



INTRODUCTION

Hey there this is Bunmi, a veteran mix engineer and producer, Owner at GSol production.

This article is going to cover a lot of ground as possible.

We will discuss:

How to make your vocal sound professional.

The type of effects you should put on vocals

Vocal Mixing Chains

Vocal Mixing Techniques

How to mix vocals in Ableton



With the vocal mixing techniques you will learn here today, you will be able to use these techniques to mix vocals in genres such as Hip Hop, Rap, Pop, R&B and EDM.



I am going to start by showing you the before and after of a vocal I mixed. (In the Video Below)



We will discuss the philosophy and mindset of mixing vocals.I will walk you through my personal vocal mixing chain which you can download from the link below. I will be sharing my mindset on why I do what I do.

By the way, all the vocal mixing chain steps can be replicated in any DAW such as Logic Pro, FL Studio, Ableton Live and Pro Tools.





In the vocal mixing chain, we have:

1. Corrective EQ - remove annoying frequencies

2. Dynamic Peak Compression - tame unruly peaks for more consistent vocal

3. Tonal Shaping EQ - bring out presence, midrange power, and air

4. De-Esser - reduce and tame sibilance or harshness

5. Tonal Density Compression - create a more compactness in sound quality

6. Volume - add gain and volume

7. Saturation - warm up the sound and increase pleasant harmonics







The first step to getting a good vocal sound begins with a good vocal recording.

Ensure you record with a good microphone in a good room. You may have an acoustic treatment which is rather expensive, but if you can't afford it, just make sure you have a room that is semi dead, not too reflective or echoey.



The next thing to take note of is your gain staging. Record at decent gain level.

Don't record a too hot signal nor a too low signal. If you may record low but you want to be mindful of the room you are in. If you're not in a good room, you may run the risk of recording all surrounding noises too.



After you've achieved a very good vocal recording, the next phase is editing.

In the editing phase, you want to listen to the entirety of the vocal recording. Listen for pops, clicks, clips or any annoying frequency that may poke at you.

Repair any damages, Use iZotope RX to repair clicks, clips, noise, and plosives too. If there are any room tones or annoying frequencies, use your EQ to notch them out. I'm sure you have read this in a many blogs out there but I just want to cover all the bases.



So after you’ve got all the editing done on your vocal recording, then we can start prepping the vocal for the mix.





Performance Editing

In the performance editing phase, you should fix any pitch or timing errors in your vocal recording. (Try Melodyne)

If this is a singing vocal, make sure you have a pitch correction done, and tune all the vocals, the vocal melodies and harmonies in tune with all the key of the song.





All right let's get to the vocal mixing section.



HOW TO MAKE YOUR VOCAL SOUND PROFESSIONAL

The reason why a lot of amateur engineers can’t get a really good vocal mixing sound is because a bunch of the stuff that we read online concerning mixing years ago don’t work.

Unfortunately, they do not work in this modern production era anymore.

You have to understand that the modern production era requires a lot of processing for you to be able to compete with what is going on out there. When you listen to your favorite songs on the radio, Spotify and iTunes, you realize that your mixes always never come close.



Why?

Because:

1. Record labels hire the best of the best mix engineers.

2. A seasoned engineer understands that he has to compete with a degraded mp3 version quality, and his mixes are being played on crappy iPhone speakers and laptops.

3. He knows that even though all the recording and production were done with a lot of high-end equipment like a $10,000 Sony C-800 microphone, into a $10,000 Neve preamp, into a $3,000 Tube-tech Compressor, then mixed with an SSL 4000G, $50,000 console mixing board (and you don't really need that anymore these days).



He understands that the end product is going to be converted to an MP3, and played out of the worst Android phone speakers.

Imagine from high pristine 192kHz / 96kHz quality audio converted down to 44.1kHz then to 256Kbps degraded MP3 version.

This is why you have to go the extra mile. You have to over process your audio. You have to process more and use a lot of compression and a lot of saturation.



Alright let's Dive In. Here Comes The Gold.



Now the fun stuff:







WHAT EQ FREQUENCY IS VOCAL

Let’s discuss where on the human hearing frequency threshold are the human voices.

Male vocal fundamental frequency 85Hz - 180Hz

Female vocal fundamental frequency 165Hz- 225Hz

With both male and female having their harmonics and overtones extend up to 8kHz.



In both Step 1 and Step 3, you will see the exact frequencies I cut out to clean vocals, and the exact frequencies I boost to enhance it. Notice how these frequencies fall within the range of 85Hz - 8kHz or a little higher.

VOCAL MIXING CHAINS

