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Best way to do side-chain multi-band compression live?
Adam W Lambert:
Howdy folks!
I'm looking for a way to duck a stereo backing tack under female vocals live. More specifically, I want a way to fit the vocals into the mix automatically. I use a plugin called smart:comp https://www.sonible.com/blog/spectral-ducking-smartcomp/ to do this in my DAW, but the latency is too high for live monitoring/performance.
Here is the use case. I produce a live-streaming yoga studio where the instructor is frequently talking over the music, and her voice gets lost in the mix. I have used an auto ducker, but it is a bit too distracting since it lowers the levels across the board. We need the setup to be automated, so we don't need someone on the board at every session.
I imagine a piece of gear that can do sidechain multiband compression with low enough latency for a live performance.
I've read that the Presonus Studio Live and A&H QU and SQ boards have some version of this built-in, but I have difficulty finding documentation describing how to do what I need.
I'm entirely open to new ideas on how to accomplish this, or if any of you can confirm if one of these mixers (or any other) fits the bill, I would greatly appreciate it.
I appreciate any help you can provide.
Adam
Matthias McCready:
--- Quote from: Adam W Lambert on March 20, 2023, 11:58:30 AM ---Howdy folks!
I'm looking for a way to duck a stereo backing tack under female vocals live. More specifically, I want a way to fit the vocals into the mix automatically. I use a plugin called smart:comp https://www.sonible.com/blog/spectral-ducking-smartcomp/ to do this in my DAW, but the latency is too high for live monitoring/performance.
Here is the use case. I produce a live-streaming yoga studio where the instructor is frequently talking over the music, and her voice gets lost in the mix. I have used an auto ducker, but it is a bit too distracting since it lowers the levels across the board. We need the setup to be automated, so we don't need someone on the board at every session.
I imagine a piece of gear that can do sidechain multiband compression with low enough latency for a live performance.
I've read that the Presonus Studio Live and A&H QU and SQ boards have some version of this built-in, but I have difficulty finding documentation describing how to do what I need.
I'm entirely open to new ideas on how to accomplish this, or if any of you can confirm if one of these mixers (or any other) fits the bill, I would greatly appreciate it.
I appreciate any help you can provide.
Adam
--- End quote ---
For the A&H SQ the channel compressor can be keyed to another channel, and it you can select what frequencies it is looking at, this would effectively accomplish what you are looking for. While technically this would be compressing everything rather than a specific frequency (such as a dynamic EQ or multi band compressor) the result, since it is frequency specific, is close enough.
The most advanced tool for live, that I have found, is having a Waves setup running the F6 plugin, this offers 6 dynamic EQ bands which can be activated by a 2nd source per instance of the F6 plugin; however I would presume that Waves would be cost prohibitive for your setup.
Matthew Knischewsky:
Hi Adam, the device you likely want to use in this application is a ducker. The ducker would be inserted on the music and the key or trigger input of the ducker would be the voice. In the past there were hardware units that were specific to this task (Symetrix 306 comes to mind) but now many digital consoles have this feature built in.
To get this to sound natural some adjustment between the threshold, depth of attenuation, hold and release is necessary. As a starting point I would suggest between 3-6db of attenuation to start. Deeper attenuation will sound increasingly more unnatural.
The A&H QU series does support a ducker as a channel insert.
Adam W Lambert:
--- Quote from: Matthias McCready on March 20, 2023, 01:35:02 PM ---For the A&H SQ the channel compressor can be keyed to another channel, and it you can select what frequencies it is looking at, this would effectively accomplish what you are looking for. While technically this would be compressing everything rather than a specific frequency (such as a dynamic EQ or multi band compressor) the result, since it is frequency specific, is close enough.
The most advanced tool for live, that I have found, is having a Waves setup running the F6 plugin, this offers 6 dynamic EQ bands which can be activated by a 2nd source per instance of the F6 plugin; however I would presume that Waves would be cost prohibitive for your setup.
--- End quote ---
Got it ... thank you.
Yeah, I think the waves setup is out of our budget but that gives me some ideas about how I could use the SQ.
Thanks again.
Adam W Lambert:
--- Quote from: Matthew Knischewsky on March 20, 2023, 01:45:00 PM ---Hi Adam, the device you likely want to use in this application is a ducker. The ducker would be inserted on the music and the key or trigger input of the ducker would be the voice. In the past there were hardware units that were specific to this task (Symetrix 306 comes to mind) but now many digital consoles have this feature built in.
To get this to sound natural some adjustment between the threshold, depth of attenuation, hold and release is necessary. As a starting point I would suggest between 3-6db of attenuation to start. Deeper attenuation will sound increasingly more unnatural.
The A&H QU series does support a ducker as a channel insert.
--- End quote ---
Okay that's great to know and thank you for eh specific attenuation suggestion.
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