A compressor only reduces signals that exceed the threshold, not the whole material which is what automation does.įor instance, if you shrink me I will be smaller but my proportions will be the same. The way I've been using it is I've just been slapping it on immediately afterĪ vocal to make the vocalist go 'wow!' I like to automate vocals myself and I've left it alone on maybe two tracks and they sounded pretty good.Īutomating volume is not the same thing as compression. This is all with just one instance, where with a compressor you may need 2 or more. So say a vocal starts out quietly in the beginning, vocal rider will raise the level for you while at the same time applying what would be considered light compression, then later in the song push the vocal down when the vocalist starts belting it. What I mean is you can get both light and extreme compression on the same vocal track, and when you get extreme compression it's without any artifacts whatsoever. Vocal rider however does it completely without coloration and is a bit more intricate than most compressors, in that it adjusts itself on the fly to the performance. Isn't this essentially what you are doing when you manually ride a fader (although debatably less accurate because you could never react as fast or as accurately as a machine)? I thought this is why compressors were invented in the first place, as some kind of automatic fader rider? Basically yes. 'Lowering the dynamic range' is just a fancy way of saying 'making the louder parts quieter' which gives you a signal that is, on the whole, more uniform in level. I think I'll stick it doing it manually on projects where time is not an issue, because I can control the levels more intelligently than a computer, but I would consider using it in situation where time is an issue. I still do use compression though, but more as a limiter to capture occasional peaks.not anything that is constantly working.unless of course I'm looking for the sound of the compressor.

I can now, get the vocals to sit exactly how I want to in the mix with no compression at all.

I can actually make the performer sound like they performed the track better. I can control the dynamics without making the dynamics sound dead. So, in Samplitude, which interactively shows the wave form change based on the automation curve, I started going through the lead vocal tracks and manually evening out the vocals visually, while playing it back from time to time to make sure it sounds correct. At first I thought vocal rides were mainly a tool to add drama, I didn't realize they were a means to just even out volume envelopes. After demoing Wave Rider (not the one by Waves), I began to realize exactly how people were riding the vocal fader.

How good is the vocal rider plug in