Not really.. Fader automation (aka volume automation) is after the FX bin. It's an output control. Clip gain is before it and is an input control. If you are in ProTools, you'll see a little fader at the bottom left of each clip that can be used to control its overall level + / - 6dB. Usefull for passages where a vocalist leaned in on the mic and it's too loud for that verse for your compressor to respond consistantly. In this example, split your clip around that loud section and then drop it down to a decent level and then volume automate it where the song suggests it should be. IMO, better to go this route than trying to apply automation to the compressor's threshold control (or input gain if it has one) even though that effectively accomplishes the same job. If you look at your automation options you should be able to find a way to automate that specific control. Most DAWs today pretty much allow you to automate almost any control you have access to that impacts the way a clip is processed during playback.
I use Sonar X3. At the top of the channel strip is a trim control, just like you'd see on an analogue console. That's where I'm hitting this. Same control, different location. Some call it one thing, some call it another.
I can't speak for Ableton since I've never used it. Check your local help database or the vendor's online documentation to be sure. If you don't have this control, or a way to access it, you're hardly sunk. Create a post-fader aux-send on this strip or route it's output to an aux bus. (Sonar doesn't let me route the output of one channel to another channel or a bus output back to a channel so I'd have to do the former. ProTools would want the latter setup although it could do both.) Do your automation with that fader then stick your FX on the aux bus (which you ought to be able to create and/or alter to be stereo or mono as appropriate to the source.)
Usually, there are at least two ways to accomplish any task and neither of them are necessarily wrong although one is often easier than the other. Which you use depends on what you're doing.
What thedon meant, if I read right, was that he feels that you might be cutting too much of the attack off the vocals or otherwise removing too much dynamic range and the result is that he feels that the vocals sound artificially restrained and lack punch. Bypass your compressors a few times and listen to the difference in the raw vocal vs compressed, focusing on her attack on a given word and the dynamics of the various syllables of each, and you'll probably hear what he's talking about. Headphones, closed eyes, and lots of lovely hush in the room around you are good for this exercise.
As far as EQ, the rule of thumb is--and remember that rules are often made to be broken--that you EQ before the compressor to remove things you don't want the compressor to respond to. EG putting a low cut filter on a snare drum to remove the bass drum thump. You EQ after compression to shape the tonal balance of the instrument. If you do that before compression, the compressor will tend to undo your EQ changes. In many cases, I have an EQ each side of my compressor chain just for that reason. Sometimes you'll find that what you wanted to remove before compression has crept back in as a result of makeup gain and you have to notch it again afterwards. A good example of problems created through compression is drum overheads and room mics. After compression, quite often the cymbals are too ringy or have too much shimmer and you have to dip 4kHz and/or (usually) 8kHz to get them to behave again or you can't add enough of that mic into your mix to get the sound you want without spoiling the drums.
I use Sonar X3. At the top of the channel strip is a trim control, just like you'd see on an analogue console. That's where I'm hitting this. Same control, different location. Some call it one thing, some call it another.
I can't speak for Ableton since I've never used it. Check your local help database or the vendor's online documentation to be sure. If you don't have this control, or a way to access it, you're hardly sunk. Create a post-fader aux-send on this strip or route it's output to an aux bus. (Sonar doesn't let me route the output of one channel to another channel or a bus output back to a channel so I'd have to do the former. ProTools would want the latter setup although it could do both.) Do your automation with that fader then stick your FX on the aux bus (which you ought to be able to create and/or alter to be stereo or mono as appropriate to the source.)
Usually, there are at least two ways to accomplish any task and neither of them are necessarily wrong although one is often easier than the other. Which you use depends on what you're doing.
What thedon meant, if I read right, was that he feels that you might be cutting too much of the attack off the vocals or otherwise removing too much dynamic range and the result is that he feels that the vocals sound artificially restrained and lack punch. Bypass your compressors a few times and listen to the difference in the raw vocal vs compressed, focusing on her attack on a given word and the dynamics of the various syllables of each, and you'll probably hear what he's talking about. Headphones, closed eyes, and lots of lovely hush in the room around you are good for this exercise.
As far as EQ, the rule of thumb is--and remember that rules are often made to be broken--that you EQ before the compressor to remove things you don't want the compressor to respond to. EG putting a low cut filter on a snare drum to remove the bass drum thump. You EQ after compression to shape the tonal balance of the instrument. If you do that before compression, the compressor will tend to undo your EQ changes. In many cases, I have an EQ each side of my compressor chain just for that reason. Sometimes you'll find that what you wanted to remove before compression has crept back in as a result of makeup gain and you have to notch it again afterwards. A good example of problems created through compression is drum overheads and room mics. After compression, quite often the cymbals are too ringy or have too much shimmer and you have to dip 4kHz and/or (usually) 8kHz to get them to behave again or you can't add enough of that mic into your mix to get the sound you want without spoiling the drums.
Old West Audio