UPON REQUEST: Industry vocal mixing techniques. BETTER VOCAL PROCESSING.
This thread is designed to share unconventional methods of vocal processing. I have had an overwhelming request to share techniques i have learned in regards to vocals. Please keep in mind that the methods i will share are used by some industry producers in certain mixing situations for certain artist.
DISCLAIMER:
I am not claiming this to be the CORRECT WAY TO MIX VOCALS. Please keep in mind that these techniques are designed for modern POP, R and B, and hiphop. I do not want this thread to turn into a debate. Lets share what works and build upon each others post.
Please listen to the first track on at
www.myspace.com/feedbackproductions for a example of how this technique sounds.The first track was recorded in this exact fashion. while the last song on the player was not. You can hear the difference in clarity
First thing ,IN MY OPINION, that you should know before mixing vocals is your equipment used to capture a voice.
If you have a question or would like incite on how to apply what i am saying to your set up. Please post what your vocal chain is before you ask your question. There is some many combinations of gear. All of which will produce completely different vocals and tonal qualities.
Common project vocal chains should be similar to:
MICROPHONE - QUALITY CABLES - PRE AMP - INTERFACE - COMPUTER
MICROPHONE - QUALITY CABLES - PRE AMP - COMPRESSOR - INTERFACE - COMPUTER
In that order
Of course this is not the only way you can set up a vocal chain. I understand that some may use mix boards and other out board gear. I will try to keep it simple for those who are recording in a less the desirable set up.
It is important to connect
all of your gear with quality MOGAMI cables.(My preference in cable)
Also keep in mind that the best way to achieve a solid vocal always sits in the performance of the artist, Mic placement and recording enviornment.
The first thing i noticed when working with Industry producers and engineers were UN CONVENTIONAL METHODS.
In forums you always read about people claiming that when you compress vocals you do not want to use a ratio higher than 4:1 and a thresh of*** while others claim that eq is the answer. I believe it is different for every person, every voice, every track, and there is no set way to achieve this. Hopefully my methods will allow you to develop different ways of approaching a vocal in attempts to achieve the strongest signal possible.
Here is a shortened process of what i go through in the recording phase.
Hip hop and R and B vocals require a good recording enviornment. For those that do not have a treated room or wide open space Move your mic to the center of the room. Away from walls and hard surfaces.
1. Position your mic to face the artist with the mic even to the artist mouth.
2. Teach your artist: No matter how good they think they are they need to be directed. Have the artist do multiple warm ups while practicing keeping a distance of around
6 inches from the mic. Of course they will not be able to maintain this distance perfectly but the idea is to make them away of this. I Found that 6 inches gives your project gear a better chance of picking up more signal and less noise from the room.
3. Cover your pc. Unless you have a ultra quiet liquid cooled processor you will need to remove as much of that sound as possible. Keep in mind this is risky because you can over heat your pc if you block air flow. But be creative. Put your head phones on and turn up the volume so you can hear all of the room noise. Including your pc. Move your mic around the room and find a spot that has the least bit of room noise.
4.Use multiple vocal warm ups as a way to set your pre amp and gear to that individual artist. Your goal is to achieve the loudest signal possible with out peaking your meter. I personally shoot for 0db. Now of course with rap and r and b your artist may have a burst of volume or punch with causes your meter to light red in sonar. Use better judgment on this. Listen to the take and pay attention for distortion. If there is non audible then disregard the red meter. If you hear distortion the make small adjustments to prevent this. I try to keep a 2 to 3 db of difference between the loudest and softest parts of a take.
For example: If your artist does a warm up and the loudest part of his recording hits -1db and his lowest part hits -8 you will later be misled in the mix when you begin to compress. Unless of course you have quality gear like a distressor or other high end compressors. In that case you would be including those units in your vocal chain and would not have such a difference in the first place.
if you have dsp processing through an interface or an out board compressor you need to use those units to achieve the maximum signal while recording. We will touch on that in a minute.
5. Have your artist practice vocal control. Keep in mind that no one is perfect. You are only trying to keep the artist aware of how he is using his vocal. Make him do warm up after warm up until he or she can keep a consistent vocal with out un wanted punchy punch lines or burst of energy. While the artist is doing these warm ups you should be adjusting your gear. For those who have no out board compressor you should be adjusting the gain on your pre amp. to achieve near a 0db input. Keep in mind that if an artist does get low on a part of the take or can not over come a troubled section of a verse or hook you can always remedy this later with separate take or good compression. So don't get discouraged if the artist is a knuckle head. WORK WITH IT. Keep a creative mind set.
The following will be completely based on the dynamics of the project. Ideally you will want to have a project tracked out. Meaning you will want to have everything in the instrumental or track on its own track. You will need the kick on a separate track from the snare and the high hats separate from the bongos and so on. If you do not have this option because you have purchased an instrumental with non exclusive rights and do not have the session files you will never achieve a PRO mix. You can achieve a great mix but it will never reach its potential. There are techniques that you can practice to optimize this situation. PM ME IF THIS APPLIES TO YOU AND I WILL SHARE.
Compression settings for out board vocal chain gear Ideally you will want to achieve around 4 db of compression. In some cases for artist like 50 cent. you may need to achieve any where from 4 to 7 db of compression. This may go against everything you have been taught. I will post production logs later from producers like DR DRE to solidify my advice.
For rap. I usually set the outboard compressor to these settings (KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU WILL NOT ACHIEVE A GOLDEN SOUND BY COPYING THESE SETTINGS. YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE SMALL ADJUSTMENTS ACCORDING TO YOUR GEAR.
REMEMBER THAT THE OBJECTIVE IS TO ACHIEVE AROUND 4 DB OF COMPRESSION)
THRESHOLD : I keep around 0 db. sometimes i adjust it to -2 or -1db depending on the artist and what i need to do to prevent the vocal from peaking in warm ups.
RATIO: I set to around 7:1........
WOW. I bet some of you are like wtf. My theory, which i adopted from good producers, is by setting a thresh hold of 0 db and a high ratio you are allowing almost all of the vocal to be un affected by compression. The compressor will only do its job when a vocal has exceeded a 0db mark preventing the distortion or peaks you do not want. With a dsp or outboard compressor i tend to not attempt to over smooth the vocal in the recording process. I just want to get all of the signal. By setting your pre amp gain to achieve around a 0db input into your daw you are capturing a loud full vocal. These compressor setting will tame such a hot vocal.
Also keep in mind that if your transients are being cut off at 0db. You may need to adjust your pre amp down
ATTACK: set a medium attack Not too fast and not to slow this will prevent the compression from being noticeable. You will need to do multiple takes if using an outboard compressor adjusting the attack for each take until you get your desirable setting. There is not one setting that just works. Every artist will require a different setting. So what works well for you may not work well for the next the guy you have on the second verse.
RELEASE I set a fast release. Most of the time it is around 80 to 120 ms after all. You are only taming the vocal that exceeds your thresh. The parts of the vocal that exceed your thresh usually are spikes in db level and not long drawn out spikes. In most cases the vocal may only exceed the thresh for a word or two in the take. A fast release unsure that the compressor is only taming those words and not other words that may not need to be tamed.
Now of course for those who do not have outboard compressors you can apply this theory in plug ins. In which case you would disregard a peak in a vocal take that may light up your peak meter one or two times in a take. Just because your peak meter lights up on a word or two does not mean the take is bad. As long as the spike in volume is not causing noticeable distortion.
Also: for artist that are loud and have little control. You may need to adjust your thresh hold to better tame the vocal. I find that when i set a lower threshold i will also need to set a lower ratio. For out board compressors. You will need to do multiple takes until you achieve a some what consistent level of around 4 db of compression. Eventually this will become second nature to you. If you find that the vocal is not consistent when it hits the compressor you will need to have the artist re record the take until you have a desirable outcome. In a lot of cases it is not the gears fault. It is the artist who can make your job at mixing his vocals productive.
I do not set any EQ IN THE VOCAL CHAIN. What i mean is: Some pre amps have an eq function. I by pass all eq in the recording process. I process all eq with plug ins after the recording is desirable for mixing. Depending on your mic you may need to set a 80hz high pass filter. I tend to use the 80hz high pass filter on the mic and not the pre amp. EVEN THOUGH THIS MAY NOT REMOVE AS MUCH LOW END AS YOU NEED, ITS BETTER TO BE ABLE TO REMOVE IT WITH PLUG INS LATER RATHER THAN ATTEMPT TO REGAIN ANY LOST LOW END THAT A QUALITY PRE AMP MAY HAVE COMPLETELY REMOVED.
Once the recording process is complete i set up a number of plug ins and busses to begin mixing the vocals.
I always apply plug ins to the lead track. I usually only buss out effects like reverb or flange or delays on a lead vocal.
For over dubs or multiple takes(STACKS) I DO NOT PROCESS PLUG INS ON THE ACTUAL TRACK.
For example: If i have a lead vocal. (Rap) and 4 tracks of stacks that double the lead is certain areas. I will buss all of the stacks to a "STACKS" BUSS WITH THE BOTTOM OUTPUT SEND. I send 100percent of those signals to the stacks buss. This is what works for me. Some people assign a send pre fader. I personally do not feel this gives me total control over the stack. But you may develop a method that you like. So try everything until you find what works best for that take. This allows me to control a bunch of overdubs that may have a wide range of dynamics. I apply additional compression and eq and so fourth to the buss track and not the track they were recorded on.
For the lead vocal i usually have a series of plugs like this.
Gate--compressor--eq--deesser--eq. This is not my go to order. What i do is listen to the vocal and identify problem areas. I start with the most apparent problem and fix it. So sometimes, depending on the take, I might use an order of
GATE--EQ--COMPRESSOR--DESSER or GATE--DEESER-COMPRESSOR--EQ.
EQ'ING VOCALS This is not as complicated as you have all been lead to believe.
I have noticed with rap that a vocal has strong frequencies around 180hz to 212hz. 424hz to 600hz and depending on the artist you may see dominate frequencies around 1k. This is also depending on your mic.
My focus in eq is to remove areas of the spectrum that mask these areas and to tame those areas if they are out of control.
LESS IS ALWAYS BETTER AND REMEMBER THAT YOU WILL DO ALL DEDUCTIONS AND SMALL INCREASES OF FREQUENCIES.
For my vocal I usually have setting around:
80hz highpass filter. Depending on the instruments in the track i may cut back to 90hz or 100hz. A common rule of thumb is the more instruments you have in the track the more you may need to cut back with a high pass filter. In hiphop and pop music the use of synth sounds tend to dominate alot of the spectrum Cutting a vocal higher in the spectrum can allow more space for everything to co-exist.
I run the vocal solo through a paz analyzer to see exactly where the vocal is dominate. I then run the instrumental through the paz to see where it is dominate.
In rap i tend to deduct frequencies from instruments that occupy the same area as the vocal. When using eq you cut with a narrow q and boost with a wide q.
After the 80hz cut i usually do a small deduction around 212hz. actually read the paz analyzer to see where the bottom of the vocal is. Mine just happens to be around 200. The mud in most vocals sits around 220 to 320. I usually only cut by one or 2 db in this area. Depending on your mic you may need to deduct a little more but be careful not to thin the vocal out too much. Removing too many frequencies in that muddy area can affect the needed frequencies that may sit around it.
I notice my vocal has small peaks around 420 and 510hz. I usually deduct 2 to 3 db from that area to make sure those frequencies are not masking other areas. My goal is to get a even response.
Sometimes i deduct 3 to 4 db from the 2 k area depending on the track instrumental and what i hear in the vocal.
You may notice at this time a large amount of ESS Just load up a desser and sit that vocal back in the mix.
After i have deducted from those areas and loaded a desser the vocal sounds a little dull. I set my desser to around 3 or 4 k for my vocal and lower the thresh to around -30db or more depending on what is needed. If ESS Sounds are not disturbing or over powering then do not use a desser. There is not need to fix something that is not a problem.
But if you need to use it(In most cases with rap you will) You may need to load another eq after the desser in the fx bay. I only use this eq to boost high frequencies after the desser has removed so much. Usually around 10khz to brighten up the sound. I boost around 2 to 3 db.
Most of eqing vocals is removing areas. I never cut over 4 db unless it is a desired effect or needed because the gear you have is less than desirable. So to recap. I high pass at around 80, cut about 2db out of the 212 area, cut about 2 to 3 db out of the 500hz area, Tame the mids(Depending on mic) around 2k with a deduction. Deess the vocal. and the brighten it with an addition eq by boosting around 10k
Now take all of this with a grain of salt. If you mirror my setting you will get the same result so play around with it and use tools like the paz analyzer to identify areas of the vocal that need to be removed or deducted.
Also know that if you do not have a great mix on the instruments in the track you will never have a rich vocal. Removing substantive amounts of the 500hz and 200hz range in synths will create needed room for the vocal to shine.
There is so much more that goes into it so let the discussion begin and i will be open to discuss more behind what i do.
Also if you would like me to email you a song that i have used this method on pm me your email so you can hear the end result. It may just blow your mind.
post edited by rhymestars - 2010/04/27 15:08:44