Welcome to Sage Audio. Today we’re looking at an Advanced Vocal Chain. To get the most from your
music, watch the entirety of each chapter for a complete understanding of the topic.
Full Chain Overview
The chain we’re looking at today is the chain I use on
personal projects - some of it may seem excessive and it probably is,
but I find I get really good results. It starts by attenuating resonance, sibilance,
and other unwanted frequencies, then moves to saturation and compression.
Then we get into temporal effects like a slapback reverb, stylized reverb and
some crosstalk. The chain ends with another de-esser, and subtle Gullfoss equalization.
We’ll look at each insert individually and explain why it’s being used,
but first let’s listen to the full chain.
Soothe 2, then Weiss
De-ess
Soothe 2 removes excessive resonance and sibilance - I like to use it first to avoid amplifying these
with other forms of processing. I’ll use moderate settings, like a low to medium depth
to ensure I’m not attenuating too much - I also focus the effect on the mids.
From their, Weiss De-ess performs really transparent compression to my high end,
to smooth the sound and avoid excessive sibilance later on.
Feel free to replace this de-esser with whatever one you like to use.
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Dynamic Subtractive EQ
After attenuating resonances and sibilance, I want to shape my sound a little more
and get to choose exactly what I attenuate. I’ll take a close listen to my vocal and gradually
cut whatever I want less of - sometimes, I’ll use a low-pass filter around 12kHz.
This gives the vocal a vintage sound - or maybe I’ll dip some of 300Hz
to clean up the vocal a bit. I almost always use a high pass filter up to about 80Hz.
Where relevant, I’ll make the bands dynamic to make the dips program dependent and feel a little
more natural. Again, use whatever plugins work well for you, but this is the EQ I typically use.
Saturn 2 & preFET Accentize
With everything controlled, I’m going to add harmonics and subtle compression
to my signal with Saturn 2 and FET by Accentize, but use whatever plugins you want for this stage.
With Saturn, I may stick with the basic settings,
or add in some modulation to more closely emulate analog equipment.
I almost always use oversampling to avoid aliasing distortion. With Accentize
I simply dial in the effect. It’s a free plugin, but the sound is great in my opinion.
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Opto Peak Down Compression
I like to use optical compression on my vocals for a smooth and thick sound - I find I only
need about 3 to 6dB of compression, but this will definitely depend on your vocal recording.
I like soft knee for an analog sound, and a sorter attack to capture the vocal quickly.
Then I’ll use a longer release of about half a second to smooth the vocal. I keep auto
makeup gain on just since it helps with gain staging, but some engineers prefer this off.
Lastly I like to use 2x oversampling, just in case the compression is causing
distortion that would result in aliasing. Ultimately this will make the compression
sound more like analog equipment if this is the case.
Slapback
Reverb
Slapback reverb is similar to slapback delay, but it’s a little subtler since the reflections are
defused. I use a reverb time of only about 100ms, and then blend in the effect with the wet/dry
so that it thickens the vocal without being too noticeable.
If your reverb utilizes an EQ section or modulation,
mix these in to taste, but I prefer a brighter, more modulated sound.
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Stylized Reverb & Crosstalk Emulation
Next I want to combine a couple of effects - I going to use a stylized reverb,
by which I mean one that’s longer, and serves more of a creative purpose than a practical.
This can, in all honesty, really be whatever you want, or what sounds good to you.
I like medium length reverb that focuses on the mid range and has
a little modulation to keep it interesting.
Then I’ll insert a crosstalk plugin - which blends the left and right
channels to create mild expansion. These are kind of hard to come by - you might find a
cross talk function in a tape emulator, but I recommend CanOpener by GoodHertz.
Let’s listen to what these 2 plugins added.
Weiss De-ess
Another de-esser may be overkill at this point, but I really can’t stand the sound of aggressive
sibilance. Since Weiss is so transparent I don’t mind the additional compression - it
lets me control the top end of my vocal without adjusting previous processors.
Also, I enjoy the sound of running processing into a compressor - it’s
subtle but has a distinct sound that I enjoy more often than not.
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Subtle Gullfoss EQ
Gullfoss is an interesting plugin that dynamically adjusts the frequency response
of the incoming signal - in a way that can’t be manually replicated. I find works well
at the end of my chain, since it subtly corrects every small
mistake I either couldn’t hear at first, or couldn’t control.
Subtle settings work best, since the effect can quickly become aggressive in my opinion.
I also like that it gives me these simple macro controls, like
brightening to tilt the response of my vocal without it sounding overbearingly bright or dark.
Let’s listen to the full before and after of the chain.
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