Marc Daniel Nelson demonstrates his serial compression approach for lead vocals on an R&B Hip Hop mix, stacking three compressors in series to build an upfront, expensive-sounding result without over-squashing the performance.
Rather than hitting a single compressor hard, Nelson spreads small amounts of gain reduction across a Klanghelm MJUC, a Tube-Tech CL 1B, and a Distressor. The Klanghelm adds color just by being in the chain, the Tube-Tech contributes thrust, and the Distressor ties it together with the heaviest compression of the three.
A FabFilter Pro-Q sits before the chain, scooping lower mids to reduce muddiness and control what the compressors react to. Once the compression is set, he fine-tunes the EQ to make sure nothing too thick is feeding the gain reduction. The result is a vocal that sounds dry and present, with personality coming from the tools rather than reverb or heavy processing.