Hey everyone, buckle up because we’ve got something special for you today!
A FREE Vocal Mixing Masterclass, featuring insights from three maestros in the field.
This video is your backstage pass to mastering vocal mixing techniques across different genres – ensure that your vocals sit well in the mix, feel present, energetic and spacious.
Meet Your Mentors:
1. F. Reid Shippen, the sonic architect behind chart-topping artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Neil Young, The Jonas Brothers and Backstreet Boys.
Over the course of his career, Reid has engineered multiple platinum and gold records, mixed hundreds of charting singles, including ten Grammy Award-winning projects.
In this video, Reid will be working on a Country song.
Check Reid’s full course ‘Mixing Nashville Singer/Songwriter’ here.
2. Joe Carrell, who is a much beloved mentor inside Produce Like A Pro Academy. Joe is an 11x Grammy Nominee, who has recorded and mixed over 30 #1 singles and worked with artists like George Jones, John Oates, T Graham Brown, and Leon Russell.
Joe will be mixing a funky, smooth Jazz vocal!
Check out Joe’s full Music Production Masterclass here.
3. Bob Horn has become an invaluable mentor for thousands of up-and coming engineers . His engineering credits extend to R&B greats like Akon, Usher, Nelly and many others.
In this video, Bob will be mixing Pop/R&B vocals.
Check out Bob’s full course ‘Mixing Urban Pop’ here.
Here are our top 3 takeaways from this class:
(Watch the video for details and sound examples)
1. Get the high-end right!
One of the most beautiful aspects of vocals is the ‘air’.
We refer to ‘air’ as high-frequencies, which help to underline the raspiness of a vocal, enhance the brilliance and sheen in a performance, and highlight the singer’s unique tonal character.
A well engineered high-end will also give vocals that ‘top-of-the-charts, high-fidelity’ feel.
With that in mind, getting the high-end right is crucial!
How can you achieve that? – 3 Tips:
1. Take advantage of unique EQ characteristics.
Different EQs -especially EQs modelled after analogue gear- each have their own, unique high end character. There are a lot of EQs that engineers consider ‘go-tos’ for boosting high-end: MAAG EQ, Pultecs just to name a few…
Which exact model you prefer is up to you – it’s all about taste!.
The key takeaway is: When Mixing vocals, try out multiple EQs in your arsenal, and pick the one that best compliments the singer and the song.
Once you understand the unique high-end character of each EQ, you’ll be miles ahead of most engineers.
2. Use De-essing.
Compressing and boosting high frequencies on vocals makes them sound exciting and crisp, which is great! However, these processors can also enhance ‘s’ and ‘t’ sounds in an unpleasant manner. We refer to this as ‘sibilance’.
A de-esser allows you to add sheen to a vocal, while keeping those nasty, harsh frequencies in check.
With some recordings, it’s advisable to use 2 de-essers!
3. Utilize Smart EQs & Multiband Compressors.
Just like De-essers, multiband compressors allow you to control certain frequency ranges, while leaving the others untouched.
However, at times it can be difficult to find the perfect settings.
That’s where smart EQs come into play: Plugins like SOOTHE2 automatically detect harsh frequencies and control them dynamically. This smooths out the vocal, while maintaining its unique character.
2. Vocal Mixing Is A Game Of Inches:
Try to think of vocal mixing as a circular process: It’s a sequence of minor adjustments, which eventually lead to a natural, pristine sound.
Rather than using ONE Compressor or EQ to do all of the heavy lifting, most pro engineers prefer working in multiple small instances.
This process could look something like this:
1. EQ 1: Apply high pass filter, cut low mids, boost 1-3 db of high-end
2. De-ess
3. Compressor 1: 1-3 db of gain reduction
4. EQ2: Boost 1-3 db of high end
5. De-ess
6. Compressor 2: 1-3 db of gain reduction
7. Limiter: 1-2 db of gain reduction.
…
You get the point.
Each of these adjustments takes you one step closer to your end goal. At the same time, none of these minor changes will impair the vocal or make it sound unnatural.
As humans, we quickly recognize an unnatural vocal sound, and deem it unpleasant.
By using multiple instances, you will be able to maintain the unique character of the vocal, while still improving on it.
3. Use Analogue Gear or Plugin Emulations For Character & Excitement
Especially with well-recorded vocals, there is not much clean-up work to be done.
However, you can still improve the sound, and make the performance feel even more vibrant and exciting.
– How?
By introducing analogue circuitry and saturation!
If you want to learn more about this topic, fast forward toward the end of the video, where Reid Shippen explains this process in detail.
We hope these techniques help you to get better vocal mixes than ever before!