First let me say, there’s absolutely nothing ACID specific about this particular tutorial, it’s just the way it turned out.

Buried in the Tweakheadz “The Perfect Mix” is this neato trick:

This clip of the great singer songwriter Donkey T demonstrates this technique. What you’re listening for: when the vocals are soft, there is little reverb on it. When he starts singing louder there’s no jump in volume, but the reverb kicks in a lot more.

Cool indeed. Here’s how to do it in ACID:

1. Drop a vocal track into ACID. (There are no effects on this recording, riiiiiight???)
2. Insert two busses:

   

3. Rename the busses and add reverb effect to one and compression to the other. (This is important: put the effects on different busses, do not “chain them together.”)

   

4. Set up the tracks volumes so the the main out is off and the track’s output is split between the two busses.

   

5. Fiddle with these two volumes and the threshold of the compressor.until you get is so that at the soft parts, the compressor bus is “above” the reverb bus:

   

   and when the singer starts belting, the reverb bus passes the compressor bus:

   

Oh, and don’t forget to use your ears. ;) Seriously, you obviously want to use your aural judgement, but if you’re mild-ADD like, er, me, then the visuals are a great time saver.

Have some fun.