mixing vox w/ heavy compression

[bannerj]

I tracked a project this year that was mixed by Trent down at Bell Labs in Norman, OK this year. We did the male vox through an sm7 into my GR MP2NV and then to my dbx160x (just a little to tame things a bit...the songs required large dynamic changes in the vocal). Trent really squashed the track by mixing otb through his 1176. I could describe the vocal like a smooth shiny flat surface just hanging suspended just smack in the center. It sounds great.

I am doing my first set of mixes ever (I mostly just track for friends) for final product and would like to try copy this sound. Of course I don't have an 1176, and I am mixing through my Metric Halo 2882 "itb." The only comps I have are the 160x, the miostrip in the MH 2882, vintage warmer, blockfish, and the stock ones in DP.

To make it sound like I described...is that a matter of quick attack and slow release with a low threshold? What ratios should I aim for?

I know this is a tough question since you guys haven't heard exactly what I am talking about...I am just trying to thicken up the vocal that I am working on and to have a place to start.

[bpatural]

Try a pretty quick attack and a quicker release at 8:1 to bring up the low level stuff in the voice and get some attitude, followed by a limiter of some sort to get rid of any spikes from the first comp.
-Brian