Live Mixing Vocal Compression

In a live setting try dialing back the compression settings if you re using compression at all on your vocal channel and instead use the volume fader to control how the vocals sit in the mix.

Live mixing vocal compression.

Heck it d certainly save me a few keystrokes. Lead vocals in pop and mainstream music are the centre point of the mix. It evens out the often erratic levels that a singer can produce and tames transients that can cause digital distortion. Compressing a lead vocal isn t always easy but avoiding these mistakes will help you mix vocals that sound modern and musical.

If you must use compression we recommend trying a ratio no higher than 3 1 for live use along with shorter release attack times. I wish i could do that too. There is no one size fits all formula to vocal compression. At this point you re done.

Your vocals should sound 100x better than they did before especially if you followed all of the other vocal mixing steps mainly equalization first. There are no magic settings that work 100 of the time. But the truth is it s not that easy. Compression settings for lead vocals should be as natural sounding as possible.

Some recording engineers think compression is a must for vocals. To achieve subtle natural sounding compression on your vocal it s best to use multiple compressors throughout the mixing process this is called serial compression. Many bloggers will tell you what the perfect vocal compression settings are. And i don t want to mislead you.

Let me state up front that there s no single setting you can use for every vocal track. If you want to learn more about using compression on vocals and further improve your mixes you can read my in depth guide to vocal compression and also download my free vocal compression cheat sheet below.