Michael Brauer describes his approach to building a vocal sound by sending the dry signal to multiple compressors in parallel, each chosen for a distinct tonal character - throat, sweetness, head tone, intensity. Rather than picking one compressor, he blends their returns together and assigns them all to a single fader, so the entire composite texture moves as one.
The compressors here are doing tonal work first. Most of them are running gently, shaping the color and body of the voice rather than clamping down on it - the gain reduction is almost incidental. What you're layering is character, not compression. If a vocal needs more dynamic control, that happens upstream with a compressor on the send before the signal even reaches this blend, keeping the intent of the multi-compressor chain purely about tone.
The key move is riding the dry vocal send into that blend, not the returns. This creates a small but real window where pushing the fader causes the vocal to blossom - getting bigger and more present without sounding over-compressed. Pulling back still leaves the full compressed texture intact, just quieter.
Brauer points to Coldplay's Parachutes as the clearest example of the result: a vocal that feels open and vulnerable while remaining full and enveloping. Presence and size come from tonal layering, not from hitting a single compressor harder.