Target lets you set the level range for your vocal. A Ride/Idle LED lights up when it detects vocals above the threshold. Essentially it’s a threshold control that tells Vocal Rider to ignore sounds below a certain level. The Vocal Sensitivity knob tells the plugin to differentiate between vocal signal and background noise. That way you can bring some humanity back to the final vocal rides!įor quick mixes when the client is already on their way out the door, though, even Vocal Rider’s first pass is better than nothing.

Of course, you also have the ability to manually go back and tweak the automated moves the plugin makes. Just loading up an instance of Vocal Rider will yield some pretty good results. This works, of course, but requires a lot more time and attention to detail. The alternative is manually leveling everything out with either clip gain or written automation. Using this plugin creates an automated, fast way to clean up a vocal track, especially if the performer doesn’t have great mic technique. There, it provides some clean leveling before sending the signal to other plugins. However, it can also be great at the beginning. Since it’s a fader, Vocal Rider sits naturally at the end of your chain. The biggest thing is that, unlike compression, this plugin won’t color the track.

Then, Vocal Rider compensates for anything outside the target, raising or lowering the vocal gain. All you need to do is set the target range of the vocal level in relation to the rest of the mix. What does Vocal Rider do?īasically, it hears the incoming signal and adjusts it to stay inside a user-set dB range. It opens up the conversation about AI in digital mixing, and whether it’s any replacement for the stuff engineers have been doing for decades.Īt the end of the day, though, it’s just a plugin! It can be a real time-saver, but rest assured, robots aren’t taking over (yet). Of course, a plugin which does that automatically raises some eyebrows.

Related: Vocal Compression for Beginners.

In many cases, avoiding fader rides will lead you to over-compressing the track, and the end result won’t be as good.

It literally requires a human touch, in which the mixer relies on experience, creativity, and intuition to get the levels right. Vocal rides/automation is one of the final touches of a mix.

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