i saw that in a mixing stage someone used the L! Ultramaximizer from Waves and then i tried it out myself with the Brickwall Limiter from Tracks, i had an attenuation of about 6-8 and it sounds nice i would say, nearly or maybe a bit better than my opto comp setting.
i never thought to use a limiter? what do u use and why? i also tested out the RVox Tool from Waves but dunno if i like it, it gives not much control.
Limiter/Compressor on Vocals?
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 8494 posts since 5 Aug, 2009
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simon.a.billington simon.a.billington https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=341278
- KVRAF
- 2375 posts since 12 Nov, 2014
It could be that the limiter is just operating on the very peaks, conforming them so that they are more consistent and so you can bring the overall energy up.
When you think about it, though, for voice the peaks are going to be those consonant sounds like B, P, T, K,. They are very quick so you may not be even noticing that their levels are getting regulated.
6-8 dBs of reduction on the peaks might be a little bit excessive though. You maybe getting some artefacts you aren't aware of, but as long as it sounds good overall there may not be much to worry about.
What you could try, though, is the balance of both a limiter and a compressor and perhaps a third option of using Waves Vocal Rider.
In the past a famous compressor/limiter combination on vocals and bass has been using the LA-2A to treat the overall energy of the signal and the 1176 set to act fast in order to treat the peaks. So you could try something like that, or a more transparent alternative or any other variation you think may be worthwhile looking into.
If you are going to try out Vocal Rider at any stage, put it first in your chain, that way it has something to work on and it means that the signal is less aggressive as it goes into the other processes making for a more smoother tone. Part of the character in these other processes, however, is how the audio does drive them harder at times, so you will probably want to find a happy middle ground of the Vocal Rider doing too much or too little.
Vocal Rider is really just level automation in disguise. It just makes the whole process a lot faster to setup than wading through all those vocal tracks and automating them manually. If you wanted to, however, you could just insert a Gain plugin before the compressor and limiter and do just that by automating it's Level control in order to make the signal more consistent, it just takes longer.
When you think about it, though, for voice the peaks are going to be those consonant sounds like B, P, T, K,. They are very quick so you may not be even noticing that their levels are getting regulated.
6-8 dBs of reduction on the peaks might be a little bit excessive though. You maybe getting some artefacts you aren't aware of, but as long as it sounds good overall there may not be much to worry about.
What you could try, though, is the balance of both a limiter and a compressor and perhaps a third option of using Waves Vocal Rider.
In the past a famous compressor/limiter combination on vocals and bass has been using the LA-2A to treat the overall energy of the signal and the 1176 set to act fast in order to treat the peaks. So you could try something like that, or a more transparent alternative or any other variation you think may be worthwhile looking into.
If you are going to try out Vocal Rider at any stage, put it first in your chain, that way it has something to work on and it means that the signal is less aggressive as it goes into the other processes making for a more smoother tone. Part of the character in these other processes, however, is how the audio does drive them harder at times, so you will probably want to find a happy middle ground of the Vocal Rider doing too much or too little.
Vocal Rider is really just level automation in disguise. It just makes the whole process a lot faster to setup than wading through all those vocal tracks and automating them manually. If you wanted to, however, you could just insert a Gain plugin before the compressor and limiter and do just that by automating it's Level control in order to make the signal more consistent, it just takes longer.
