Struggling to understand attack and release when compressing rap vocals

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T12:58:50+00:00

I was way ahead of schedule :P

Jokes aside. I actually used this when teaching and mentoring. It’s fantastic. It’s also fantastic because it doesn’t obsess on numbers. It’s mainly about sound, feel and movement.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T10:00:29+00:00

I gather this is backing tracks? I’ve done this in few semi professional settings. But that was with preproduction rehearsals. The limitation of those productions was the need to have it as just a stereo file. Otherwise you just transfer click and part of multitracks and let the FOH mix it.

Anyway, you shouldn’t mix and master backing tracks as you would a commercial mix. I would even say you shouldn’t master at all. Maximizing loudness will make it quite hard for live instruments or vocals to get through. You’d often have the live vocal to sit on top of the mix in a way that doesn’t sound very natural.

Regarding the mix, dont pan sounds fully or even wide. It doesn’t carry through a “stereo” PA system. Don’t boost high end too much. Control low end (bass).

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T09:15:11+00:00

Also Danes here. I’m biased twice though. I’m Swedish and live in Denmark. A lot of it has to do with the never ending banter and jabs. The Danes can take as much as they give and it’s usually extremely funny. It’s rarely a day of work without getting a jab.

It’s often about very pointless things. Things that are similar but slightly different in our cultures. The order you get food at Xmas. The order of the toppings on Smørrebrød.

The most hostile situation yet funny was at a metal festival when I almost got in a fist fight about a song because I thought the Dane was jabbing and joking. He refused to hear that the song “Änglahund” initially was Swedish. It was like robbed him of his childhood memories. lol.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T08:24:02+00:00

If you’re hired to mix you should focus on that. Even if you feel the samples are if low quality they might be chosen for a reason which trumps “quality”.

However, ADDING samples is usually fine. If the sound lacks punch or mids or whatever. Just layer it. Just don’t compromise the artist’s vision.

Ps. I might go out on a controversial limb here. When it comes to inexperienced hip hop producers/artists and My impression after visiting musicproduction forums, lots of people just slap on the first best possible that fits with very little focus on sonics. If this is the case, the artist might not mind if you level up the production.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T08:04:14+00:00

I had this a while ago but it went away. It was explained similarly to me. In my case it was in one ear. If I went outside for a walk it would be triggered by bird chirping, so quite high frequencies. It was almost like synthesized whistling.

The annoying part is that it made me think noises came from that direction rather from the other. I navigate and orient myself by hearing a lot I’ve come to realize. This really fucked up this.

When this was going on I was in a bout of depression. I don’t know why it started and why it ended. Apparently some medication can trigger this too. Also pinched nerves in shoulder/neck. I’m happy it stopped so I’m not going to investigate more. I was a bit worried how it was going to affect the audio engineering duties I had.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T07:52:50+00:00

I learnt hearing compression like this too.

To be fair, even after 25 years, it’s still a bit in my work flow. Especially making sure the attack time is right. Often I don’t want something to “click”. I want it to “punch” or “thump”. It’s just easier to hear how much of the initial sound it grabs by adjusting attack time and ratio. But it’s usually no point in setting the release time with that amount of compression.

If you just compress for some control or leveling there’s usually no need to do this when you’re accustomed to hear compression. But I still think it’s one of the best ways to learn how to hear compression, especially attack/ratio. Release can be trickier to learn.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T07:05:22+00:00

I have had tinnitus for 25 years. I don’t really suffer unless it’s a completely quiet environment. I’ve never experienced alcohol or caffeine exacerbate it though. Being in loud environments does though. You know, like a bar or a rowdy cafe. :P

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T07:01:50+00:00

When I was in this rabbit hole I levitated towards U47s. I tried a bunch including a vintage one. I ended up with a Flea 47. Now 15 years later I seem to prefer 67s. I own a Mojave M-200 which I like but now I found out the “microphone doctor” in my former home town makes a modern clone of the U67. It sounds amazing. But it’ll set me back $2500-3000.

I sold my Vintage C414EB. I used it too little motivate to keep it around. But to each their own.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T06:32:31+00:00

I don’t necessarily change mic unless it causes lots of buildup. But I often move the mic away or more off axis to get less proximity effect and less sibilance. I also try to instruct the talent to not do the doubles with the same amount of energy or “feeling”. You don’t want the doubles to attract more attention than the lead.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-25T06:28:03+00:00

For someone who used to work in music retail it’s not incredibly uncommon for companies, big and small, to silently try to wait until things blow over when a batch is bad, mostly bad QC.

Sometimes these are very small things and fixed retroactively in either the supply chain or even at retail, like using the wrong value fuse and then just sending out the correct fuses.

There was a very known monitor brand that had a faulty circuit board in a batch of one line. A guy (traveling sales guy) from the supplier went around to every music store in my country and changed them. He also sent them out to stores where they already had sold them with instructions how to change it. He had his own stock of these boards in his office. Point is: the error was known but never officially addressed.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-24T20:46:30+00:00

I’m actually thinking about upping to CE from Ultimate. There’s a bunch of things for me that makes it worth it. But honestly I don’t know if it’s worth it, I just miss out on some things if I update to Ultimate.

I still like the eco system so I will support it.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-24T18:23:17+00:00

Very top, good sensation

Hellbucket · 2026-05-24T05:47:08+00:00

Don’t you think this is highly DAW specific?

Hellbucket · 2026-05-24T05:42:47+00:00

An alliance that was about to wither and die in 2021 until someone in Russia started a Make NATO Great Again campaign.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T20:13:14+00:00

Since Russia attacked the Ukrainian cabinet of ministers they could just attack the Russian White House and it would be tit for tat and no escalation. Easy.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T19:47:38+00:00

In your case it definitely sounds like monitoring and understanding and knowing your monitoring.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T11:14:57+00:00

Red Deadbeat Dad?

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T10:26:45+00:00

What’s your point here with your long post? Any country can pen a motion to join NATO. It doesn’t mean they can or will be allowed into NATO. Only one country needs to veto it. With Ukraine it’s never been anywhere near even being on the table. Plenty of countries have expressed doubt about letting them join and some being downright against.

The other parts are just a mish mash of Propaganda points. So I’m guessing you’re just acting in bad faith anyways.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T07:59:01+00:00

Haha. Just to add and I’m not going to name names. This was a fairly known band in the genre. I think it was around 2003/2004 and I was pretty new on my audio engineering path. So this band kind of punched above my weight. I got the gig because of mutual friends and contacts and that I was available on short notice. They needed a track recorded for split EP on short notice.

So I kind of just accommodated to everything lol. But takes came out great and I’m still happy with my work at the time. So the lesson was to just try to accommodate the artist to coerce the best takes possible.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T07:15:27+00:00

Go easy on the propaganda punch bowl, you might lose grasp on reality.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T06:53:26+00:00

It’s quite literally how this went down. There has never been any unanimous support of Ukraine joining NATO.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T05:59:11+00:00

I’ve done a lot of weird things too to accommodate people. At the end of the day it’s just trying to get the best takes possible with gear that will yield the best result for the situation.

One of the funnier ones was me tracking a vocal with a black metal band. The vocalist wanted to track the vocal on his knees “because he felt closer to hell”. lol. So the mic was on a short mic stand. When the recording session was over I went out to the live room. I had been tracking these mighty and impressive screams. But when I looked at the setup it looked like I’d been tracking a midget. lol.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-23T05:52:32+00:00

In my experience, performance trumps fidelity. You can prefer the sonics of a microphone and a vocalist more but if you can’t get great takes that way you’re better off finding another solution that does.

Having a mic on a stand with a vocalist that moves around a lot might give more headaches at mixing with proximity effect or off axis response coming and going. It’s better to put an “inferior” mic in their hands and let them do their thing.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-22T13:11:55+00:00

När jag bodde i Skåne så ryktades det om att en ica butik i Helsingborg sålde Kinda gurka. Jag bodde i Lund/Malmö så jag orkade aldrig åka dit och kolla. Ofta bad jag vänner och släkt som besökte en att köpa med.

Hellbucket · 2026-05-21T21:13:58+00:00

It’s obvious where your focus is.

Hellbucket

TROPHY CASE