I guess I have to answer this question publicly..

I must get six emails a week from people who want recommendations before buying a compressor for their studios. I of course pose the most obvious question, "What will you need the compressor for?" Five out of six of those people say the same thing, "for my microphone." (insert cringe here)

 

Aspiring voice talents please write this down...

 

DO NOT COMPRESS YOUR VOICE-OVER AUDIO WHILE RECORDING!

 

Please let the producer choose how to process your voice-over if necessary. Sending a client a pre-processed voice-over track just shows your inexperience in the industry. Here's why..

 

1. The processing on your voice isn't why you were hired for the job. We don't walk around with voice processors speaking to people, normal people don't anyway.

2. If you process your voice and then the producer processes it, that's twice now your voice-over has been meddled with. *sigh*

3. Processing your dry voice-over destroys your voices natural dynamic range. Any emotion, breathy pregnant pauses etc. are immediately made bland and unpalatable.

 

Please do yourself and your clients a service and stop this madness now.