From the course: Vocal Production Techniques: Editing and Mixing in Pro Tools

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Processing vocals with compression and limiting

Processing vocals with compression and limiting - Pro Tools Tutorial

From the course: Vocal Production Techniques: Editing and Mixing in Pro Tools

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Processing vocals with compression and limiting

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- [Narrator] While equalization allows us to work with the frequency range, compression allows us to work with the dynamic range of a voice. What is dynamic range? It's the range between loud and soft volume of a recorded sound. It turns out that the human voice is one of the most dynamic instruments we'll encounter in recording. It moves wildly from too loud to too quiet even in the course of one phrase of a verse. Because of this, we almost always rely on compression as a tool to help tame and narrow the dynamic range so we can make a vocalist's level sit more solidly in a mix. Do we EQ first, or compress first? There's no right or wrong answer. How does it sound, is the real answer. But just be aware that some compressors add tonal color, so if you EQ after the compressor, you can take that into account as you work. One technique I like to do is to do a low cut or high pass filter before the compressor, then compress, and then do our tonal shaping EQ, after the compressor. So here,…

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