Pre-Master: Taming Vocal peaks

[Gothboy]

I've finished doing my album. I'm happy with the mixes. Most of the songs peak at about -02(with most of the song between -06 and -03 but on a few of the tracks I have one spot where I get a peak into -0db showing up in the TL mastermeter. It's the vocals doing this and despite working with the Eqs, compressors and limiters in the mix I can't seem to squash those rare peaks. Here is how I have the vocal tracks setup:

Mono vocal track(EQ lll, Digirack comp, Effect(AIR effect if at all)>send to stereo Aux. with EQ lll, Digirack comp, limiter.

I know I can just pull down all the faders but it's like ONE place in the song that it hits red and when you view the stereo waveform you can see it...a tiny sliver of red hitting -0. Do I lower the whole track because of one peak or is there some other angle I should try. I know if I do bring the levels down it can be madeup in the mastering stage but I don't want my mixes to sound too small either.

Is using the extra comp on the Aux bus too much compression maybe?

[albee1952]

Well, we have different methods, but here is a little advice that could help. Before mixing, I go thru the entire vocal track and use the Audiosuite GAIN plugin and raise/lower bits that are either way too hot(your case) or way too soft, so I would treat the peaking area with the GAIN plugin and re-bounce. I also don't do bus compression on vocals as I prefer to stack compressors on the strip. I usually start with a high-pass EQ, followed by BF76 set to light-moderate compression, followed by EQ III to tame any hot frequencies, followed by SMACK! adding more compression(and the character that SMACK! adds) and finally, the Bomb Factory Pultec EQ to add back a little "sparkle" by boosting a little 10 or 12 KHz(no other EQ sounds like a Pultec).

If your project is going to mastering, your finals are way to hot(they should be around -12 to -6 so the mastering engineer has headroom to do their tricks). If you are not going to mastering, ignore this.

[Gothboy]

Well I guess I should've been more specific. The vocal tracks aren't hitting red in the mono tracks themselves. They were processed in Melodyne and were either raised or lowered that way. I'm talking about the master bus. I've got the TL mastermeter on that and the peaks are showing there...they don't even show up as hitting red on the actual master track just in TL mastermeter which is way more sensitive.

I AM going to mastering so I guess I should be pulling down eh? Should I just pull everything down until these peaks hit -3?

What's a good light/moderate vocal setting for the BF76?

[daeron80]

Originally Posted by Gothboy

Do I lower the whole track because of one peak or is there some other angle I should try. I know if I do bring the levels down it can be madeup in the mastering stage but I don't want my mixes to sound too small either.

What albee said, and yes, pull everything down about 6 dB. It will have no negative effect on apparent size of your mix. The only reason it seems smaller is because it's quieter. The solution to that is to turn up the volume. Then it will sound just as big, probably bigger because the analog audio path won't be as stressed. Why is everyone so afraid of volume knobs these days?

[Gothboy]

Originally Posted by daeron80

Why is everyone so afraid of volume knobs these days?

I don't know...probably because it's the first album I've done entirely by myself.

I would like to get some preset examples of the BF76 and try using it on the vocal tracks along with the EQ3. It's so simple in it's design and I've used it yet I still have this nagging feeling that I'm not using it correctly on vocals.

[Stig Eliassen]

I recently had to write volume automation for the bass and vocal stems during DIY mastering. I did the recording, editing and mixing on the song, and unfortunately also has to master it. As the mix got louder and more compressed and limited, I noticed a few spots where I heard slight pumping. I finally solved it with stem automation.

[Gothboy]

Well before I get into any crazy stem automation(I have to pull down anyway...and once I do that I wont have this peak issue) does anyone have any good BF76 presets they have made that could be of service?

[nst7]

Here's a very helpful article to check out:

http://www.eqmag.com/article/masteri...s/jan-08/33041


Of particular interest is the section called "Loudness Without Overcompression."

It elaborates on what Albee was mentioning about taking care of the loudest peaks.

[albee1952]

Presets are like coloring by numbers...in the dark. Start like this; choose 4:1 ratio and turn the INPUT knob up until the meter moves to about -4 to -5 while the vocal is happening(this is moderate compression). Then adjust the OUTPUT level so the volume feels about the same as with the plugin bypassed. Experiment is the order of the day(as is trying each compressor you have in your plugins roster) to find what works for you. I recently tried the demo of the softube Tube Tech CL1B and was pretty knocked out by it(and it does have some great presets that really seemed to work as described). It feels similar to SMACK! but has a little clearer control features. Both only have 1 sample of latency so they should not cause issues.

[Gothboy]

Thanks Albee, I appreciate the example. No, I don't ever just use a preset....only as a starting point.

I'm also printing out that article so thanks for that too.

I'm considering another compressor. Either the BF-3A, MC-77, or smack. The MC-77 looks just like the 76....is there any difference besides the purple color?