Welcome to Sage Audio. Today let’s look at How to Use Vocal Effects. But first,
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How to EQ Vocal Lows
For this video, I’m going to show more introductory to intermediate ideas and techniques.
Also, the processors I’m showing could be used in the order they’re shown to make a vocal chain.
First, let’s look at the vocal’s low frequencies, and how we should affect
them with an EQ. We’ll notice that the vocal has a fundamental or its lowest frequency - when we
introduce our high pass filter, we want to attenuate up to right before that frequency.
Over the fundamental or fundamentals, you can create a bell filter and subtly amplify them.
Let’s listen to the changes this makes to the vocal, and notice how cutting the lows
makes it sound cleaner, but doesn’t get rid of anything important about the vocal.
How to EQ Vocal Mids
Next up, let’s consider the mid frequencies - first let's attenuate a little of 500Hz if
we want the vocal to sound further back, or amplify it by a couple dB to make it sound
a little closer to the listener. Somewhere between 700 - 1.3kHz, we might find some nasally tones.
We can attenuate these to make the vocal sound more balanced.
Let’s take a listen and these new bands being added on top of what we did last chapter.
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How to EQ Vocal Highs
When it comes to high vocal frequencies, we can amplify 2kHz - 5kHz to make the
vocal cut through a mix; we may also want to attenuate somewhere above 5kHz with a bell
to help control sibilance - look at the analyzer to see where this sibilance is.
To add some air to the vocal, use a shelf filter, increase the Q, and amplify above
12kHz. This shouldn’t make the vocal harsh, but instead, increase delicate sounding aspects of it.
Let’s listen to these 3 changes on top of the 4 we introduce in the last 2 chapters.
Compress Vocals for Upfront Sound
Compression on vocals is incredibly important - if we want the vocal to be detailed and really
upfront, let’s set a quick attack, 50ms release, and use lookahead if available.
Then set a 4:1 ratio with a soft knee, attenuate about 6dB, and use auto-make-up gain.
In short, this will capture the vocal, along with all of its details,
then amplify them while simultaneously controlling the dynamics. Let’s take
a listen and notice how much more we can hear.
Change Vocal Sound with Compression
A compressor can be used to change the vocal’s timbre, for example, if we set a 10ms attack,
and 500ms release, along with a soft knee and higher ratio, we’ll achieve a smoother
sound. If we want to emphasize transients, we could use a hard knee with quick settings.
Although a quick attack typically causes more to be attenuated,
if you set them quick enough it’ll distort and amplify transients.
Let’s use both of these setups, and notice how it significantly changes the sound of the vocal.
De-essing Your Vocal
Vocal de-essing is often overlooked, but is incredibly important - too much
sibilance and your track is going to be hard to listen to or enjoy. De-essers are simple,
just try to achieve about 3 - 5dB of attenuation, or maybe a little less depending on the vocal.
A split band setting typically works better. Let’s introduce
de-essing and notice how it balances the high frequencies of the vocal.
Using Saturation on Vocals
Saturation is another important effect - it subtly compresses,
but more importantly adds harmonics or frequencies that relate to the vocal’s fundamental frequency.
These harmonics strengthen our perception of it,
making the vocal sound fuller and more impressive depending on the harmonics we introduce.
Typically though, saturation will cause a 2nd order harmonic - or one order above
the fundamental, and a 3rd order harmonic which is 2 orders above the fundamental.
Let’s take a listen to how this fills out the vocal.
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Hz. Response Shaping with Saturation
If you use a multi-band saturator you can shape the frequency response of
your vocal - for example, I can use warm tube saturation on the low frequencies
to create a fuller sound, but clean tube on the highs to cause clarity and enhance the detail.
Alternatively, I could use tape saturation to smooth out the high frequencies or make
the lows sound fuller but smoother when compared to tube saturation.
Let’s listen to these different settings but using the same amount of saturation,
and notice how the vocal’s timbre changes.
Adding Short Vocal Delay
Let’s move on to temporal or time-based effects like delay and reverb - you’ll notice that we
saved these for last since this is where these types of effects should be inserted
in a vocal chain. A short delay will thicken your vocal, and make it sound more impressive.
If it’s shorter than 130ms, the delay will be perceived as one signal,
just a more impressive one - keep this in mind we choosing delay times.
Let’s listen to how this improves the vocal.
Stylized or Practical Reverb
Reverb can be stylized or used more practically - by this I mean reverb
settings can make a vocal sound entirely unnatural but distinct,
or be used to blend the vocal in or emulate a natural recording or performance space. Usually,
stylized reverb emphasizes high frequencies, whereas practical augments the mids.
Let’s try both out to get a better understanding of what I mean by this - also,
let’s pay attention to how the stylized setting makes the vocal stick out,
and the practical one helps it naturally sit in the mix.
Overall Vocal Shaping at Chain’s End
At the end of a vocal chain, it doesn’t hurt to add one more EQ.
With the EQ you’ll be controlling every form of processing that came before it - meaning
it can have a huge effect on the overall sound, so use it subtly and thoughtfully.
I’ll use mine to boost a small amount of presence and air, as well as dip a little of the low mids,
and attenuate any new lows below the fundamental that got added by our processing.
Let’s take a listen.
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