1176 or LA2A... which compressor to use when mixing vocals?
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- Опубликовано: 16 фев 2023
- Download The Music Monetisation Checklist:
pages.adam-fiasco.com/monetis...
The 1176 and LA2A are two of the best compressors / limiters ever created, and there's a reason these units have been modelled many times by lots of different plugin manufacturers. However where they really shine is on vocals and for very different reasons.
The 1176 (originally made by UREI, now Universal Audio), can be really aggressive and is great for achieving hard, colourful compression - especially for faster, pop, rock and country music.
The LA2A (originally made by Teletronix, now Universal Audio), is lush, warm and BIG sounding. It can do very transparent compression as well as heavy compression, but thanks to the tube stages, it has a really nice bloom in the lower mids that make vocals sound thick and full, as well as up front in your mix.
In this video I show you 3 examples where these compressors work perfectly on the singer and the song so that you can learn how to match your music to the perfect compressor when mixing vocals. 
Видеоклипы
Your mixes sound great....assuming this is hybrid???
Thanks man 🙏🏼
Yeah so there majority of my mixing is done ITB, but I have a bunch of 1176s, an LA2A, a pair of Dolby A360s plus some other EQs I can run into when needed.
Use both !!!!!!! 👀
Yep - that’s exactly what I showed in the third example lol
@@adamfiascoVEVO yes , i was at the beginning when i wrote that haha
@@mrtod971 haha ;)
Haha 😢
Yep, they work best together!
really digging this video. dig your mixes, style, and opinions! thanks for posting :)
Appreciate the comment man and stoked you’re finding the video helpful! Take care 🙏🏼
Good info. You look like you work for a living. Like a real studio dawg. I wish you the best. New sub and I look forward to hearing future videos
Very helpful and detailed demonstration, more mate!!!
Appreciate the comment man - thanks for watching and I’m glad you found it useful!
Great content! Glad to see other creators in the Audio Community. Keep going, you’re channel will sure grow!
Thanks dude, appreciate the comment 🙏🏼❤️
@@adamfiascoVEVO of course! I’ve been trying to grow my channel now for over a year so I definitely respect and support other creators.
100% both! They do diferant things, one is for transients, the other is for overal leveling.
Thank you for doing the demo.
Glad you found it useful :)
Ah yes, two VERY different devices. If you have both then you’re really well covered.
If you aren’t familiar with them then I can describe why these two are talked about so much.
LA-2A is a slow acting and smooth sounding compressor that is about the best there is for SINGING. Not “vocals” because “vocals” can refer to rapping, or dialog.
An LA-2A will often do nothing at all for rapping. By the time the LA-2A is responding to some word, the word has come and gone already.
The 1176 reacts QUICKLY(but it also does so smoothly, hence its fame) so it tends to bite into most SINGING too quickly and then you can hear it. You almost never want that.
The speed of the 1176 makes it really good for grabbing the quickly occurring volume ups and downs of rapping and dialog.
The reason the 1176 has all the different controls is because once you’re working with faster events, there will be a lot more variations that you’ll come up against.
Once you know these basics about the two, listening to a video like this will make a lot more sense.
Took the words right out of my mouth. lol Good info. Thanks for doing the typing.
You explained that far better than this guy did 😂
Thank you
Very interesting and informative video. Absolutely awesome music as well!! Thanks for sharing :-)
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! Glad you like the music and found the video useful :)
First time seeing any of your videos, great content! I’m familiar with both compressors from a plug-in standpoint and love them both. These are great examples of the best applications for each as well as in combination. My plug-in version preference is UAD. Great job!
Hey John. Glad you found the video useful. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment, it’s much appreciated
Nice video. I agree with you about monetizing.
Thanks dude! Yep - so many artists struggle with that as they're stuck in the old ways that don't work any more. Lots of opportunity though once you have a small but solid fanbase!
...amazing!!!
BOTH !!
NICE ❤❤
Hello! Can you compare the la2a vs the uad plugin please?
Both daaa!!
This inspired me to get the Universal Audio Spark subscription so I can have an 1176 plugin at hand, and a lot more. I don’t have the room or money for a physical one unfortunately!
Awesome man. I think the UAD ones will be great - I have limited experience with their stuff but it is really good from what I’ve heard. Alternatively you could grab the Slate All Access Pass - that’s cheaper, has more plugins and also has a few 1176s and an LA2A
I’ll see how it goes, I’ve got a two week free trial before I commit any money, will definitely consider the Slate subscription though.
I’ll see how it goes, I’ve got a two week free trial before I commit any money, will definitely consider the Slate subscription though.
@@DeanFromPFwhich way did you go? I went with the full subscription and I think it’s awesome!
@@officialWWM I went for the Spark subscription in the end and have had it since I originally wrote the comment, so I’m a medium term user I guess. I think Slate is still worth a go as mentioned before, and I do use other Slate stuff such as the VSX headphones and plugin so I can vouch for the quality of both companies.
Thanks for the video Adam , awesome audio example, but isnt putting 1176 along with the LA2A kinda give you a similar results of an CL1B? CL1B's are on backorder and I'm looking for alternative solutions, your Vocal Processing sounds fantastic man...
Hey dude no problem glad you found the video helpful.
Yeah the CL1B is an ace unit and sounds amazing. Kinda similar vibe to LA2A as they’re both opto comps, the the CL1B has way more control when it comes too attack and release. More modern sounding too. The LA2A is super smooth, warm and quite vintage sounding.
Can’t go far wrong with either.
What kind of mic and audio interface/preamp is used to record the vocals? ❤❤
Audio interface is a Lynx Aurora n
Mic: first song is a U47, second is a 251, third is a U47
Preamp is a Neve 1073 in all examples.
Is there eq and reverb oatboard gear that is held with same high regard as these compressors? I’m looking for gear mainly for live vocals
There are some amazing outboard EQs, however I feel less of a need to own them as IMO the digital version's these days do a stellar job. Companies like SSL, Neve, API, Maag all do great sounding EQs. I'd love to own a pair of hardware pultecs but it's just not cost effective lol
@@adamfiascoVEVO thank you
how many vocals do u record? for pop or trap music? lead vocal 1 tame or alot and panning for lead vocal i mean
It depends. Anywhere from 1-4 takes for a lead vocal. And then generally for harmonies and BVs these would be tracked in pairs, or quads for each part.
In la2a, do you change something with screw position? Or should i leave it as default? Cause i see if i move it more, the vocals start to be more bright, and good sounding im uppermids, but it also make this too much fast like if the singer start with the first word, it sounds like the release is too fast and half of the word is cuted
The screw just controls how the compressor reacts to higher frequency’s. You can adjust to taste depending on how bright or dark you want the vocal to sound
@@adamfiascoVEVO oh, thank you! I was little confused when using it :D
@@adamfiascoVEVO btw if we here, can I ask how should i set my comp to get away from too fast word start? I mean if the singer is starting with the first word, sometimes i got peaks like example word, "Poster" instead of smooth "poSTER"
@@nunu9849 this sounds like something you would want to deal with while tracking. Are you using a pop filter in front of your back? You could also try backing away from it slightly too if you’re getting too much proximity effect.
@@adamfiascoVEVO yeah, i got pop filter, acoustic treatment isnt as good as it should be, so usually tracking is close to the mic, i track with cl1b manual mode, cause When i turn fixed, the vocal is too thin (dont know if it should be), so the attack is set to around 7.0 (slow) and release around 3 (fast) is that good for tracking something like rnb pop style? Also i can tell maybe i got something wrong with compressors in post mix, i use cla76 with slow attack and medium-fast release, then rcomp (but this comp is hard to set for me). Rcomp sound good but if i set example attack 20,and release 40, it sound ok but the words are not that clear, but then i set 0.5 and 80, it sound better but theres no body at all
Can you please share the same video with Slate'ss 1176 and La2a against your hardware?
Please turn on HQ mode and keep output of FG-116 at 30. Anything above that starts aliasing crazily.
Cool idea. I think this would make a cool video to see how close these units are to those models (obviously there will be some differences - even hardware units don't sound 100% alike), however they would need to be carefully calibrated to make it a fair test!
@@adamfiascoVEVO Yes, I subscribed. Waiting anxiously!
Please do take note about above settlings. FG-116 output not above 30, it won't have output saturation, but due to no aliasing, the compressor's intended function works without any flaw.
You can use output saturation of FG2A rather. There they have taken care of aliasing extremely well.
I'm in the middle of thinking about buying a compressor - I only do vocal recordings. I was thinking of using it for tracking and why not mixing too. If you had to choose just one compressor, what would you do?
I honestly don’t think I could choose 1 between the 1176 and LA2A. They’re totally different beasts and do different things.
@@adamfiascoVEVO I finally opted for a hand-made Gyraf 1176. Maybe I'll get a warm LA2A later 😁
Donner LAX COMP Compressor is 100% analog and 35 bones!
Last year Donner introduced this 1176 inspired design, the Donner LAX COMP Compressor/ Limiter . I own a LAX COMP. It sounds excellent. It's 100% analog. Contains one SM (surface mount) LM3080 transconductance IC, four SM transistors, also 80
other SM capacitors and SM resistors. Sadly there is not even one demo. I'd love to see a comparison demo to an actual 1176.
But isn’t that a guitar pedal?
@@officialWWM @officialWWM It's in a pedal for guitar use, and better sales, but it is not unlike the Universal Audio 1176 compressor. I actually just wrote three paragraphs with good links on the qualities that made the 1176 so desirable, but I accidentally closed the sidebar window. Ugh. In my investigation I found that the UA 1176 was the first Compressor Limiter to be fully solid state, after it's successful vacuum tube predecessors.
I've discovered through the years that the FET ( field effect transistor) saturates very nicely for audio. So the FETs and the nice transformer saturation, and you've got a great compressor limiter. Now on a pedal board Donner kind of just took the best design elements from the 1176. There are FETs in the Donner LAX COMP. It's design is on the Transconductance chip.
The LAX COMP works really well as a Booster, with a boost in highs with its bright switch on, and when playing clean solos the sustain works great. So now I am going to try it with a microphone. The 1176 clones either do or don't have the saturation elements. There are other pedal clones and several rack clones, but the highest praised deal with the saturation elements. Check out the videos:
- "DO NOT BUY THIS" KLARK TEKNIC 1176- KT
-The Ultimate 1176 Shootout Vintage Originals....
And this guy's channel is great, vid:
What Does Audio Transformer Overload Sound Like?
I actually use the UTC O-1 Line-to-Grid transformers in a simple configuration to introduce that wonderful transformer saturation. I drive the transformer on pin 1 input to 6 pin output using a speaker output padded down ( L pad) signal. Then pin 6 becomes my new output.
@@paulj0557tonehead all that is very interesting but it’s virtually useless in a studio.
Are the 1176's from warm audio?
The Rev D is yes. Not the bluestripe.
Suggestion: roll off a pinch of 4-6k and try it again??
I use both in series depending on the source material
Yeah that’s what I showed in the 3rd example… running them in series can really sound amazing and you get all the benefits of both units.
Vocal with stereo meter or vocal bus?
Vocal is mono but with some stereo FX on there. The metering is also stereo obviously.
Tlm 103 mic vs the sphere dlx
Don’t have either :(
Although I’ve tried the 103 and didn’t like it at all
@@adamfiascoVEVO ok thanks for response
Distressor
and waves plugin
What about it?
The "without" at 3:36 had severe problems, lots of reverb masking and muddiness in the low mids making the vocal sound dissonant. You've got reverb tails sloshing over vocal transients. Learn how to duck the reverb. And also how to EQ reverb.
Lol - sounded great when it was played on Planet Rock by Joe Elliot 😂
I’m less bothered about how things sound in isolation - nobody hears vocals on their own, more so how they fit and sound in the overall mix as a whole.
Thanks for the comment and taking the time to watch though :)
Also ‘without’ at the time you mention is me talking not the song vocal. 😂 am I missing something 🤔
@@adamfiascoVEVO @ 3:38 I was off by a few seconds lol sorry. I was referring to the entire original vocal having reverb masking dissonance. You should know what I'm talking about and hear it immediately. Engineers use techniques to fix this. There's even dedicated plugins for it. C|-|3c|< Tony Visconti / Eventide Tverb for an example of something to copy. There's lots of videos about this stuff on RUclips, just 534|>_C|-| for reverb ducking.
@@adamfiascoVEVO Please excuse my odd letters/numbers, those two words have been banned by RUclips and the post is instantly deleted if I use them.
@@zyxyuv1650 cool - I totally understand what you’re saying. But back to my original point, I only really care what the vocals sound like in the overall mix - not in isolation. And the vocals work great in the final mix/master and the band did really well off the back of this single 👍🏼
How about test dry without echo on the tracks
Why? The most important thing is how it all sounds in the mix. Not in solo, not dry but how every listener will eventually hear the track. That’s why I left FX on.
@@adamfiascoVEVO If you say so
Easy. Just use both on the same vocal.
Yep… chaining them is a classic way of using these compressors - that was my third example haha.
Use both 😂
Example #3 😂
Ok, nothing new to see here…
Cool songs though.
thanks I guess 🤷🏼♂️😂
damn that song is annoying. great video otherwise
Just get a Pro-C, both of those honestly suck... which is why you need two... and yet still even with both of them the quirks are annoying. People long for these old units for no reason... The LA2A is too slow attack and release wise, no way to adjust it = SHIT. The 1176 requires you to increase the input the get gain reduction forcing you to chase unity gain with the output... even then to get anything noticeable out of it, you have to have the input so high that you can hear the compressor breathing and making quiet parts way louder than the parts it's compressing, IT'S SHIT!!!!!!!
Lol I honestly can’t tell if this is satire or not 😂
@@adamfiascoVEVOI hope it is…
@@MrLivebynight 😂😂