Automate the compressor threshold on the lead vocal

Here’s an excellent little hack for helping a vocal grow emotionally over the course of a song: automate the compressor threshold gently upward.

When you increase a compressor’s threshold, it compresses less — and this can allow the dynamics in the performance to soar more.

We’re not talking huge moves here — just little turns of the knob.

I tend to do this per section. So maybe it starts in one place for verse 1 … maybe I bump it up at chorus 1 … maybe again at verse 2 … etc.

The key for me is to listen for the moment(s) in the song where the compression on the vocal feels like it’s restricting rather than adding to the emotion — and make the change(s) there.

Oftentimes instead of literally using automation to accomplish this, I’ll duplicate the vocal track onto a second track, move the relevant waveforms there, and simply tweak the threshold knob on the new track.

That’s a great way to do it because if the section of the song you’re addressing also needs something else to help keep the emotion where you want it — a little more reverb, an EQ tweak, etc — those changes are also simple to make, without getting yourself into an automation quagmire.

Opening up — jamie