How To Mix A Vocal With The Rest Of The Track

 
Many different articles about vocal mixing and yet still searching?
Well there are many different approaches but in this article I will be covering:

• Shaping the vocal
• Correct Leveling 
• Some Eq
• Some Compressor
• Some De-Essing

 
 Read On 
http://corner1stop.com/how-to-mix-a-vocal-with-the-rest-of-the-track/

People like to hear unnaturally-consistent levels on vocals. Traditionally, that's meant extreme compression, and more recently, detailed volume automation. Once you achieve that, settling the vocal into a mix becomes a simple matter of making sure it's heard clearly atop everything else.
 
To that end, I like to route all instruments to an Instruments bus and all vocals to a Vocal bus and then use volume automation to balance those two against one another. Those envelopes will typically have small, 1-2 dB movements, e.g. bringing the instruments up between vocal phrases so that the overall energy doesn't drop too much when the vocal bus is silent.

bitflipper
People like to hear unnaturally-consistent levels on vocals. Traditionally, that's meant extreme compression, and more recently, detailed volume automation. Once you achieve that, settling the vocal into a mix becomes a simple matter of making sure it's heard clearly atop everything else.
 
To that end, I like to route all instruments to an Instruments bus and all vocals to a Vocal bus and then use volume automation to balance those two against one another. Those envelopes will typically have small, 1-2 dB movements, e.g. bringing the instruments up between vocal phrases so that the overall energy doesn't drop too much when the vocal bus is silent.

I find however once you the get the vocal level right (my way) you don't have to do any of this and you do not have to automate music up and down either. What is better than this is, if you want to bring something up in between vocal lines make it one element of the music only eg lead guitar licks or piano lines etc. It sounds better in the end.
 
Be careful making vocals too low as well. There are one or two Micheal Jackson albums (some songs) that came out after Thriller where the vocals are just too low and that is the end of it. Someone screwed up I reckon and Micheal let it through.

Jeff Evans
 
Most people mix vocals too loud and it sounds amateurish to me.  I find the best way and the only way (for me) is to use a small mono speaker eg Auratone type device turned right down low in volume.  It should have a L+R mix in that speaker.  Listen to the music for a while without the vocals and just ease them in to the point where they are clear and audible but not poking above the music.  The small mono speaker allows you to find this sweet spot faster and more easily.  You will be surprised how much lower this setting is compared to where you had them before.
 
Once you crank up loud again on your main speakers you will find in every case the vocal levels are perfect and not buried in the music but more importantly not sitting too high above it either.
 
This takes some practice but after a while you will seem to get it and latch on.
 
Bass is another instrument many have way too loud.  When you apply the same approach to bass it too ends up at the perfect level.  The bass does not need to be smashing you around the head.  It just needs to be sitting nice under the music.  That is where most great bass levels live.

I recently bought a single Avantone MixCube as an addition to my main speakers.
I find adjusting levels, especially vocals, is easier and more consistent now than before when I only used the stereo speakers. 
 
A single driver system without a frequency crossover like in "normal" 2-way speakers seems to be a real advantage for this kind of critical listening.
 
For me, one of the best investments I made in years...!

I find the small mono speaker is good for almost everything not just setting vocal levels and bass.  Setting the right balance right across the board.  Of course it won’t show you what the bass end is really like and reverbs either too well but that is a time for getting onto your main speakers and turning them up real loud.
 
I tend to work on the mono speaker a lot of the time for most things.  It is amazing what it will reveal.  For example if the snare is just a tad too loud in a mix it seems to jump out at you on the small speaker for some reason.  Ease it back down in the small speaker and then it will be right.  Often too when you make a change in the small speaker your normal monitors won’t change much too.  That is good because now you are satisfying things in two speakers now and not just one speaker system anymore.
 
It shows up mono compatibility issues real fast as well as sounds that are all similar.  eg if you have say two or three rhythm guitars going that are all very similar in sound they tend to blur into one more messy sound in the mono speaker.  So it means you get cracking and make them a little different in sound.  In the small mono speaker everything is being lined up in the one spot eg in the one place.  Stereo imaging won't save you now.  You have to use some skill to separate things more.  It will also make you remove or mute parts that just dont need to be there as well.
 
When you go back up to your main speakers the stereo imaging will sound much better as well as overall balance.  It is god’s gift to mixing.  Many have used in the past and still swear by it too.  The key is to not have it too loud either.  I usually run it at 70/65 dB SPL or even less.  And sit right in front of it fairly close and look straight at it.