Welcome to Sage Audio. Today we’re covering How to Mix Vocals
But first, if you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us at SageAudio.com to
receive a free mastered sample of it.
Optional: Emulate a Pre
If you recorded the vocal via an interface, odds are you have a good pre but it sounds
a little too clean for its own good. If so, emulate a mic pre to add some character to
the recording - this will add some of the harmonic distortions you’re missing.
There are emulations of just about any popular pre from the past from Neve to API, so take
your pick.
Reference Full Mix
Before we go any further, one big mistake made when mixing vocals is to solo it while
mixing. Using the solo function is great if you’re trying to find very specific problem
frequencies; however, you need to mix in the context of a full mix.
The reason being all of the signals will interact with one another, in turn affecting the vocal
in a way you wouldn’t notice if it was soloed.
Set Up Vocal Bus
If you have multiple vocal tracks it’s important to set up a vocal bus - to do this, change
the outputs of your vocals to a new bus. This bus will let you collectively process all
of these tracks before the collected signals head to output.
So we compress the groups collectively or add other processing as we see fit.
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Subtractive EQ
Next, I’ll attenuate aspects of the lead vocal’s track with an EQ to get rid of frequencies
I don’t want - best to do this to the individual tracks first instead of the bus we just created.
Let’s do this for each vocal track until our vocals are balanced.
Then if an overall subtractive EQ is needed, we can use one on the vocal bus.
De-ess
On the lead, let’s insert a de-esser to attenuate sibilance and create a more balanced
sound. It’s better to attenuate this range with a de-esser as opposed to an EQ since
a de-esser will attenuate the signal dynamically or only when the sibilance is loud enough.
Although each vocal is different, try to avoid more than 4 to 5dB of attenuation with the
de-esser.
Compress Downward and Upward
Next, we’re going to use 2 processors back to back on either the lead or the vocal bus
depending on what you need. I’ll use downward compression with a quick attack and quick
release to capture the vocal from the peaks - then follow it with an upward compressor.
The upward compressor will increase the level of the vocal from the noise floor up - increasing
the vocal’s detail. This results in a very balanced and detailed vocal without the need
for excessive downward compression.
Saturate the Vocal
If you want, saturation could come before upward compression so that the compressor
enhance its effect - but it works just as well after. With the saturator we’re going
to establish the desired tone of the vocal - for example, transistor saturation for warmth,
or tape from more clarity and mids.
Each saturator is a little different so try multiple until you find one that works well
for the vocal.
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Introduce Temporal Effects
When introducing temporal effects like reverb and delay, I’m going to do this from the
vocal bus. From this bus I’ll create more busses and auxiliary tracks each with one
form of temporal processing - so if I want reverb and delay, I’d create 2 busses.
Setting up reverb this way ensures that the delay and reverb don’t interact or affect
one another until they reach the output.
If I was to place the delay and reverb on the same bus, then the delay would be fed
into the reverb or the reverb into the delay - which could be used creatively, but odds
are I don’t want this effect.
Balance with Mix Once I’ve added all the processing that
I want to add to the vocal, and the other tracks and busses in the mix have also been
mixed, I’m going to finalize the balance between everything. This can include increasing
or decreasing individual tracks or busses.
So say I want the lead vocal to be louder, I’d increase the individual track. But if
I wanted the entirety of the vocals to be louder, I’d increase the bus’s fader.
If you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us at SageAudio.com to receive a free
mastered sample of it.
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