During this past NAMM 2024 two plugins caught the eye of Producer/Engineer and Mixer extraordinaire Joe Carrell: the Voca by Sonnox and the Silk Vocal by Waves.
Could these single Plugins replace the huge amount plug ins we see in many mix sessions? It seems we all require numerous compression, eq, de-essers and even more to get the vocal mix right. Joe, who is admittedly a fan of having multiple plugins all doing subtle processing to the vocals decided to give this “modern” mix process a chance to see if using one plugin can match or even beat his current vocal chain setup.
Starting with the Sonnox Voca, Joe is able to dial in compression, saturation, a vocal tone softener and a volume rider to the settings he feels fits the vocalist best. The Voca brings inspiration from an 1176 and an LA-2A style compressor and gives you the option to blend between both styles to find what you want. The Saturation settings let you blend between warmth and depth to airiness and clarity. With Adjusting the vocal tone softener you can reduce sibilance and prevent harsh vocal parts from sticking out uncontrollably and lastly the vocal rider balances the dynamics to give the best compression result. With just these few settings. On this Modern Pop Song, Joe was very impressed with the results he was able to get with just the Sonnnox Voca vs his original multi plug in vocal chain.
Next is the Silk Vocal by Waves which has more features and knobs than the Voca and is also meant to replace multiple plugins. This plugin features a Smart EQ and dynamics processor that allows you to make EQ adjustments using the “Low”, “mid” and “high” knobs and a one fader adjustable Smart compressor. It also includes a high pass filter, gate mix, band solo, band bypass, Delta (allows you to hear what’s being reduced), Speed (adjusts the envelope of the smart EQ processing) and Precision (adjusts the sharpness of the Q in each of the processing bands) controls. Though Joe thinks it makes the vocal sound very processed, he concludes that it works great for a Modern Pop Vocal.
In the end Joe believes every mixer’s toolbox should be full of tools for specific tasks. In this case he believes these plugins can achieve great vocal results in the genres of Pop, Hip Hop and modern R&B, dramatically reducing the need for multiple plug ins.