Tracking Vocals: Compression in the Chain?

Perhaps unobtrusive is more apt term?

I gave up marveling at my own astonishing talent years ago. Too time consuming.

I recently tracked 3 vocal tracks on 3 different songs without compression. My preamp wasn't working, and I had some wonderful mics on loan, so I had to go straight into the Apollo's pre's, and didn't have time to mess with tracking through my WA76 and EQP-1A. Also, I was testing an amazing mic, and wanted to touch it as little as possible.

I have mixed feelings, on one hand, I like the tones cowboycoalminer gets on vocals, so some compression while tracking clearly works, but on the other hand, I hate the noise floor being brought up that Tony mentions when tracking with compression.

When I do finally get an LA2A type compressor, maybe I'll be happier. Right now, I don't love the WA76 on vocals, but do love it on bass. I tracked my wife's vocals with the UAD LA2A plugin when we made this New Mantra recording, and I don't think I could have gotten as good a result without it. It fattened up a thin mic nicely. I wrote the music, the Mantra is traditional.

I did this track below when I had maybe 2 weeks experience on a DAW, no outboard, and a Chinese capsule in my mic. I didn't even know my Waves bundle had a deesser then. So, as much as I can do a much better job now, the LA2A saved my bacon on this. My wife was an Atlantic Records recording artist in the 90's, but left the music business. Today, she's a wellness/yoga instructor, hence.. the "New Mantra" track:

https%3A//soundcloud.com/martin-john-butler/guru-ram-das-the-naam-music

Up till now I have been tracking with a Millennia STT-1 and using only a touch of compression on the Millennia which is a very vanilla opto compressor.

Last week I bought a BAE 1073D and a Retro STA Level and boy when tracking with my Wunder CM7 the difference is huge.

I'm completely with you, the STA level is drawing a better performance out of me, I also love singing into it, it's hard to explain but it kinda gives you something to
push against and it seems to slow the signal down a bit and make you form your phrases in a more musical way - hard to explain but it's a fantastic compressor.

John Kennedy first got me interested in getting one.

Hi there,

Thanks for the welcome :-)

I had an UA LA2A re-issue here a while back for a demo and personally I found it to be pretty clean and not that exciting, but still a very good compressor of course.

I heard a lot of engineers say track with an LA2A or something like The Brute and mix using a STA Level, but as I'm basically mixing ITB (apart from a hardware bus compressor into a HEDD192) I really have to track with the STA Level to get the vibe and then use a UAD LA2A plugin ITB (which is the same thing just the other way around)

Engineers like you to track with something vanilla to give them the space to do their thing, but as a musician first (engineer/producer second) I want the STA Level for the performance aspect during tracking - I just have to be careful not to over compress.

I'm excited to hear the Warm Audio WA 2A the clips I've heard on line sound great.

I really like your voice by the way, your tracks sound great!

Hi - thanks for the welcome.

Yes I agree with you, performance should come first then sonics.

Makes sense if you're recording music to capture emotion anyway you can.

Also thanks for the tip - I've deleted my erroneous posts. 

Yeah, its quite the experience aint it?  8)

welcome to the group

cheers

Wiz

original manual, easily available. Though you have to infer what 'triple' does.

Welcome, thehightenor! Single is a slower attack, double medium and triple the fastest. I usually used a medium attack (double) and medium fast release. The Sta-level is fantastic. I ultimately got a little tired of chasing down tube problems, though. I sold it in favor of a Chandler RS124 - which is fantastic also...probably not quite as weighty but soooooo much more versatile. The RS124 can really get pretty fast, and won't fart like Sta would when you pushed it - which could be what you were going for. I need to try some vocals with the really slow attacks - I haven't really tried it at extremes and all the vocals that I've mixed have had compression on the way in. What I've kind've found with the RS124 though is that sometimes I can hear the attack working and that normally bothers me. But there's something to that gooey thing in the mix. You sometimes want to hear that grab - like when a head is pulling away from the mic. Also, the interesting thing with the 124 is that with stringed instruments, the transients of the attacks still somehow come through, but it's still compressed. It's unique. I really wish I could afford both.

I've always thought the hardware LA2's I've used (silver faced vintage and reissues) could be a little glassy. Sheeny on top...very dissimilar to Varimu's...

Hi John , thanks for the welcome glad to be here.

Thanks also for the explanation on the STA - I saw the RS124 also, but the price on the STA was a very good deal and ultimately it fitted my budget. The RS124 also looks amazing and sounds great from the clips I've heard.

What was the issue with valves on the STA is that something I need to watch out/ listen for and make sure I have spares ready to go?

I've not heard of reliability problems in any of the threads I've been reading on forums?

cowboycoalminer can speak to this too. I had some rectifier tubes go bad, 6bJ6's and 12at7 go bad...just a little weird. Then you start to get paranoid as to whether it's sounding as good as it should be. I honestly could go with either the Sta or the 124 on vox. It's interesting. The Sta was a no brainer, two knob machine on vocals. Only problem is that it sounded so good, you could over do it without noticing and be hitting -20. It was easier to take out of the box and track with. The 124 has more options, so I find myself mixing with it much more - where I tracked more with the Sta. But the vocal tracks I'm getting with the 124 are disgustingly good. It's a lockdown corner. It's the Darrelle Revis of the the compressor world. I'll say this - I didn't think there could be a better bass comp than the Sta, but the RS124 is it...
I'm about to track a harm, so I'm gonna use the 124 but pull the attack way back - really slow.