What’s happening guys, you’re here with Nate (N828). In this video I’m showing you an easy way to level a vocal in Studio One 5.5 without reaching for compression first. The whole point is to stop those random peaks from sticking out (like when a word jumps out of the line), while still keeping the performance feeling dynamic. Instead of smashing it with a compressor right away, I like to do a quick automatic leveling pass so the vocal sits in a consistent pocket before I start doing any heavier mix moves. I’m using iZotope Nectar and I’m literally only using the ALM (automatic leveling matching) section—nothing else. I set my target average around -8, run the track so Nectar “learns” it, and you can instantly hear how the loud words stop poking out while the vibe stays intact. If you want it even tighter, I’ll throw a limiter after it for a little extra control (I mentioned setting it around -7.5 for a bit of leeway), but you can keep the limiter off if you want more natural dynamics. Then I just bounce the leveled vocal (mix down selection) and I’m ready to roll into compression or whatever else the mix needs.