Hi everybody...I have Behringer Compressor ..I have never had experience with compressors before..How do i set it up for live vocal...To take out lower note to be more clear..What are the usual settings you guys and girls use..

Thanks..
MIKI

Mirza,

A compressor is something that you really can't or should tell that its on, it going to smooth out the peaks in the volume of a singer or instrument. It like having an automatic sound guy riding the fader so you can have a more controlled consistent volume level.

If I'm correct the behringer also has a peak limiter which would allow you to set a certain level point which the behringer will stop peaks from going over.

Also try reading the white papers at dbx for basic compressor theorys and set ups

Hope this helps

franklieve has it spot on.

I use a compressor to smooth out vocals and also make them louder.

More exactly I'm trying to increase the gain of the microphone circuit so that the weak parts of my vocal range (i.e. bottom end / falsetto) get louder without the strong area (upper-mid) overloading the channel / amps / speakers. The purists may (with some justification) suggest that a lot of these problems can be reduced with good microphone and vocal technique but as a sit down pianist I've not got a lot of either to work with!

I set the compressor up to give about 10db of gain to the signal (use the noise gate to keep the channel quiet when no signal to prevent feedback). Then set the compression ratio to be about 2:1 (so the loud stuff isnt so loud any more). Set the limiter to cut in only to limit the "if I dont sing this note b?lls out I wont get it" overload situations. This also may allow a little more gain. Use "Soft Knee" limiting - "Hard knee" can be harsh when it takes effect (the knee is the shape of the limiting gain profile).

The "attack /decay" times are subjective. Too fast an attack means you dont get such a dynamic sound (the attack of the voice gets lost; letting the attack through before the compression takes effect is known as 'punch-through'). Too fast decay means the sound can audibly "pump" up and down. I think Ive got my compressor set to "auto" for attack and decay!

I've got my compressor set such that you can't really tell it is there - until you take it away and think "where's the vocal gone?"!

I can also concur that the "dbx" info is very useful.

Ok Mirza, you have a compressor, but what do you want to do to your sound? Tell me that and then I'll help you a little bit.

Luis.Santos

Hi guys./..Thanks for replys guys..You halped me a lot...

I need to make my voice to be heard when i sing low notes..And i sing much better when I take my songs and sing them lower...I have AKG c535 condenser mic..it sounds realy nice,.,..

MIKI

Over the year my lower register has got much better (and louder) once I had the belief that I could hit the notes spot on and not waver about, because it was fear of the wobbles that stopped you projecting the sound. Supporting the sound with good breath control helps enormously (I've had some training). Lower end is still quiet compared to the upper end - so the compressor still makes a heck of a difference!