Vocals are the most important instrument in any audio mixing work. In fact if the vocals are not properly mixed, you can observe a difference between good and poor audio production work.
Mixing vocals is therefore a big priority in the audio mixing session. In this article, I will share my personal techniques when it comes to mixing vocals. I will illustrate those essential principles I have in mind to come up with greatly produced vocals.
Bear in mind that this is not a one-setting-fits-all approach and should only serve as a starting point or guide in mixing vocals. It is because different vocals and genre takes different approach in mixing.
Start with the tips illustrated in this tutorial, and then tweak further to get the best vocal sound out of your mix.
Reminders for doing the vocal adjustment:
To test if the vocals are now mixed correctly with the rest of the instruments ; set the overall mix volume at low to moderate (not loud). Try to assess whether you can hear the lyrics properly. If you can hear the lyrics at low to moderate volume, chances are the EQ, vocal track levels, panning and compression are done right.
Now switch your overall mix volume levels to moderate to slightly loud for a short time. If you find out that the vocals are too strong or dominant, slowly apply some reverb until it sits right in the mix. Listen again at lower volumes to make sure you can still hear the vocal lyrics and not drowned with the reverb. This is way I adjust or mix the vocals for best results.
Artist in studio booth
First Principle: A greatly recorded vocals will make it very easy to professionally produced recorded vocals.
Explanation: Garbage in–> Garbage Out. If the recording is bad, it will definitely sound bad in the mix no matter what effects or surgical procedure you do for the vocals. It is why mixing is very different from recording when it comes to technical aspects of music production. When you say high quality recording it says, “It captures the best performance without any noise, interference or clipping”
How do to this? I do this by testing the vocal level first before recording. The objective is to record the vocals at a maximum level without clipping or distortion– specifically around -40dB to -6dB (maximum peak or the loudest part of the vocals) at your audio interface hardware level meters NOT on your DAW level meters. Some audio interface do provide a recording level meters in the form LED display. They even includes dB units on them for easy reference, use them to get the best recording signal possible for your vocals.
This allows maximum signal to noise ratio and best dynamic range possible for your vocals. Once you have set the levels, you can now proceed to recording. September 27, 2011 UPDATE: You can find details on tracking vocals correctly on this post.
It is highly important that recording should be completely raw and without ANY EFFECTS including reverb. Some engineers add reverb only feed to the vocalist headphones to ensure that she feels it LIKE A PRODUCED SOUND, so that she can sing with confidence.
A real recorded vocal from a professional studio is DRY. Without any effects I mean. It is highly important that if the recording is done digitally, it should be recorded above CD quality, this means going above the normal 16 bit 44.1 KHz standard. Popular sound cards such as M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI Digital Audio Card can get 24 bit 96KHz. But PCI soundcards are old school technology for home recording; you should now be using either a USB or Firewire audio interface and record at least 24-bits/48KHz for your vocals. You can refer to this post for the recommended audio interface if you are using Windows. Aim for the one that has an input level meters on the hardware so that you can see whether the levels are clipped or not.
Second Principle: Clean up the audio first before using it in the mix
Now the recording is done, open it up using your favorite audio editor (I am using Reaper Digital audio workstation). Then zoom it out and remove any background noise and unusual breathing related noise. Noise normally occurs in the beginning and in the end. Breathing noise (should sound minor) occurs during the pause of the stanzas, or in the way to the chorus of the song.
Noise in adobe audition
You can refer to my past tutorial on removing noise for details. After noise removal, since there is a loss of volume, you can normalize the wave to bring up the signal to a reasonable level.
IMPORTANT WARNING: In this step; you are editing the vocals destructively, if your DAW comes with non-destructive editing features such as volume envelopes then use it first. Only do destructive editing if its beyond the capability of multi-track/DAW editing features. And do not forget to back up your vocals when you perform destructive editing.
Personally I would “discourage” you from editing your vocal track destructively (using edit view or any audio editing software). If you are using a DAW software like Reaper, you can easily implement volume envelopes to silence the beginning or long pause in your vocal tracks, such as shown in the screenshot below:
Volume envelopes in Reaper DAW
You can read this tutorial for more details on this technique.
Third Principle: EQ first before Compress
Believe it or not, a vocal does not need serious effects like other instruments. The simpler your effects used, the better will be the produced vocals. It is highly important to EQ first using this setting:
Cut 200 Hz (high pass filter)= -6dB
Boost 3000Hz Q = 1 = 3dB
Boost 15000Hz Q = 1 = 3dB
Take note that if you take the summation of cut and boost, it is literally equal to zero. So if you cut 6dB and I boost 6dB, it does not change the volume. The objective is to preserve the volume by not doing drastic EQ changes.
However, concentrating your EQ work on vocals alone does not make your overall mix sound good. You need to pay attention to other instruments in your mix in such a way they do not compete with the vocal frequency range. You need to drill a hole in other instruments frequency range occupied by the vocals. This would make the vocals to sit properly in the mix.
In this case, I would “strongly recommend” that you read this guide on complete EQ settings to start when doing audio mixing. It contains all starting EQ tips for the most common musical instruments used in the mix. By working on that, you can obtain a very clear vocal in your mix while not compromising the sound quality of your other instruments.
For compression, I’ve shared some techniques here pertaining to vocal compression tips. Personally I like the Sony Wave hammer plug-in in Adobe audio, presets to voice. It produces some of my finest mixed vocals.
Also, I am using Waves C4 compressor and pop vocal preset. It simplifies all compression settings you need to do for your vocals.
Fourth principle: Be very conservative with reverb
Frankly, the mix vocals I used has a very low amounts of reverb. This could be due to the fact that I am mixing for rock, country and pop which audible reverb is not very popular unlike in other genre.
But not only that, having low amounts of reverb makes the vocals stood up and sounds very strong (in your face). You can easily captivate the listener with strong vocals with low amounts of reverb. I use Sony ExpressFX Reverb, set to Plate reverbs. Plate reverbs is highly recommended for vocals and only set it:
Room size: 30
Liveliness: 10~15
%Original (dry mixing) = 85%~90%
%Reverb = 15%~10%
Also I use reverb plug-ins from Waves and Focusrite, they do sound great and I would recommend setting the wet percentage at 30% to 40% at a start. But this plug-ins are not free, also if you buy some Focusrite audio interface, you can get a free Focusrite plug-in suite that includes the reverb plug-in.
One great way of learning how to apply reverberation effects is to listen to an actual sample. You can read this tutorial adding vocal reverb. It contains some important illustration and audio samples about how vocals could change with different reverb settings.
Then once you apply some setting; listen very carefully to the mix and avoid over-doing the implementation of reverb. Sometimes a small reverb is enough, in some applications moderate reverb is also necessary. One of the golden rules of implementing reverb on vocal mixing are as follows:
a.) Very slow ballads (slow tempo songs) – moderate reverb.
b.) Fast tempo songs (punk rock, alternative music, country music, etc.) – low reverb or even no reverb. Feel free to experiment what sounds appropriate for the mix.
c.) Moderate tempo – moderate amounts of reverb.
Do not be obsessed with reverb settings, use your ears to judge the setting. It is also important that you consider the blending of vocals and its reverberation with the rest of the instruments in the mix. You cannot implement the same reverb settings on all tracks otherwise it would sound squashed and muddy.
In this case, you should learn how to apply reverb to a mix properly. You can read a tutorial about this topic here. And then you will learn that different instruments need different reverb settings. It is being influenced by the following factors:
a.) The track location in the stereo field
b.) Tempo of the song,
c.) Genre
d.) Natural frequency of the instruments.
Content last updated on October 22, 2012