Eight tips on dynamics

In this article, we'll talk about dynamics and how you can effectively use effects like compression and gating to make your productions as awesome as possible!

Don't overcompress your signal into your DAW

When recording, it's incredibly important not to over-compress your vocals. If the signal is too over-compressed when recording, you'll have to start from scratch and record again, which takes time and is very impractical. Instead, aim to compress the signal a little in your DAW and compress it more later if necessary.

Use your ears

This cannot be emphasized enough! The only real rule you should follow when working is that if you think it sounds good, it usually is! Therefore, you should always start from what you think is needed when you need to compress. Does your signal even need compression? Does it need lots of compression? Dare to test yourself and start from your ears when you work!

Try not to rely on presets too often

The problem with presets is that they are not adapted to different mixes and almost always have to be tweaked to work in the mix you are working on. Therefore, when you master a song, start from what you think is needed and not from a preset that might ruin your mix/master more than it adds. This is also a good way to practice your ability to listen to what is actually needed and not just that you always start from ready-made settings in your plugin.

Make sure to check noise levels when compressing

Most compressors today have a makeup gain that you pull to increase the total volume of the sound you have just compressed. This is a dangerous way to work as you can easily fool yourself into thinking that the sound sounds better just because the volume is higher. Be careful to always listen to your compressed signal at the same volume level as the original signal to actually hear what the compressor is doing to the sound so you can decide if you think it sounds better or worse.

Working with studs

In pop music today, it is more common than not that the vocals are dubbed in several places in the song! This gives the effect of the song feeling stronger and having more power in it, especially in choruses this can be necessary if the production takes off. Try recording dubs on your chorus and panning them out, this will give your vocals a much greater stereo width while adding much more dynamics to the vocals.

Multiband compression can act as a De-esser

If you don't have an awesome de-esser, you can actually use a multiband compressor instead! A de-esser works by pushing down sibilance in high frequency registers, which you can also do with a multiband compressor. Find the place in the vocal take, for example, where it feels too sharp and reduce the volume in that area with your multiband compressor!

Working with Gates

A gate can be a very practical way to make a sound move more. For example, if you have a pad, you can put a gate on it that sidechains to some rhythmic element of the song. This way, the gate will open and close according to the rhythmic sound you sidechain to and give your pad a lot more rhythm.

Compression is not auto-leveling

When working with compression, it is important to know that compression does not change the sound depending on how hard your track is. You have to change the output volume by hand to adapt it to the track. A plug by Waves called Vocal Rider is very good for this, but automating it yourself can be even better so that you can decide exactly how high you want the output volume to be at different points in the song.