Reply To: Using dual compression on vocal recording

[Nick D.Participant]

how I set up that chain is the 1176 first 4:1 slowest attack quickest release and on the loudest parts have 5-7dB reduction, the LA2A comes in next also about 1-3dB of reduction. The 1176 controls for attack and release are opposite of what you would think, fastest release is all the way clockwise, slowest attack is all the way counter clockwise. if the 1176 is setup properly it should give you an aggressiveness.

if you feels its choking your voice then you may not have the 1176 setup quite right and might have the attack to fast and the release to long. If you are still having this issue, then I would recommend you do each part separately. do a track of softer parts with higher preamp gain and have a track of louder parts with lower preamp gain, and process them separately. the way you describe your vocals I wouldn't try to do all on one track, is that like expecting a metal guitar and acoustic guitar to sound the same by using the same recording chain.

I don't have the Apollo but I feel like doing this ITB/with plugins isn't the same as using hardware in the recording chain, and involves how you gain stage the preamp to compressor to compressor. Peaks in the preamp gain might clip in the digital world but be prefect in the analog one when using this techniques. Its one of the few things that doesn't feel the same to me.