I learned a lot about ducking while doing this, and still have a lot to learn! smile

The vocal track drives a compressor, which reduces the volume of the backing tracks when the vocals are present.

One of the most obvious problems with this technique is there's obvious "pumping" as the compressor pushes the music down in volume when the vocal comes in, and then returns the volume to normal when the vocal stops.

It sounds OK over monitors, but in headphones the effect is much more pronounced. (In my defense, my headphones weren't working when I mixed this).

After I finished this, I found out you can also use the vocal track to drive the EQ. For example, you could cut the specific frequencies in the music when the vocals kicked in. Combined with the compressor, you could get the same clarity without as drastically cutting the volume.

If anyone else has suggestions on how to approach this, I'd love to hear them!

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?