The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => Recording => Topic started by: Ramshackles on April 24, 2012, 05:33:02 PM
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I just read about this so thought I'd post it here as it's a nice trick....and the recording forum needs more posts :P. (Yes, it's a bit nerdy).
So this is a compression trick that can give you some very 'in your face', punchy sounding vocals without sounding over-compressed or having any of the usual artefacts that you might get when going for a punchy sound and end up over-doing the compression. (Least, thats what happens to me :S)
So, take your vocal track and send it through a compressor. Set the settings on the compressor so that it is over-compressing the vocal a little - so you start to hear the nasty artefacts but nothing too awful. Now you have the settings, reverse the vocal track so it plays through the compressor backwards. Yup.
Now, bounce down that track so the compression is 'printed'. However you do that in your DAW - it might have a 'bounce' function, or 'export to wav' or something. In cubase you can choose from both..
Now you have a new track with the backwards, compressed vocal. Now reverse that track so it plays normally and voila!
Because the compressor was fed the track backwards, it reacted completely differently, resulting in a very smooth yet heavy compression...
The technique supposedly works well on all kinds of instruments also...
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Oohh - nice trick and i can see how this would work really well
Cant wait to give it a whirl
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Hehe, I have heard about this one but never got around to trying it!
I will add... ALWAYS check the vocal solo'ed up afterwards thoroughly, in case there are still some artefacts. Yup it should go without saying but always check thoroughly especially when you are doing things to "cheat" the system! Artefacts only get worse once you mix and maybe master, so makes sure there are none to start with
Can you give an example of a heavily compressed vocal that works in-situe, Ramsy? I am not a fan (unsurprisingly) but this is possible because when I have heard it is has been done badly...
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as im obviously already backward can i skip the 2nd part?
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Hehe, I have heard about this one but never got around to trying it!
I will add... ALWAYS check the vocal solo'ed up afterwards thoroughly, in case there are still some artefacts. Yup it should go without saying but always check thoroughly especially when you are doing things to "cheat" the system! Artefacts only get worse once you mix and maybe master, so makes sure there are none to start with
Can you give an example of a heavily compressed vocal that works in-situe, Ramsy? I am not a fan (unsurprisingly) but this is possible because when I have heard it is has been done badly...
Tonight I'll run an old vocal through it and see what happens. I can see this trick being fairly dependent on the type of compressor used aswell..
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Sounds like the same procedure as the reverse reverb trick, apparantly gives you an echo in front of the vocals , keep meaning to try it.
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But isn't it still going to kill the dynamics of the vocals because it's compressed so hard?
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It will still obviously affect the dynamics but I think the idea is that by attacking the transients from behind ( :o ) the effect will not be as severe
This is all theoretical of course because I haven't had the chance to try it - I look forward to Ramshackles reporting back his experiences