Compressing Vocals before it's recorded?

[SonicBreeze]

recording at 24 or 32 bit you don't need to comp while recording. this give you plenty of headroom. save the comp for later- after you have the vocals in the box. this gives you more control...

Please explain this little more. I am confused here. most of the DAWs in present days comes with 24 or 32 bit rates these days. Do you mean compression is not required in 24 or 32 bit when you record dynamic sources?

[Left Headphone]

recording at 24 or 32 bit you don't need to comp while recording. this give you plenty of headroom. save the comp for later- after you have the vocals in the box. this gives you more control...

Do you mean compression is not required in 24 or 32 bit when you record dynamic sources?

Yes. You can get louder using 24 or 32 bit without overloading the signal as fast as you would recording at 16 bit.

So, puting a comp in the chain will keep the signal from overloading. But, recording at 24 or 32 makes the comp unnecessary(unless you are recording sonic booms).

If you are using the comp to add some color, I would go for it.

If was trying to get a loud (hot) signal, I would turn the gain up on the mic preamp instead of adding the comp.

[Lunch Money]

I don't think that's quite accurate. 0dB clip is still 0dB clip, so you can't exactly boost your levels on the way in without clipping.

What 24-bit and 32-bit can do for you, though, is allow you to bring up your signal post-recording without a bunch of shit-sounding artifacts.

Or in other words, unlike tape, recording at 24- or 32-bit will allow you to get a high quality signal without the need to record as hot.

That's my understanding, at least.

Greg

[P.T.]

My understanding is like Lunch Money's.

Don't try to get close to 0db. You can record with the peaks lower, say -6db and that will leave 6 db just incase the singer gets a little out of control on an otherwise good take.

You can then use the compressor later, post production, to even out the performance as is almost always needed.

[herodotus]

Now if you're willing to spend plug-in money on a hardware compressor that get's nothing but rave reviews even by compression snobs and audiophiles look at picking yourself up a FMR Audio: RNC (Really Nice Compressor). It's less than $200 US, and people say it's comprable to hardware compressors costing ten times its price.

It rocks, no doubt about it.

[soulata]

My understanding is like Lunch Money's.

Don't try to get close to 0db. You can record with the peaks lower, say -6db and that will leave 6 db just incase the singer gets a little out of control on an otherwise good take.

You can then use the compressor later, post production, to even out the performance as is almost always needed.

ditto

I've even read somewhere, that (in case of presonus firepod which I use) is best to stay under -6db, safest'd be around -12dB. That's still loud enough I think.

k

[No name]

I usually go about -15, it works pretty good for me. A question for you all, our of curiosity, do you record your vocals in mono or stereo? Lately i've been doing mono and it's been working out rather nicely. I just throw on a stereo reverb and all is well. I'm not trying to hi-jack your thread, i'm sorry.

[soulata]

always mono

[Martin E]

I usually go about -15, it works pretty good for me. A question for you all, our of curiosity, do you record your vocals in mono or stereo? Lately i've been doing mono and it's been working out rather nicely. I just throw on a stereo reverb and all is well. I'm not trying to hi-jack your thread, i'm sorry.

I also record vocals and guitars in mono. Most vocal parts have a fixed place in the mix anyway so there's no need to record stereo. You don't want your lead vocals to be all over the place. That way they would take up too much space in the mix.Further more you'd probably want to record some background vocals as well.

[kevink]

recording at 24 or 32 bit you don't need to comp while recording. this give you plenty of headroom. save the comp for later- after you have the vocals in the box. this gives you more control...

Do you mean compression is not required in 24 or 32 bit when you record dynamic sources?

Yes. You can get louder using 24 or 32 bit without overloading the signal as fast as you would recording at 16 bit.

I'm afraid you've got it exactly backwards. It's no that you can get *louder* when recording at 24 or 32, it's that you can record at a *lower* sound level and still have enough resolution to be able to bring it up to a usable level in the mix with a full spectrum and decent signal/noise. You just have to change the old analog-era habit of taking the record level as close to 0db as possible. If you left yourself 12db of safety margin in an old analog system, you'd miss a lot of nuance in the signal. With 24+ bit A/D, that's not going to be the case.

[Lunch Money]

Exactly. When you first play back, it might sound god-awfully quiet at first, actually. But then you can bring the level up.

As for mono/stereo, any instrument that's a single 'voice', being recorded from a single spot (ie. a singer's mouth, a 1-speaker guitar amp) gets recorded in mono. As far as I'm concerned, vox should almost always be in mono, though of course there's no "rule". If you record with multiple mics, just record each in mono and choose the one that sounds the best.

Greg

[RapRogue]

If you do it be sure to not overdo it, because it's a
lot of work to undo.

[iDavid]

Yea it's an ugly little thing. Looks like an 8 track player. So the pre amp is just as good huh?

I have both and the pre-amp is fantastic!!!

I spoke the guy who makes both the RNC and RNP, a few days ago. I was using the wrong power supply with my RNC and couldn't get it to work. He was very patient over the phone. He doesn't usually compress when going into a DAW, but runs it out to the RNC after the fact..

I on the other hand am sloppy as hell with singing and the RNC saves me evertime... love the super nice mode