UA WebZine "Playback" August 06 | You Send Us Your Music, and We Play it Back

Playback: You Send Us Your Music, and We Play it Back

Thanks to Gabriel Maga for providing a funky rap track with a positive message. Read below to learn how the Fairchild plug-in was used on the vocals. This is a form of "upward compression". Upward compression is also discussed in this month's Plug-In Power, for mastering purposes.

July '06 Winner: Gabriel Maga

My Life.mp3

Gabriel writes:

I use Cubase SX2. I put a Fairchild and Pultec on each track (I rendered them off-line) with no compresion or EQ settings at all, just to "warm up" the signal.

I rendered all vocals into a stereo file, then I squashed it with Fairchild until it didn't have any dynamic at all and then I put it under the mix just enough to make the main vocals sound smooth and leveled without actually compressing them.

I sent the tracks that needed reverb to a couple of group tracks (left and right), then I inserted a 15-20 ms delay, then I sent the group tracks to the Plate 140 so I could create "real" early reflections and pre-delay; I used UA on almost each track and then on the master section I used Pultec-Pro.

I used the Fairchild, Precision EQ for overall sound shaping, Cambridge EQ for surgery, Precision Limiter for getting as loud as I wanted and [Apogee] UV22 for dithering. Enjoy!