1176 or LA2A for lead vocal? Or Waves?

On female vocals:

I like Q10-->LA2A for smooth Faith Hill
I like Q10-->Fairchild 670 for in your face Britney

I like Q10--LA2A-->Fairchild 670 for a Faith Britney sound

Settings for a -6.0dBFS signal:
LA2A
Gain=45
Input=40

Fairchild 670
Oceanway preset and then
Back off the DC bias to 2:30
Time Constant 3 or 5 (3 is quicker release)
Output Gain +6

Hard to do this without hearing what your working with... but do these settings or something close work in this case?

steve, I'm off to zzzzz-1:40 a.m. here and early rise. I want to hear from a couple of others first if possible, then I will post what I found to be the best. Thanks for your patience and expertise I might add.

Michael

Personally - Voxengo Gliss then LA2a or Pultec then La2a.

Kind regards

Dave Rich

I think the LA2A has a slower attack than what the 1176 is capable of, and I also find it to be more of a limiter than a compressor. So it's kind of like a slow attack limiting amp. I think it works great on vocals. I like the 1176 on drums because it's capable of a faster attack and seems to be a bit crisper than the LA2A.

Thanks,

The UAD site has some examples of both along with a screen shot of the settings and a downloadable preset. The LA2A sounds great in their example.

http://www.uaudio.com/products/software/UAD-1/LA-2A/demo.html

ORIGINAL: jmarkham

ever tried the Waves L2 for this ?

jeff

It's a bit CPU hungry for that application, IMO.

thanks everyone-that is great. It is amazing that we all hear the same things. I did all this before starting this thread (hence the edits in my original post-basically I found what I was looking for, but still wanted confirmations). I tried the 1176 first and it was nice, but when I tried the LA2A the magic was there except I still wanted her a bit creamier-to take off a bit of the edge. So I put a Q10 mono-rolloff the extreme lo's and cut 1-2db and she was sounding good. But then I thought it might be nice to have the eq. before the compression and then it was really magic!! What I am looking for with this particular CD is to be able to play it real loud and have everything still smooth-like a jazz/folk kind of mix. (I work at at lo volumes, but what I mean is, when I do want to check things, to make sure that it can take the heat. Ever turned up some of Celine Dion's recordings real loud in your car-makes you want to run (not all of them-just some). I haven't tweaked a lot and just got to my station this morning to find your opinions. What everyone has stated is what I have found out-and I loved the simple comment about the settings to use your ears-simple but true. As far as the Fairchild, I don't have it. If somone wants to try to convince to buy some more plugs that I can't live without I am all ears (my eyes are pretty big too), but I bought the original Mackie card (has the LA2A and 1176 as well) and since then added the Plate 140 only. I have considered the Pultec Pro or Precision limiter or Cambridge but hey--I also have Waves Diamond and 64bit is around the corner and a man has to pick and choose huh? I am also using real players on real instruments on all of my songs and to get what I want I have found the shorcut is to put out a few of the greenbacks for best results. As for the pultec comment, I have found that I have to be choosey with that plug-it is so wonderful-but I can only use it on a couple of things. I should probably get something how I want it and bounce it down. See, something that is important to me, and shouldn't be, is that before I add my final overdubs, I have to have each instrument basically tweaked so I have plug-ins working while I do my final tracking. Not highly recommended, but that's me. Tone is essential to me or I get bothered and can't concentrate. Kind of like painting-before I add the next layer I really want to make sure that it fits in the spectrum.

I really like the L2 jeff. I have never tried using it outside of SF with a mixed wave. I quite like Rvox on younger voices that you want to bite (don't go there) but haven't tried it on a vocal. I will post the results.

And I might add, I am writing down all of your names to look out for your critiques in the future-though most of you I am already on an email basis with.

Thanks for the help.

Michael

I am probably late to this

you're just in time-but please add a couple of more details if possible. I love to hear what other working musicians do.

Thanks

Say, for example.....

RComp (mono)>RCOMP (mono)>Q10 or REQ.

OR

RComp>RChannel

I would have to hear the vocal track to give any EQ specifics because not all vocal tracks are the same. You could use a lowpass though to help smooth out the vocal track a bit.

why do you go through 2 compressors? You can't get the sound you want through one?

what do they do that what I have doesn't

They make a DI'ed bass and/or guitar sound like it's played through a nice tube amp and mic'ed on a good cabinet. It's the cornerstone of my bass recording path. The 1167 is too gritty, the LA2A is to smooth (doesn't add the tone), the Sonitus just sucks the life out of the tone. I don't have the wave kit, so I can comment on whether the Ren compressor would do it.

The good news is you can skip the Cambridge. Although, ... It does have a nice, exceptionally sharp edged HPF which is good for a 5-string bass (essentially a brick wall filter at 31Hz). I have seen another filter that can do that as well.

I don't have the wave kit, so I can comment on whether the Ren compressor would do it.

Ed,

On the mixes I have done for Jeff, I basically use a Waves RCL (now called RComp) with EQ for your bass tracks. You seem to like the way they have come out sounding in the mixes.

One more thing-would you put the Q10 before the compression or after.

For vocals.... after the compressor.

ORIGINAL: michael japan

gentleman-this thread is about lead vocal.
Gotcha!!!

which? Fairchild? Amzing your description-I am having this exact problem with a clean strat as we speak.

Sounded like you were willing to take it into a broader discussion. Gotcha back.

Ok, "they" is the combination of Fairchild into PultecPro.

If you really are asking specifically about voice, you may not get enough value out of those two tools.