All language subtitles for How to Use Compression on Vocals - Compressors Explained in Detail

What's good YouTube? You already know who

it is man. It's your boy Q aka the Wave

Man Man Man and we are back with another

wave monopoly.com tutorial and today

we're bringing you everything

compressors. In this video we're going to

be going over everything that you need to

know in detail about compressors and by

the end of this video you will be able to

compress your vocals

successfully.(...) Let's get into it.

The first thing that we're going to do is

take a listen to this first example.

Now that you've heard that let's take a

listen to our second example. So I know

you heard a difference. Now that

difference that you heard was

compression. The first vocal take was a

completely unprocessed natural vocal

take. The second vocal was the same audio

take but instead it was heavily

compressed.(...) Now what's compression?

Compression is the process of reducing

the dynamic range or evening out the

volume of an audio signal. Dynamics are

basically the span in between the highest

loudest part of an audio signal and the

softest part of an audio signal. Just

imagine if I was in the room with you

right now and I started singing to you. I

just started singing to you live in

person. It's gonna cost you some but uh

just imagine it. You're gonna hear me

sing loud at times and you're gonna hear

me singing very low and soft at different

times. Now when you're recording into a

DAW you're most likely going to be

recording with an instrumental. So if you

have your raw unprocessed vocal in there

with your instrumental you're not going

to be able to hear those lower parts as

much as you're going to be able to hear

those super louder peaks. So what do we

use to tame these dynamics? We will use a

compressor. A compressor basically takes

the loudest peaks and brings them lower

in volume so we can start getting closer

to those softer levels. Now it doesn't

quite work like volume okay. We can't

just turn it down and turn it up but

instead we control it. We control it with

a function called threshold. Now what

threshold is is basically us telling the

compressor listen you are gonna start

engaging this compressor after we reach a

certain volume level. Now by how much it

compresses is something else that we

control which is called the ratio which

means whenever we go above this threshold

how much we want to reduce and compress

this audio signal and whatever's under

the threshold remains unprocessed. Now

that we know those two basic functions

let's get into this example so we can

further explain those two and the rest of

those basic functions. Let's get into it.

So let's go ahead and hear this vocal

uncompressed once again.(...) As you can

hear you hear those softer parts and then

we hear those louder peaks. So what are

we gonna do guys? We're gonna get a

compressor. In our case we're gonna be

working with the R-Comp which is a

compressor that comes from Waves Audio

which is a third-party plug-in but the

reason why we're really using this is

because it comes with all those basic

functions and not only that but it sounds

really good. It has a great tone and

great character and is used by many of

the top engineers today. So that's what

we're gonna be using. As you can see we

have this dialed in right here. So what

I'm gonna go ahead and show you guys is

how these things work together. So what

we're gonna do is we're gonna bring these

back to zero and we're gonna start

dialing this in so you can understand how

these work together in conjunction. So

I'm gonna bring you to the mind of

myself. I know that I'm gonna want to

compress this vocal moderately alright.

That's where I want to start and from

there we can start playing with levels

and seeing where we really want it to end

up. So we're gonna do a four to one ratio

which basically says for every four dBs

it goes over the threshold we want it to

allow one to come through which also

means three dB was reduced during this

compression. Understood. Now ratios could

be set in a bunch of different

variations. For instance you've probably

heard two to one, four to one, eight to

one. Now what does this mean? One to one

is basically unity gain which means

there's no attenuation at all. Two to one

is very light compression. It's gonna

allow more dynamics to come through okay.

Four to one begins to get more moderately

compressed. Eight to one we're starting

to get more heavily compressed. And

twenty to one we're starting to reach

those limiting levels alright. Now we got

that set. The next thing that we're gonna

do is set our threshold. If your

threshold is at zero it is going to be

doing nothing. It's not compressing

anything. It is not working. So remember

the threshold says when to engage, when

to start compressing our

vocal. Let's get into it.

(Music)

As you can hear we're already starting to

compress that vocal very very well.

Listen all we did was move the ratio and

threshold alright. Now what I'm gonna do

is bring the threshold back up and bring

it back down and I want you guys to hear

how this starts to

engage. Let's get into it.

(Music)

Now you're really starting to hear this

be compressed. Now as this is compressing

you have to understand that we are

overall bringing our volume levels down.

So that's when we're gonna start using

our makeup gain to compensate for the

loss of volume level. So we're gonna

start bringing it up so that we're able

to start fitting this back into the mix.

So let's start dialing our makeup gain as

we listen to our track as a whole.

(Music) Sounds amazing. We're halfway

there. Next we have to understand attack

and release. Attack is basically saying

listen after we hit this threshold how

fast do we want this compressor to

actually work? How fast do we want to

engage this compressor to hit those

transients? Now what's transients?

Transients are basically that beginning

punch of each of those phrases.

Those are transients okay. That's what

we're gonna want to control. That's

basically what the attack is. Our release

is saying listen how long do we actually

want to hold this compression once

engaged? All right now for you to really

start to get this concept I'm going to

over exaggerate both the attack and the

release and listen to the characteristic

of the vocal change. Let's listen to it.

(Music)

As you've heard when we make the attack

very slow in this case 500 we start to

hear a lot of transients which gives us a

feeling of aggressiveness. Our vocal

becomes more aggressive punchier more

just bold. Now when we sped up our attack

made it the fastest that we could we

started to feel more smoothness more just

silky smooth no transients coming

through. It's and then when

it was a slow attack (Music)

it was just much more transients coming

through with a slower attack and with a

faster attack very smooth okay. Now

that's just showing you how this changed

the characteristics. Let's do the same

thing with our release.

Listen to the characteristics.

(Music)

(Music) All right when it's a faster

release we get a more aggressive tone

because we're releasing that compression

as soon as it's basically being engaged.

Now vice versa when it's a very slow

release we're holding that compression so

it gives us a smooth vocal. Now the key

is to work with these in conjunction so

we can find that sweet spot. So what

we're going to do right now is dial this

in and listen for where this feels right.

We're looking for where it feels right

not necessarily where it sounds muted and

soloed out. You want it to feel right

within your overall track because at the

end of the day we are not compressing to

hear an acapella. We are compressing so

that it can find its space within our

overall track. So we're going to dial it

in right now. Let's get into it. We're

going to start with attack and then go to

our release and find where it feels

right. Let's get into it.

(Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music)

(Music) (Music) (Music) So basically I

feel very comfortable where this is at

right now. Okay we have our attack at

nine which is a pretty fast attack still

and we have our release somewhere in the

middle. Okay the reason why we chose our

attack to be here is because I like a

little bit of that trend that that

transient coming through. It gives it a

kind of a aggressiveness okay but not too

aggressive to where it starts to sound

wild and just abrupt. It just it just has

just enough to where I feel like yo this

is what I'm going for. This vocal this

this the words I'm saying it matches it

feels right just a tad of aggression and

our release I like that it's being held a

little bit longer but not too long to

where it's too smooth. I like it being

smooth because this is a melodic vocal so

that's what I'm going for. So I want it

to be smooth but not too smooth to where

it sounds like it's just overly

compressed all right. Now if you still

don't understand compression I'm gonna

break it down for you in a more simpler

way okay. Compression is basically like

any authority figure okay whether that's

your mom your dad grandparents or who

knows anything any authority figure okay

and you're listening to music. Your

threshold is basically the volume that

the authority figure in our case our

mother wants us to keep the volume out

but you know we we young and we want to

bang our music so we're gonna turn it up.

Now the ratio is how much we turn down

the music when she starts to shout at us

right she starts to yell like okay let's

turn on the music back here all right now

the attack is how fast we turn it down

right so she might be saying the way man

turn that music and then I turn it down

right so that's like a let's say a medium

let's say that's a medium attack now

she's like what faster attack okay the

way man I told you I told you turn that

music down and then I start to turn it

down that's going to be a slow attack

okay so the attack in this case is how

fast we turn our music down once we start

to hear that shout okay and the release

is going to be how fast we turn the music

back up after she closes the door and

leaves our room all right. Simply said

guys that is compression in a nutshell

now before we go I want to give you a

couple tips to make sure that you start

to play around with as you progress with

your compression. All right the first tip

I want to tell you guys is instead of

having one compressor do all the work as

we did in this example try spreading the

workout between three or four compressors

this is something that I do a lot and I

make a video going deeper into this why I

use multiple compressors but like I said

allow the first compressor to do a little

bit of the work second compressor to do a

little bit more and a little bit more

whatever feels and sounds right okay the

second thing I want to say is very easy

to over compress guys nothing is wrong

with dynamics so try not to over compress

your vocals okay listen y'all already

know who it is man ship boy q aka the

wave man and we are here with the wave

monopoly to bring you nothing but heat

what look if you want to learn some more

just go down my page man go down the

playlist you know where to find your

music knowledge at man look y'all already

know who it is man ship boy q aka the

wave man here with the wave monopoly.com

(...) and until next time