I want to help you with the most
important part of your mix vocals
because here's the deal if the vocals
aren't right especially the lead vocal
it doesn't matter how good the rest of
your mix is because from the audience
standpoint if they can't hear the vocal
enough to follow along your mix sucks so
never forget that now I'm going to break
this down into five simple steps and
when you follow these your vocals are
going to always be on point the first
step may seem a little Elementary so you
got to forgive me but it's just that
important step one check microphone
placement if your vocalist isn't holding
the mic right there's only so much you
can do and even then it won't be as good
as it could be so be bold when reminding
vocalists how to hold their mic
correctly and all you need to tell them
is two things number one the mic should
never be more than an inch from your
mouth when you're singing and number two
your hand should never cover the wind
screen seriously even if you told them
30 seconds ago to hold their mic closer
to their mouth tell them again until
until it becomes a habit it's that
important step two set gain
correctly if you've been following
collaborate worship for long you've
heard me talk a lot about gain and you
know why gain is at the top of the
signal chain so it actually affects
everything else on your mixer even the
bands in your mix so you got to get it
right let me show you how to do it while
the instrument is playing or the
vocalist is singing adjust gain until
the level meter next to the gain knob is
consistently hitting the first couple of
yellow lights on some mixers like the
Behringer X32 we're talking about the8
DB Mark other mixers may have this Mark
at zero DB either way you're looking to
always be crawling over the point on
your mixer where the green lights meet
the yellow
lights keep in mind there will probably
be times where you're hitting more than
just a couple of those yellow lights
especially in the louder moments but on
average all of your channels should hang
out right there where the green meets
the yellow and that's it it's really
that simple do it a few times and it'll
become second nature now there's a
little confusion around this so I do
want to mention that when you're setting
gain it does not matter where the fader
is for that channel you know you can
even set gain while the channel is muted
because both the fader and the mute
button do not affect gain the reason is
gain is at the beginning of the signal
chain and the fader and mute button are
at the end of the signal chain now last
thing about gain is to make it a habit
to set gain at the beginning of every
rehearsal it's not something that you
can like set once and then never look at
it again because things change this may
seem small but setting gain and getting
it right is a giant leap forward to
creating a great mix all right so Step
One is checking the microphone placement
step two is setting gain let's move on
to step three add a low cut filter to
every vocal when a vocalist is singing
into a mic like they should with the mic
no more than an inch from their mouth
you'll get a nice fool sound actually
it's a bit too heavy because all that
low frequency noise coming through the
mic and without a low cut filter the
vocal will sound muddy and it will also
get in the way of the instrument that
belong in that space so to fix this
problem you should use a low cut filter
on every vocal keep in mind some mixers
call this a highpass filter it's the
same thing you'll want the low cut
filter somewhere between 120 and 180
Hertz just find that spot that cleans up
the vocal with a without making it sound
too thin let me show you what I mean by
playing a raw Vocal Track and applying a
low cut filter when I sing name This
Joy I cannot contain This
Joy all of my days you will be praised
you will be praised the low cut filter
is another simple step that makes a huge
difference so don't forget to put a low
cut filter on every single vocal
somewhere between 120 and 180
Hertz all right step four apply some
simple EQ for almost any type of EQ
issue you need to solve there's one
method that will help you solve it every
time and it's called frequency
sweeping since we are talking about
about vocals let's fix a vocal that
still doesn't sound quite right even
after you've applied that low cup filter
you may not know which frequency range
is causing the problem but you can
easily find it with frequency sweeping
let me show you how to do this by fixing
that same Vocal Track that we heard
earlier first activate a peaking filter
often called peq on the vocal Channel
set the filter's gain to plus 9 DB set
the Q value to four then while the vocal
is singing use the frequency knob to
slowly sweep through the full frequency
spectrum until the problem area really
stands out once you found the problem
use the EQ filters gain control to cut
the frequency range until you achieve
the desired
result there's
joy I sing there's
joy I cannot contain This
Joy all of my days you will be praised
you will be
praised there's
joy with I sing your name This
Joy I cannot contain This
Joy all of my days you will be praised
you will be
praised there's
joy when I sing your name This
Joy I cannot contain This
Joy all of my days will be praised see
how simple that is like I said at the
start of this webinar these things do
not have to be complicated and I'm here
to make it simple so you can create a
great mix without all the overwhelm now
there's just one more step to get
perfect vocals step five use a
compressor on every vocal vocals have a
wide dynamic range they can really
seeing soft or really belted out a
compressor takes this wide range of
volume and makes it as narrow as you
want to be keep in mind though dynamic
range on a vocal is good so you don't
want to cut it too much you simply want
to make it manageable in other words you
want to be able to bring that vocal to
the front of the mix while not having to
worry about their power note making
everybody in the room cover their ears
now there are settings on the compressor
that will be the same for every vocal so
let me show you those first of course
first thing you got to do is turn the
compressor on set the ratio to three set
attack to around 10 milliseconds if it's
an option set hold to zero set release
to around 50 milliseconds set gain to
plus 6 DB now there is one setting that
you'll have to dial in for each vocalist
and that's the threshold you'll want to
set this while the vocal is really
singing out so the best time is while
they're practicing with the band because
if you single them out to sing by
themselves they aren't going to sing the
same as they would with the band playing
so while they're singing out adjust the
threshold using the gain reduction meter
this is that little meter on the
compressor setting screen you'll want to
adjust threshold so that it reads around
-6b at their loudest moments during the
quiet moment moments it may not register
at all and that's okay you just want to
be compressing the vocal down about 6 DB
when they're really singing out let me
show you what I mean by using the same
vocal track from earlier there's
Jo i s This
Joy I cannot contain This
Joy all of my days you will be praised
you will be
praised there's joy now you know how
easy it is to set a compressor for
vocals all of the settings are the same
for each vocal except one the threshold
and setting the threshold is easy Once
you know how to do it just keep in mind
if you can press more than 60b the vocal
starts to sound lifeless and smashed so
if you start to notice the vocal losing
its Shine the first place to check is
the compressor this is actually
something that you want to check on a
regular basis because you never know
when a vocalist might find their
confidence or maybe a different person
just starts using the mic when this
happens adjust gain first like we talked
about earlier and then adjust the
threshold on the compressor so that it
does not compress more than 60b that's
it just five simple steps to perfect
vocals let me give you a quick review
start by checking the microphone
placement it should be no more than an
inch from their mouth then set gain so
that the level meter is hitting right
where the green lights meet the yellow
lights next apply a low cut filter
between 120 and 80 Hertz following that
use the frequency sweeping method to
clean up the vocal even more finally add
compression to the vocal so that the
gain reduction meter reads around 6 DB
at their loudest moments see what I mean
this stuff doesn't have to be
complicated you can create a great mix
every time using simple techniques like
the ones I taught you today now you'll
have to put these to practice and do
them a few times before they become
second nature but that's how it is with
anything that we learn the Temptation at
this point is to go back to the old
cycle of searching YouTube wasting time
getting frustrated and giving up all
because it becomes too overwhelming but
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thank thank you for joining me for this
webinar today and I look forward to
staying connected with you