![]() ![]() If you are a Studio One user, this factory-supplied Channel Strip contains a good simple compressor. This appears both within Studio One and through the Presonus Universal Control that manages the Revelator io24. Good “Native” Compressors The Presonus FatChannel XT provides a good workable compression tool. Nice and neutral sonically and a price that is hard to beat (that would be free). George spoke about this in a session I attended and it’s a solid choice with some good features. I have to say that I was not familiar with Melda Productions plug-ins until just recently. (big tip o’ the mouse to George Whittam who introduced this to me) Melda Productions MCompressor – a free-but-donation-supported offering that has clear controls and neutral sound. It changes from blue to red as you pass the Threshold point. I find that Apple’s AUDynamics Processor provides a very good interface to see this occurring. Depending upon the user interface of your specific effect, this can be a needle which starts to move, or a change in color of the level meter. I’ll usually play with the Threshold first – that lets me dial in when the Compression starts to impact the raw audio. Dialing in your voiceover compressor settings But if we’re noticing “how” something sounds rather than the content, that’s a good test that we’ve been a bit too aggressive. At that point, the effect starts to speak more loudly than the words we are saying. If we set the Threshold too low, it will cause everything to be at a similar volume, which gets noticeable quickly and sounds quite artificial. The trick here is to tune that “Threshold” so that the quieter portions are not affected. If our volume is reasonably consistent, then they don’t have to keep adjusting the playback level when listening to your audiobook or podcast. One of the reasons we try to control the dynamics is to provide a better experience for the listener. It can sometimes “heal” raw takes that Peak past -0 dB.Constrain dynamics with a bit more subtlety than what we do with a Limiter.The “make up gain” can boost the loudness of our audio so it’s appropriate for the project.It can smooth out performances which might have a bit too much volume variance (a wide dynamic range).Used judiciously, Compression can solve several problems for us: Multiple passes through dynamics tools is generally a bad idea.Until we hit the Threshold, nothing actually happens. Compression is activated when your audio reaches a “Threshold” level – a triggering amount of volume.In my last post I talked about two key ideas: What do we want a compressor to do in the VO studio? But it’s important to have that conversation. It’s also possible that your client may have no idea what you are talking about. Some clients will want to handle that themselves, while others may expect you do it. ![]() If we are delivering final work to a client project, best practice is to confirm that applying compression is OK with them. If another person will be processing your audio further in the workflow, using compression can seriously impact what they might be able to do later on. Before we start applying them, it’s worth asking our client if it’s even necessary at all. Last week I went over the controls found on most Compressor plugins that we’re likely to encounter. That’s a nerdy way of saying “…when you start to lean on a long crowbar – it doesn’t take too much pressure to start breaking things.” In my voiceover recording classes, I talk about Compression as a “tool of high leverage”. With Compression, it’s easy to fall into that trap. Do we hear the processing rather than the performance? That’s a good indicator that we may be doing to much. When we use a Compression effect on our audition, it’s important to ask whether that effect might be overwhelming the performance. Compressors can be cryptic, but once we wrangle the settings, they can provide useful control to our voiceover recordings. ![]()
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