Karaoke Forums

Who here uses outboard vocal effects or compression for your singers....besides the built-in mixer reverb and such?

I dont like vocal compression, but I do use a dfx 12 mackey mixer with built in effects. Just for fun, I have attached a WHammy pedel to one of the mic's to do some voicebending. It works out real fun when someone gets up and has a diffrent voice on the machine. (but you gotta let them know first, so they dont get freaked)

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

Both compression & outboard effects in conjunction with the onboard effects on the CFX12.
Compression, if run correctly, will actually make the singer sound better dynamically plus help level out their higher passages so you don't have to ride the fader as often. There isn't a song on the radio (or in concerts for that matter) that does not use some form of compression on vocals.

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Exactly Lonman!

I'm courious to know what device you prefer for vocal compression?

Thanks,
Keith

Compression is good for 90% of the singers I've got one gal that drives me nuts when I have compression on and still don't have it figured out. I have another one that does broken wing and when she reaches the the flyyyyyyyyy part at the end my mixer widens about 2" every light comes on and the speakers start walkin towards the door.There is a difference between compression and limiting but compression with her at least keeps my speakers inside. Also like to run the gate high and it helps to eliminate unwanted noises like getting mic out of holder etc.
It also helps with the folks that like to walk up and scream in the mic.

I run all my music thru a nanocompressor and duck the music to a lower level with the announce mic. Works great with a wireless. Then I run it thru a compressor for limting .It helps somewhat with different cd audio levels.

All in all it's another one of those things that when they are workin right you wonder how you ever got along without them and when they don't work drive you absolutely nuts.

In my main system I run 2 Alesis 3630. They work ok & are dialed in for that system. They will be replaced when I get some extra cash to upgrade.

The second system I use 2 Symetrix 501 - these are nice & a dbx 266XL.
What I would prefer, along with the 501's, are a couple of dbx 160X on the vocal mics. The 160A is available new but just don't sound the same - although it is still very good.

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Ok Lonman you sent me on another internet window shoppin trip. I sure like the looks & specs on the dbx 160x. One thing I like it's only got 3 knobs... Was trying to find a down load link for the manual and wound up on another message board and found a poppin good link at berklee with a bunch of manuals...

[url]http://classes.berklee.edu/mpe/pdf_files/manuals_pdf/

Still havnt found a price yet I'm almost afraid to click on one of those selling sites....[/url]

Just remember the 160X/XT have been discontinued. The newest version of that processor is the 160A. This is new & available for buying. It's basically identical - if you didn't know, you couldn't tell. It might be a sentimental thing, but the X sounds better to me, but the A still sounds great.
As far as cost, this is the main reason why I don't have them yet (although I have seen them on E-bay fairly reasonable ($150-200 each). The 160A runs around $400 each. Remember this is a single channel compressor.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I've been looking at the DBX stuff since you mention them....Looks like good stuff in the upper end of their line.

I'll check eBay tonight.

I swore to stay away from eBay this week. I spent $1,000 there in last 2 weeks.

Thanks for the suggestion.