In-The-Box Vocal Chain???

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their vocal chain with me? I know there are many different ways of getting the right vocal sound and every song requires its particular vocal sound to fit the soung. But my question is, do you have a vocal chain that only uses plug ins within Sonar X2?
 
In what order do you place your plug ins in the FX bin? How do you route your sends and set up your buses? Do you put EQ before or after compression? Do you put reverb on the vocal bus directly or do you send it to a reverb bus and dial to taste?
 
Please share you techniques, thank yoU!

For me, the plugs in Sonar are ok (but, for the effects, i respect "less is more").
The chain is : comp (PC2A), eventually Quadcurve EQ (but very light) and/or VX64_Vocal Strip (first in the chain, for the deesser), and reverb (Sonitus ou Breverb).
Sometimes also TL64_Tube Leveler (or another Sonar Tube emulation).

Usually, Comp before Eq (but it can be Eq before Comp), and reverb on the vocal bus.

I'll try it, since it's true that comp can increase or add sibilance !

(not an engineer, just a little "amateur")

Usually it's Prochannel for me with the following from top to bottom.

PC4K Gate
VX-64 for de-essing (In an FX chain)
PC2A
Quadcurve
Softube Knob
Concrete Limiter

Reverb, doubing and anything else via busses.

I agree that every vocal is different but if like me it's mainly your own vocals everytime, the same basic starting point is as good as any.

Unlike some (who just say "use your ears / there is no one right answer" - thanks for that...), I will try to actually be helpful. Here are some generic vocal tips that might help you: - Use your best mic for the singer at hand. Usually this is a large diaphragm condenser (but not always). If you have multiple mics, try them all for the particular singer / song. You might be surprised at what works best for a given situation. - Be sure to never overload the gain staging! Do now allow the singer to 'yell' to close to the capsule, or set the input trim on your preamp too loud so as to distort the preamp or converter. Over-load distortion (on the way 'in' to Sonar) is IMPOSSIBLE to remove later. - Best tip that I have: go nuts with clip-gain envelopes, and try to get the 'perceived volume' of the track to be EVEN. Do this pre-compression. Try to get the volume to be as even as possible before applying any limiters or compressers, JUST using clip envelopes. - OK, my usual chain? I will usually have multiple vocal tracks (usually 3), all pointed to a bus called "Vocal sum". Sometimes this bus has no FX. Sometimes, it needs a teeny bit of an EQ (bump at 250 htz if it lacks 'chest thump'), cut there if it has too much ... bump at 8000 htz if it lacks airiness / cut there if it has too much). - This gets sent to another bus: Voc Verb. Use your BEST reverb. Don't get too heavy handed with the send level. It can also be useful to cut the lows and highs (after the verb) - put a Sonitus EQ in the bin right after the verb, and cut anything below 350 and over 8000 htz). - RE-SING! Do not try to polish a turd. Sing again, and again, and again. Make a composite ("best-of") track. Do not bother with V-vocal. Just sing the darn thing again, if a note seems off. So even though there are no "one size fits all" answers, hopefully some of these tips WILL help you, and that is what this forum is really about. Best, Ed

Start w/ a good recording.

If you have SONAR Producer & the CA2l (or any LA2A style comp) a traditional chain is 1176 followed by the LA2A.  Here at home that is what I use in the PC.

The PC EQ is good - usually I roll off the bottom - the filter is great for that.  The rest of the EQ settings, like the comp settings, depends upon the song and singer.  But instead of the PC EQ I usually use Softube's Focusing EQ, which automatically adjusts gain as you adjust the cutoff points.  It works well.

The vocal(s) then go to the vocal bus.  Backing vocals w/ often have their own bus if there is something special (thickening up the reverb, for example, or drastic EQ cut) needs be done. 

For SONAR Pro this bus usually has the ssl bus comp engaged.  It is a great bus comp for jelling the sound, tho it works best on busy, complex submixes where it lets the loudest sound "pop" out of the submix.  Guitars are a good example of it working well.  But w/ vocals it can help firm up the sound.  And on all these vocals the compression settings are light - a few dbs here, a few there.  I find serial compression smoother, more natural than slamming a single instance (unless you are going for that effect). 

The goal of compression is primarily to get the vocal to float at a single level wherever you place it w/in the song.  The softest vocal levels will be loud enough to be heard, while the louder sections come down so they don't overwhelm the instrumentation. WAves vocal rider plugin is a good mental image to hold, with a maximum and minimum level the sound will achieve.  You don't want to get rid of the singer's dynamics, just constrain them.

The first thing to do, even before you start enabling your vocal chain, is to ride the fader levels.  That is the most important thing you can do.  Once you've automated that, the compressors have much less to do and can do it unobtrusively.  The final thing to do, if you are running a hot mix w/ a hot vocal, is to go back into the automation (or bus automation) and, if you are hitting the red because the singer is loud and the guitarist and drummer are all hitting a downbeat loud, is drop the vocal level down 1 to 3 or even more dBs to keep the overall level out of the red.  Usually I'm pushing the vocal the hardest in such cases, and it takes less cut than going back into the guitar and bass and drum separately taking off a 1/2 db on each.

@

More of techniques than chains

1- HP Filtering
2- Volume automation
3- Manual De-essing if needed (with volume automation)
4- I like RComressor from Waves and/or T-Racks Opto Compressor for vox
5- Various effects - verbs-delays-disortion, etc based on project
6- All vox to a bus and usually use the PC compressor for final blending.  Used very lightly, as anything over 2 DB of reduction sounds horrible with the PC compressors (in my opinion)

Hmm, anything over 2 db of compression sounds horrible?

That is an interesting thought since 2 db of compression is pretty mild.  I was being conservative recommending 4 above.  In truth, I am OK with more.
 
This thread is about the vocal chain, though.  If it were about mastering compression, I may have a different thought since, ideally, your gain staging would eliminate the need for a master bus compressor to move the dial more than a couple of db or so (unless you are in Oasis).

for vocals I often follow this process in the box (after recording):

• EQ:  HP filter on the very bottom end of the vocals to get rid of the rumble that's not voice related
• EQ:  sweep through all frequency ranges with a boost to find any annoying honkiness or vocal sounds that jar with me, and then subtly reduce those 
• VC64 Vintage (Sonar plugin):  cycle through the presets to find one that gives presence to the vocals (makes them sit in front of the mix) as well as enhance the character of the voice (i.e. the parts I like, such as breathiness, or accentuate some timbre that I like).  Fiddle with the preset a bit.
• This is the important part:  BYPASS the VC64 plugin and try to recreate the things I liked from the VC64, but doing so manually with other plugins (usually a combination of EQ, Compressor, maybe another Compressors in serial or parallel, maybe a multiband compressor).
• When I get something I like, I then compare it against the VC64 and see which sounds better in the overall mix.  The reason for the previous step is twofold:  to challenge myself to learn how to make the sound I want manually, and in doing so perhaps achieve a more appropriate result.  I still may end up reverting back to the VC64, and if so I'll spend more time tweaking with it as I find the presets exciting initially, but often "too much" ultimately
• Start bringing in various reverbs and/or delays and continue to make adjustments.  I'm rather partial to the CSR Reverbs that I bought on the Cakewalk site awhile ago, although Breverb sounds promising at times.

The irony is that once I find myself getting comfortable with a process, I deliberately mix things up and throw in a random replacement plugin, such as a compressor I'm not familiar with, so that I don't get stuck in a rut and continue to learn.  I'm fascinated by all the various plugins and how different they sound as part of their inherent design, or how differently I work with them because of their layout.  Each time I do this I feel like a beginner again, which is both humbling and exciting. 

Sometimes you just need to fiddle randomly with buttons like the kid we once used to be would, and probably what got many of us interested in the first place.  What does this button do?  Oooh...