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Tired of "chasing" your vocalists' dynamics with endless automation?
Uncertain about getting the right compression for vocal tracks?
Well, you're not alone... Vocal placement in the mix is probably the
most critical and debatable aspect of most genres, and an endless
source of headaches for many producers and engineers.
But vocSteady is here to level things out !
vocSteady features:
An intelligent compression method, optimized for vocals
One slider does it all - forget about "threshold", "ratio" etc.
"Dual" mode for extremely dynamic sources
Gate option for eliminating background noises (room-tone etc.)
A low-cut option, to diminish "poofs" and hums
A large and intuitive gain-reduction meter, with clip indicator
Trimmers for release time and output level
vocSteady was designed by an experienced
sound engineer, who has over ten years of experience with vocalists of all
types and professional levels. It is designed to be an intuitive vocal
leveler: all you need to do is plug it on to your vocal channel, and in
most cases that'll be enough! You will get a steady and
comprehensive vocal track even if your vocalist whispers in the verses,
screams in the choruses and sneezes in the C-part
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And here's the best part: vocSteady
is available for only $64 a small price to
pay for never thinking of vocal compression again
Once you have downloaded and installed
vocSteady, you will get to experiment with it for 30 days. A simple
registration dialog will pop up each time you plug it in, to remind you how
much time of free usage you still have. After you register, you'll receive
an e-mail with some code. Copy and paste it into the registration dialog
and that's it: vocSteady is all yours.
Registration and payment is done via
paypal, which offers a secure and
discrete way of transferring money on the internet. Even if you don't
have a paypal account, you can use any major credit card or make a money
transfer operation. |
Be sure to check
out my FREE VST page, you might find some more stuff you'd like to have...
Audio samples:
Examples of very dynamic sources (much more dynamic than usual vocalists) and
how they react to vocSteady.
Note how information that is lost in the "Flat" file, while listening at low
volumes, re-appears when vocSteady is on,
and how loud information, that "jumps out", is contained.
Frequently Asked Questions:
"No more automation! Are you kidding?"
Well, not exactly. No machine can ever replace the work
of an experienced professional. Skillfully "ridden" faders and
neatly-carved automation graphs will usually sound more natural than any
gain-control mechanism. Special effects like fades and intended
out-of-balance vocal treatments (for dramatic purposes) will still require
manual automation. It could be that even after vocSteady, you'll still
want to make an overall fine-tuning of the vocals, in specific parts of a
song - to fit the arrangement. But you can be certain that proper,
rational use of vocSteady, can reduce automation work by more than 70%.
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"So is vocSteady just another compressor?"
vocSteady can be described as a compressor, in the sense
that it is a real-time automatic gain controller. But it lacks most of
the controls you'd expect to find on a regular compressor. This is
because regular compressors are quite versatile tools, that should handle
drums, vocals and instruments of all kinds - each case needs a different
compression approach. Since vocSteady is for vocals only, some settings are
pre-set and some are calculated automatically according to the signal being
processed. The "behavior" of vocSteady is optimized to react to
the typical dynamics of vocals, and it takes care of both micro-dynamics and
macro-dynamics with very few, intuitive, controls. |
"Can I use vocSteady to compress any other
instruments?"
You can try... I did get some user comments about good
results with drums and some other instruments - and even with compressing
the entire mix. But bear in mind that vocSteady was not designed to
handle anything else but vocals - so if it works, you probably got lucky.
I would suspect that any instrument with dynamics that resemble vocals (sax,
for example) might be suitable for vocSteady. |
"What, no factory
presets?"
There's no need for factory presets. vocSteady will engage into action
as soon as it's plugged onto a track. Listen to it work - in most
cases, you won't have to change anything to get a good result already.
Still not steady enough? -Push "Process" slider a bit further.
Does it sound "too compressed"? -Just lower the "Process" slider a bit.
Do you get too much background noise? -Engage the "gate" option.
Lyrics are not clear enough? -Gently adjust the "release" slider. As
you see, with so few controls you don't need fancy-named factory presets -
just use your ears to fine tune this simple machine. |
"What is DUAL mode?"
In "Dual Mode" you actually get two vocSteady compressors in
a serial chain. The advantage of this is that the first vocSteady in
the chain deals mainly with micro-dynamics, and this makes it easier for the
second one to deal with macro-dynamics. With Dual Mode you can get an
ultra-steady vocal track, without pushing "Process" to the limit. This
is very suitable for narration tracks or sung vocals that should be very
coherent (like in Jingles). You can actually create the same effect by
plugging two vocSteady plugs in a row - but Dual Mode will do it by using a
bit less CPU power. |
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User Comments:
"I
love vocSteady its brilliant. In fact its on all our tracks on our myspace page,
www.myspace.com/thedronerebels"
-Andrew Dewsall,
UK
"The classic effects are ok, but I
prefer vocSteady for simple, awesome limiter/compressor functions. Just enable
it, no messing with settings, it smoothes out the whole recording, or each
instrument/vocal independently." -Eric VanLandingham,
www.demondigital.com, USA
"Thank you for your support and this quality plugin. It helps
me saving time and getting top vocal sounds." - Thomas Neumann, Austria
"Great Plugin!
I'm already having fun re-mixing some tracks
using VocSteady" - Chris Bates, USA |
Revisions history:
| Mar 01
2007 |
Version 1.02 - Fixed
bug that occurred in certain DAWs. The bug caused vocSteady to mute upon
re-loading of a session, or in offline processes.
Also, trial period is now extended to 30 days. |
| Feb. 05 2006 |
Version 1.01 - Fixed bug when Gain Out
Influenced process when in Dual Mode. |
| Feb. 01 2006 |
Version 1.0 - Initial Release |
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