any tips on compressing vocals?

Hello to all...I recently purchased a MXL V93M Mic and was wondering after I get a good vocal take, what do you suggest as far as compressor settings, normalize and even De'Esser? I am makingh mostly hip hop if it matters at all thank you.....one more things, when compressing the vocals what attack ratio etc should be used? Thanks to all. Glance.

I would compress as im recording cuz, well, it's just better(don't want to explain). I would love to help you on that but i have heads that tweak settings for me but I do know that alot of plugins are available with presets like vocal, etc......
You know trial and error is the best way and trust your ears. You probably know this but never ever ever ever clip while you record unless your going to comp it with other takes and ish. Hopfully someone in here can help you better than I.
Peace

Theres no general settings that are going to be perfect, your going to have to fine tune it yourself, but a general good starting point is have it so the peak gets -6db total reduction with 1:4 -1:8 compression if I remember right or you can up the ratio and smash the shit out of it and just up the output of the compression, depends on your style, you can get away with heavy compression in hiphop

jonloc wrote:...You know trial and error is the best way and trust your ears. You probably know this but never ever ever ever clip while you record...
Peace

true as shit.
thats real

i find that mcs hit the mic a lot harder than singers, so i tend to use a very quick attack setting, with a medium release, and anywhere from 3:1 to 6:1 compression ratio. usually i fair towards the lower ratio though. iceberg slim is right tho, you can get away with a lot of compression in hip hop. sometimes its nice to have a super compressed vocal cuz it sits in the track a little better, but it depends on what the instrumental sounds like.

i usually dont compress when recording, rather i record it pretty raw, making sure not to clip. this is mainly beccause i do not have a real nice outboard compressor and preamp. i suppose if i did have those, i would onyl compress i little on the way in. i just like to record as raw a signal as possible at first because then, there are no real undoable actions. i use a computer and the waves plugins, so i am able to record a raw vocal track, then experiment with what sounds best later on the mix.

definately use a de-esser.
other than that, i cant give too much info because i dont have much experience.

Yeah compression is what drives most of the songz you hear on the radio.

One of the advantages of using compression on the way in is it can "squash" those signals that might peak too much in raw form and actually lift up the lower tone vocals.

A signal processor such as the Aural Exciter 204 is a good selection for achieving a warm / compress sound that still can be manipulated as needed on the machine.

But understand the whole purpose of such a device is for you to fine tune the frequencies on the way in so things like the EQ won't even be required on the track.

I try to stay away from using EQ on vocals. Messy ups the mix.

The EQ should be used for Boosting or Cutting signals. So if you caught the vocals on the way in, you should be pretty much straight on that end to.

Also, the 204 is known for giving "tight end" bass and making lows lower with its Big Bottom feature.

Its a pretty good piece of equipment.

One