Warren Huart solos a lightly compressed vocal and walks through setting up gentle compression using a stock compressor in Pro Tools. The goal is straightforward: catch the loudest peaks without touching the quieter phrases, so the performance stays natural while the dynamics tighten up.
He sets the threshold by ear, using a quiet phrase as a reference point, dialing it back until that section passes through completely unaffected. That approach keeps the compressor working only where it actually needs to.
He also breaks down what a 3:1 ratio means in concrete terms: for every 3 dB that crosses the threshold, only 1 dB gets through. Pushing that ratio toward 20:1 moves you into limiting territory, where almost nothing gets through above the threshold. Starting at 3:1 is a safe default that controls peaks without flattening the vocal.