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- [Instructor] Let's compress this vocal.
So, I'm heading over to the browser again.
I'm in the Audio Effects category.
Here's the compressor already selected.
And I'm going to just click it and drag it
into the audio effects chain down here.
So, there are three views to this compressor.
This one I think is the easiest way to set the threshold.
There's an x,y axis which shows you the ratio.
It's easy to visualize the ratio.
And then here we have a real-time analyzer as well.
So, let's start over here and get the threshold set.
I have highlighted the first part of the chorus.
Setting the compressor, it's good to do it
in a more dynamic area of the song.
Choruses tend to have the times
when you're singing the loudest versus the softest.
And you can actually see
the different peaks and valleys in this file
versus the ones over here
are just a little bit more even in their tone.
So, we want to use the compressor
to even out this dynamic range more importantly.
So, as I pull this threshold down while this is playing,
you're going to see gain reduction
illustrated here for me as I go.
So, let's start by just setting the ratio
to maybe four to one, five to one,
just someplace around there.
That's a pretty typical ratio for compression of a vocal.
It's not too heavy.
And I'm going to press play and pull this down
until I'm getting about five to six dB of gain reduction.
Let's also solo it right now, so we can hear this happening.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
♫ Too much of a sacrifice
All right, so you can see that I am reducing gain.
Take makeup gain off for a second
so we can see this even more,
so this adjustment of the threshold
is really going to adjust the overall volume.
You'll hear that it's going to be quieter
because we're reducing the gain.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
♫ Too much of a sacrifice
So, let's head over to the other view here.
And you can see this happening.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
♫ Too much of a sacrifice
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
So the difference is when I turn this compressor off
those really high notes the,
♫ Don't tell me it's not
they're going to stick out really hard
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
♫ Too much of a sacrifice
♫ Don't tell me it's
♫ Don't tell me it's not
So you can see it's much more even when the compressor's on.
It's just taking the volume and lowering it
when it crosses the threshold too much.
So we even be able to notch this down a little bit more.
It's a very dynamic file.
I always try to not compress too much when I do this.
And it's tempting, but let's not.
So if I put Makeup gain back on,
that's going to adjust this output.
So whatever reduction we reduced for these peaks,
it's also making the valley softer as well.
So the Makeup reduction is going to make up
for that over gain reduction
and raise the volume of the file
back up to where it was generally before.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
And you can see we're actually clipping here anyways.
So I'm just going to reduce this down.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
Usually you want a compressor to,
you want the volume, or the overall volume,
to kind of stay the same,
cuz you're not using the compressor to add gain.
You're using it to even out the dynamic range.
So I like to turn the compressor on and off
and just listen to the volume,
and if I'm close, then I did a pretty good job
of setting the parameters on this compressor.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
♫ Too much of a sacrifice
So because I'm not hearing a drastic change in volume,
I know that my output is set well.
And I'm hearing the evenness as well,
and we can see it happening here.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
♫ Too much of a sacrifice
♫ Don't tell me it's
So this is pretty cool.
I like watching it.
You can see, this is the threshold,
and you can see the audio crossing the threshold.
♫ Don't tell me it's not that easy
So only when the file
crosses the threshold is it compressing.
And then the ratio here,
you can see this is
how much it's being squashed.
It's a little bit difficult
to understand in the beginning.
But if I turn this ratio all the way up,
you could see how much would be squashed
once it crosses the threshold,
which is where this dot currently is.
And if I pull back all the way, there's no compression.
So I'll set this back to about five or six.
And that's how you're going to set
the main parameters on the compressor.
Just use your ears.
The more you do this, the easier it becomes.
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