2.3 Compression

At this stage compression is used only to restrain the signal from the sudden rises and bursts of speech. The goal is to obtain a clean and balanced take, therefore after choosing fairly conservative settings the compressor should be left alone.

What is meant by “conservative” depends on the material. For a horror movie or animation, compression ratios are higher and thresholds are lower (dBFS); for a romantic movie or at times when there is a lot of conversational dialogue use little or none.

For example, the following settings can be used as a starting point:

These apply to either hardware or software compressors. Please note that the controls on different compressor models vary, though the listed parameters are standard and should be available.

If the compressor has a rolloff filter, it is a good idea to use it to cut the incoming signal at around 100 Hz.

I like to use two compressors: an analogue compressor after the mic preamp, and a software compressor just before printing the track. The first one allows me to level out sudden rises in the voice, and the second one limits the possibility of clipping. If I have to use only one, the I will insert it between my input channel before bussing it out to track, as in the Mic and Bus setup described below.

When the material is critical (i.e. when a session will cost the production a lot of money, as is the case when working with Star talent), two or more mics will be used at various distances and compression settings, to ensure that everything is captured well.

Note that it is better to record without compression than commit to poorly chosen compression settings that are impossible to undo. That being said, working quickly and efficiently is important in this business, and compression is necessary so that the dialogue recordist can present a well balanced recording to the mixer.

ADR, Animation: Compression for ADR and animation is strongly discouraged. Rather, use several microphones as described above, and let the editor or mixer make their selection.