQ - How to Mix ...
When you understand how to set a compressor for vocals, it makes mixing for worship so much easier. After all, the vocals are the most important part of the church service, because if no one can understand what's being said and sung, then it's a waste of time and breath. Learn how to compress vocals so that every phrase is heard loud and clear, and craft the tone of your vocals.
Follow me on Twitter: / attawayaudio - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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What part of this tutorial gave you an "AHA!" moment? Comment below to let me know!
The non-compressed signal to the singers monitors. AND I do have musical tourettes. I am constantly humming violin to worship songs, syncopation, double stop harmonies. I've got the headphones on and my family starts looking weird at me (again)
The reasoning behind peak/rms 👍
@@danielfmyers Nice!
biggest aha...definately on the slower attack to thicken up. Thanks a lot :)
My pleasure! Oh man... now I’m craving Chick-fil-A
Your tutorials always nail it. Really among the very few channels on TH-cam which teach stuff that actually is applicable
What an incredible teacher you are...not to mention sound engineer. I am learning a great deal from you. Thanks!
Very good instruction. Got straight to the point on the settings, then went into the description of each setting. Thank you! I bought a BBE MaxCom dual compressor and will follow your advice when it arrives.
Really solid videos. Really some of the most practical and effective out there.
attack times release time and tonal relationships, I"m learning a lot watching your videos....I've been "pushing faders" for a few years now and your videos are teaching me How to approach so many of the features on my X32 that I've not been able to use. thank you
You're a really great teacher. Appreciate these videos!
Thanks Michael! 🙌🏼
This channel saves my life when it comes to sound engineering. Thank you so much!!!
Woohoo! Glad I keep you from going over the edge and quitting 😃
As always, GOLD. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge James. Very professionally presented. I’m new to digital mixing world and you have made the transition from analog friendly. I was scared. You are a legend. Keep them tutorials coming. 👏👏👏
So glad I could help you make the jump! Thanks for being your church's sound ninja
Very helpful! Thanks for demonstrating tracks with the different variables enabled and disabled it helps solidify the concepts.
I’m glad it was helpful for you! Compression changed my (mixing) life 🤪
Great tutorial on Compression. Thank you for taking the time on this :)
Very well explained! Looking forward to getting to the board to put it to practice! Thank you.
Very useful tips and coaching on compression! Love it! Thanks! As someone with experience of 30 years, but with no formal training, this filled in a gap.
So glad it's helpful! I love learning more all the time.
Very well explained and many details are very well illustrated.
Awesome tutorials. Thank you! Very helpful.
Thanks Maycee! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Thanks again, everytime i watch your videos, I learn a lot to go~
So glad it's helpful for you Simon! Keep learning and growing!
All of your videos are incredible!
Thanks Chris! Keep making music 🙌🏼
Genius and very educative as always.. Kudos Sir
super great tutorial with clear explanation
This is awesome!
thank you for this! I've always been intimidated by compression!
hey!been a sound tech for over 30 years, this was most accurate and concise explanation of compression i have ever heard.
hey thanks!
I’m speechless!
With so much bad advice and lack of knowledge in youtube videos, THANKYOU for producing a video with good advice, deep understanding and clear delivery. As a profession engineer i thank you for putting youtube right. 👍
Wow thank you Brendon! 🙌
The best tutorial and the first id comment on TH-cam. Thank you for making this
You're a legend James!
Thanks Elijah!
Maaan! Thurlow’s voice is butter!!
I know, right? He's awesome to work with
Great tutorial love it
Holy crap... It's almost 3am and I've watched like 20 videos of yours. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Jon!
I guess there are worse things to stay up late doing 🤣
Nice tutorials...been hoodwinked into running board on a friend's band and this will help out tremendously. As one sound engineer told me if ya get the vocals down correctly 85% of the job is done, the rest is pretty easy as the instruments are gonna just do their thing without much noodling.
very true 🙌
Yes, I have tried some of this previously......... but now these tips go a long way in fine tuning.
nice! always learning, always growing 😃
Can I like this video twice? This was so useful for me! Thank you
Just found your channel and i definitely need to go on a binge watch.. My church will be finally switching from an analog to a digital board very soon and after having convinced them to buy it i definitely wanna show them its worth.. Thanks for making these professional videos.
Hey thanks for serving your church by running sound! After getting things dialed in, show them how easy it is to save a “base” scene and have a kid hit “recall” to get things working. That’s when they’ll know it’s worth it 😁
Attaway Audio yasss 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾.... I can’t wait... Thank you for making out time to educate us freely 😃 ✊🏾
Very helpful! 👌God bless you and your family!
Thank you! I'll receive that :)
Much appreciated. Thank you
Great job sir!
Thanks Tom! Happy mixing 🙌
Having that console to hands on, it's impossible to ignore your knowledge. Really interesting channel! Thumps up for you. Bless and cheers fron Perú.
Thanks Carlos! Thanks for serving Jesus in Perú!
Attack and Release easily explained here. Plus I really enjoyed the song that was sung in this video.
Thanks Victor! It really is a great song
Very awesome and practically oriented video God bless you paaaaaaa
Thanks Sedem Vincent! God bless you too!
I took lots of notes. Seems like some very useful, practical advice. Gonna try it out at rehearsal this week.
Have fun!
You’re really awesome 👍🏻🥇
Amazing video.
Thanks, Danny!
I've been doing sound for a long time... I did my first tour in 1989. Obviously that was the days of analog. It was around 2007/2008 when I began seeing digital consoles on a pretty consistent basis. It was around this tim that I accidentally discovered a compression technique I use all the time now.... While still acclimating to the digital world, I would often start adjusting things, without remembering to select the proper channel. One day, thinking I was adding compression on something else, I was actually adding it to an overhead channel. I soon realized my mistake, but also
realized it was doing something cool. I then applied compression to both overheads. The band I was mixing was a very dynamic rock band. The overhead compression kept the really intense peaks under control, and would bring them forward as the band settled into quiter sections of songs. I see a lot of guys use it now, but back in the analog days you typically didn't have enough compressors in your rack, to spare, for such things.
Something that used to be very popular, back in analog days, was sidechaining. I don't see too many engineers using it these days. I do things like sidechain a bass DI to the kick compressor...to bring out bass runs during busy bass and drum segments of songs. I'm surprised more guys don't use tricks like that, since its so easy to do on digital consoles. Sidechaining is cool because it assists in moving shared tonal things out of the way of each other...making room for more musical information to be heard.
Nice summary. I suspect your choices are good for your context as many people listen to small speakers without much fidelity. In this environment, clarity is king. I listen to a lot of classical where the dynamic range can be much higher and the equipment is often higher end and can more properly produce a complex mix. Knowing your audience is important as it can result in better overall outcomes.
Great tips. God bless you Brother.
Thank you! God bless you too!
Really. nice stuff here
Great stuff, thanks! I have a low voice so set my settings slower to not thin it out.
great info!
Glad it was helpful!
NIce stuff brother!
thank you, very useful vedio
Sound NINJA!
I found that sending compression to our wedge monitors works the best. Vocalist prefer to sing their hart out and have confidence that they won't over power the sound on stage.
If it's set right, it can be awesome! Just have to be careful about raising the noise floor and feedback.
Waste of time use inears
Good channel - I'm learning things. I'm a semi-retired rock band engineer. I've used compression selectively to highlight the "star" of the event, usually the person whose name is on the marquee, that the audience paid to see. I've used it to keep overly dynamic sidemen and backup singers in their lane, allowing the star more of the available dynamic range of the rig. The supporting musicians can still sound great without getting in the way of the star's sound. Although, when I mixed a show that featured a legendary guitar hero and singer, the bass player criticized me afterward that I had squashed his dynamics. Although I made nice with him, he wasn't ready to be told he wasn't the hero that the people paid to see. So, I sometimes messed with the artistic composition. Some would say that's bad. If there's a music director who seems to have his/her act together, I wouldn't do that. What do you think?
Great vid... definitely sounds more professional!!! 🍀🍀🍀
Thanks for that awesome tutorial.. I want to learn more from you, can you please make a tutorial about a proper adjustments of gate.
Sure! It's right here th-cam.com/video/XYKszVPOTB8/w-d-xo.html
Your videos are beyond informative and excellent. (Still uneasy with the amount of money floating around American Churches tax free.) Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks Tone Ranger! You’d rather tax everyone on sales? I actually prefer that to having an income tax... encourages saving and starting your own business. But tax policy not what this channel is focused on 😂
@@AttawayAudio indeed, lets just say, your church has better gear than any of the actual music venues I have worked in, light years ahead in fact 😁
your videos are great keep it up, some of the most informative out there for live sound in general, church or no church, and nicely edited, thank you. Liked and Subbed 👍👍 beyond the technical side you seem to be very skilled at interacting with people which must come in handy when working with Preachers and Pastors who I'm sure may be demanding at times.
Yeah the people side is a skill that will make up for lots of mistakes technically 😂 to put the gear in context, our ministry does 168 hours a week of worship at one facility, and more services at another facility on the weekends (where I film). So it’s like having expensive shoes as a marathon runner. There are 14+ full time worship teams. So we get our moneys worth out of it. Glad you’re enjoying the videos!!! More stuff coming soon
Thanks God bless
Like all your videos. I’d like to see a FOH EQ video - by ear or by device; common room beginning points and how that affects individual instrument channel settings.
For example, the channel settings you used here would change if FOH changed from room to room. So you may have to cut 5k or 2k or whatever in main EQ and then have to add that back in on a channel EQ to compensate.
It would just be interesting to know how you set room EQ
transparent, with a slight HF roll-off, and a big bass boost... because we like to party 😃
Love this video and the whole series.I have learned more from you thank anyone on live mixing. What do you like more RMS or peak mode for smooth vocals?
Great tutorial on vocal and compression, getting to know a lot more from you. Godbless you
Thanks Roderick! Glad I can help. God bless you too!
You are a bad man. I have learn a lot in a very short time listing to you. You make it plan and simple. I run the soundboard at my church. Allen and Heath GLD 112. I have not mastered it yet, but with lessons like yours, I'll soon get there. I love how you give us a starting point and then we adjust from that point. Thanks a million my brother in Christ.
Thanks Roger! Thanks for your kind words
Hello all pro mixers. Respect when you can hear a different between that different settings - special the fast and slow attach. But thanks for the video!
It takes time to dial your ear into those changes, but it's definitely something that CAN be learned!
Compression sounds professional. Thanks for the tips....BUT.....I really dig those uncompressed passes as well. LOL Makes me listen harder and sounds natural.
You bet! I love uncompressed, musical signals... but getting it all to fit in a mix........ bring on the compression 🤣
i use this guys videos to run sound for black metal shows.
thank you :)
You're welcome!🙌
I'm not sure if I miss this any part of the video, but like eq you advised us to only cut and not boost to avoid feedback. Does changing compression during live causes feedback?
Also, another question, I have yamaha tf3, I notice everyone running reverb and delay fxs. What other fx is good and make vocals or anything in general better? Is there any tutorial about all different fx?
Thanks
compressing CAN cause feedback if you end up compressing too much add too much makeup gain, which raises the noise floor. But you can adjust it during the performance - I do all the time to get things dialed in. There's another video on Vocal FX here: th-cam.com/video/ZSGl8tGbC1k/w-d-xo.html
Thanks
Happy to help! 🙌
thank you....
You're most welcome 😃
@@AttawayAudio ur all video very useful to us
Tnx sir
Thanks a Lot ..Could you also touch up on Parallel compression.
Thank you for this tutorial i have learned so much from your videos. my question is. what is good compression level and makeup gain for lead vocal and backup vocal
Hey Daniel! I aim for an average of about 5dB of gain reduction, and the makeup gain depends on how much I need to push my fader up to keep it on top of the mix.
Thank you, Jon. Loving this series!
Do you have compressor suggestions (make & model) for a (gulp!) cover band with 5 vocalists? We perform live at festivals, corporate events, etc. NOTE: We don't have the budget for SSL gear. Thoughts? Many thanks!
I'm so glad you asked - I LOVE the Klark Teknik SQ1D. It's SOOOO flexible, and a great deal. You'll seriously come back and thank me after you buy it.
Thank you for this. I've been watching a lot of your videos lately - they're fantastic!
I'm afraid I can't tell the difference at all regarding the more subtle compression settings (attack speed). Actually even compression on and off I have to concentrate to hear the difference!
I am new to mixing (I've only mixed, with help, a couple of performances so far so lots more experience yet to get). Would you say it's common for those beginning to really struggle picking this stuff out? I'm a bit worried I might have a tin ear..
yes, it can be tricky to identify at first. critical listening is something that can be developed though.
oi! subbed!
I hope to learn audio post production from you.
more courses coming this fall 🙌 check out attawayaudio.com for the waiting list
Awesome video as always.
How do you get a vocalist voice louder when they are softer speaking or a softer singer ? Not a proximity issue. Just songs lower.
Hey, Thanks for the tips! Can you speak on the “Hold” function on compressors?
I see in your tutorial and others the Hold is set to zero and not mentioned. Do you use ‘Hold’ for anything?
Hi James,
Still a very helpfull tutorial and the singer is so good. A blessing to hear.
Do you have a starting place for the compression on the vocal bus ? Sometime you mention using submix but I'm not shure how to properly set the compressor on a submix.
Subgroup compression is all about gentle moves, since you're changing an entire group instead of an individual input. Or there are ways to compress in parallel but that's more than I can go into in a comment 😀😀
Thank you for the super informative tutorials! In my situation I am the singer and also doing sound for our band before we play so is there any advice you can give for someone who isn't able to monitor/stay on faders during the performance? Adam
Try this one! th-cam.com/video/TN7IO9bt7vs/w-d-xo.html
great tutorial, really got a lot. I was wondering if its a good idea to send in a compressed vocal signal into an effect bus (say reverb or delay) or rather send it as post eq. looking forward to your response. Thank you.
I send my vocals to effects post-eq and compression. That way the level of the reverb and dry signal stays consistent
Attaway Audio great. Thank you. That makes sense.
Excellent videos!! Those details about the compressor really are helping me to understand the real use of this sound tool in a very different way! Thank you! That song you’re using for this video, it sounds really good! I’m not very familiar with the style, Is there a way to listen to the complete song? Is it a cover? What’s the name of the song or the band? Thank you again for all your help!
By the way! My AHA moment was the the fast/slow attack = thinner/thicker tone! 👍
So glad it's helpful for you! The song is "Shout Your Name" by Jon Thurlow. There's a live version of it on an album compilation of the same name, and he's got a studio version on his album "Different Story."
Attaway Audio thank you so much! I appreciate your time to answer!
Amazing Useful techniques.
Sir, please tell me
How to tune foh system in live sound by rational acoustice smaart software.
Thanks DK! I have a system tuning & Smaart video in the works. Thanks for watching!
thank you lots of great advice
i need the song and the drums please help me so i can do like you what you do it's awesome
You might want to show how you achieve this awesome sounding kickdrum and snare?
th-cam.com/video/hBxvWydRQKY/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/CshdvNnDKr4/w-d-xo.html
A good start is a good sounding kit tuned properly and a good player (too may drummer who havnt figured out that people generally dont dance to hi hats and cymbals)
BazSound 😂😂😂
Best part of vid for me is how compression controls vocals from verse to chorus. My aha.
This is great information, thanks so much. I find that when I use compression I end up losing control on the drums sound, because of how loud drums bleed becomes in vocal microphones, specially cymbals. I have tried changing positioning of singers in relation to the drumkit, different microphone patterns, begging the drummer to play cymbals softer, but none of these worked. Any helpful tips on this?
Drum shields can help. Or you use less aggressive compression on the vocals. There's only so much you can do if the musicians don't cooperate. The laws of physics still apply even if you're the greatest drummer in the world
You explained attack time very well, but never talked about what to do with release time after the initial setting. What do you listen for when adjusting release time? Is there any rule you have for where to set that?
Release time too fast = loud breaths. Release time too slow = missing quieter parts of a phrase after the loud syllables
Can you use side chain compression on vocals?
Great tutorial mate. Subscribed. A question if I may. I am a soloist and I sing everything from ballads to rap. Given I do my own sound, what settings do you think would be optimal to cover a wide dynamic range without being able to mix on the fly? I have quite a deep, powerful voice.
If you have a way to use Waves plugins, Vocal Rider might be a good option for you. It's hard to set up something to mix vocals that dynamic automatically
@@AttawayAudio Thanks buddy. Yeah there is no 'one size fits all'.
Excellent video as always! Do you often compress the BGVs separately from the lead vocalist, or just compress the vocals all in one stereo bus? Thanks!
Everybody gets their own
Super cool. Is It possibile to do this with judt a mediocre mixer?! (I Guess not).
Hey!
How do you find the best setting for your threshold? Based on the uncompressed peaks?
If my singer goes to let’s say -10dB when getting loud would you set based on the threshold below that?
I just watch for the amount of gain reduction. 3-5dB verses, 8-10dB in choruses max.
This was really good. Thanks for sharing. As a side, was the pitch correction live or did you do that on the playback?
I corrected it in post before creating the tutorial :)
After playing around with this a few times, I'm starting to wonder where to put the threshold. When I set it too low the compressor never releases the signal between syllables/words, am I correct?
The release time also is not doing much then?
which software plugin do you recommend to do this on the mac (stage live)? does the fabfilter c2-pro do live compression?
Would you please tell us, in your opinion, optimal numbers for each setting for spoken voice, talking head work? Thank you
Do you have a video and maybe audio examples of using the compressor key filter features?
I don't yet! Likely because it's super rare that I actually use it. Sometimes for harsher things, I'll emphasize the high-mids into the key input, but I could count on one hand the number of times I've done it.
Thank you for making this nice video. What microphone did you use for the vocals?
It was a live recording from several years back, but if I remember correctly they're Shure Beta 87s.