Riding a vocal track: Pre or Post-fader compression?

[copperx]

Which is the most common approach?

[Andreas G]

If you wanna make your compressors live easier, say with a very dynamic voice...pre
If the vocal track is smooth and fine with the comp...post

Andreas

[84K]

depends on the sound you are going for. If are barely hitting the compressor and you are trying to maintain a natural dynamic, then you need to experiment as listen to what sounds more natural (which will depend on how dynamic the vocal is). If the compression is part of the effect ala modern pop/rock, then I would most-likely ride it post compression.

[Fletcher]

I would recommend you put the compressor "pre-fader" because if you put it "post fader" you will have the compressor fighting what you're doing.

A compressor reduces the dynamic range. It makes loud stuff softer so you can make the soft stuff louder.

If you have a compressor after the fader then everytime you bring up the fader you will be increasing the amount of gain reduction from the compressor.

If you are compressing at say 3:1 then for every 3db of fader increase you will only have a net gain of 1db in terms of increased volume of the track in the mix... while you will gain additional compression artifacts because you'll be driving the compression device harder.

This might work as a cool effect sometime... but as a 'bread and butter technique' I don't think it would be all that practical.

As always... YMMV.

[arkmabat]

BUMP.

[dbjp]

Some people use compressors purely as limiters when they insert post fader.
They tend to be people that go for more natural sounding vocals.
For me it's 99% pre-fader.

[VibeSound]

I'd agree with the post above in some ways. But it really depends on what you want to accomplish. Compressing post fader (if your goal is to even the levels out with riding) can be a great way to go as the compressor is affecting the signal in a more similar way as a hole providing a more even character to the signal thus leaving no surprise's when high peaks hit. If the dynamics of the performance suit the song however I would be more likely to go with pre fader compression. Time is also a factor to consider. I'd suggest next time you have a familiar singer in to record that you can judge their dynamics really well to try riding the gain whilst recording into a compressor. Picked this up from stav's mixing with your mind. Quite a fun thing to try though I'd probably run this of a mult so you still have an unaffected signal for safety if possible.

[la grange]

I assume we are talking live work here.
Very little number of boards will aloow you to insert pre or post, and it is often pre.
The majority of engineers will ride the fader at low volume, under threshold and will set a compressor that will be more effective as you reach nominal.
That is what I do anyway.
I had to work with board that was post only once. I won't mention the brand and it doesn't start with a B but rather an S. It was a huge pain in the butt, as you compress also your auxs 99% of the time when you board is set to post.

Hope it helps

Oli

[EddieTheRed]

From the tips & techniques archive:

Originally Posted by Mike Tarsia

a technique i have used for years entails riding the input to and output of the compressor

back in tape days we did this when tracking.. [during those days the purpose wsas 2 fold..1. don't over compress...2. keep the level to tape hot even in the soft spots to keep s/n ratio high] with the advent of DAW's, i devised a simple method to accomplish the same thing for not over compressing. this works especially well on very dynamic vocals and vocalist who tend to drop lower in level at the end of sentences

1 buss your uncompressed vocal audio track to an aux

2. insert a compressor in the aux

3. create an audio track whose input is the output of the aux and whose output is the mix buss and keep this audio track on input monitor

4. automate rides on the vocal track so your compressor is doing 3 average and no more than an ocassional 5 dB hit on the compressor

5. ride tails of words and soft spots up so they get some compression too [dont worry that the levels sound a little unatural at this point ..the next step will correct that]

6. automate and adjust the output of the aux track to smooth the vocal levels in reference to your music track

7. record a pass to the new audio track

now you will have a track that is very smooth and where everything [ soft and loud] gets some nice compression without over hitting the compressor and geting that unatural squashed sound on loud passages and no "glue" on the low parts

at this point the vocals should sit very well..an additional compressor can be inserted on this track if desired and/or you can now do those "taste" rides to give life to your mix

[Jordan-O]

I tend to run most of the vox compression pre, but I'll set up a buss with all the vocals and compress that at 8:1 with about 4dbs of gain reduction on the loudest notes.

[Cursed Lemon]

If you do it post, then you can control the amount of compression by simply riding the vocal, which I guess would be good for experimenting.