Hey gang,
I just wanted to start up a discussion on using Limiting with minimal gain compensation on vocals. From what I understand, this is done frequently, but I almost never read about people doing this in articles and blog posts and the like when people talk about their workflow for vocals. Usually these days it consists of "First, I auto-tune the balls off of the vocal. Then, I apply so steep mid cuts and boost - so steep you could turn the last remaining enginless K car into a roller coaster by poising it at the top of the slope and blinking lightly - then, for good measure, another layer of auto-tune, and then I jam that through a Sonic Maximizer and a brickwall limiter to get them up at least 2-3 times louder than the mix.)
I'm not talking about using a brick wall for gain... I'm talking about using something like a 1176 - something with an impossibly fast attack and release, with a smooth and transparent knee, and minimal gain boost at the end. Not taking the dynamics out of a vocal passage, but certainly taking the "ouch" off of them the the singer leans in as they double or triple their output, instead of leaning back.
On a recent mix I worked on, the vocals went from extremely quite (intended), to slightly less quite (intended to be the "normal" reference point) to less than slightly less quite (a little quitter than "normal"), to ear smashingly loud. Instead of getting into the fray and chopping away with the clip splitter and gain reduction envelope, I decided to just try an 1176, and set the reduction as low as required to a) not drastically affect the program level I have determined, and b) smash the living hell out of the outrageously loud peaks, again, without sounding like it had been hammered with a mastering software preset entitled "Loud as F@%ing Balls".
I don't think I'm alone in this practice, but though I'd put the question out there: what do you guys like to do for wildly dynamic vocals?