AMM For Backing Vocals

[jakethepeg]

Has anyone ever played with AMM on backing vocals? I realize that’s not what it’s designed for (and A&H say don’t use it for music) but I thought someone might have tried it..

The other night I was mixing a band playing the eagles ‘somebody’… I struggled a bit getting a consistent mix between the three backing vocalists doing the ‘ohhhh sooomeboooddyy’ harmonies and I thought afterwards that maybe AMM could help smooth these differences out..

I have never used AMM so I’m possibly missing some key point but thought it was worth asking here anyway.

Thanks, Jake.

[MarkPAman]

The AMM is not able to make any musical decisions as to which part of a harmony needs to be louder. It only only knows which part is louder.

[Andreas]

Never worked with the AMM, but for my understanding it probably would be counter productive in such a chorus scenario, since the idea behind AMM is to emphasize the loudest channel (so the “current speaker” gets the priority). I’d go for regular compressor (plus gates) for the chorus.

[Dick Rees]

Mark…

That puts the AMM on par with half the sound persons and choir directors of the world.

Andreas…

No gates! Downward expansion, yes, but for live sound vocal mics the hard on/off, either/or changes the level of the background/ambient sound at a disturbingly audible level. This is the definition of “pumping”.

Having the option to select downard expansion on the gates is my most fervent and often xpressed feature request. It should be easily doable as it is merely a modification of an existing function (gating) rather than a totally new facet of the software.

DR

[Andreas]

my gates are normally already open from backround, only closed when band is not playing. Effectively not working during music. Sure, downward expansion would be best.

[jakethepeg]

Thanks for the responses. I seem to have gotten the wrong idea about AMM – I thought the idea was to make volumes even (so the loud guy was same volume as the quiet person). I didn’t realize it was to prioritize them when they were talking at the same time!

I do use compression but was looking for a little more automated control.

Thanks again!

[GCumbee]

Nothing takes the place of a hands on music mixer. But creative compression helps.

I have AMM working on one install. On a QUPac on a city commission chambers. That’s the real use for it.

[jakethepeg]

Thankfully I’m not seeking to replace the hands on work or I’d be out of a job..! I was more wanting a free assistant 🙂

Thanks everyone.

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