DISCO! DISCO! Vol 3 Sample Pack

                                                David Anthony PRoducer/Mix Engineer

Crystal Clear Vocal "In your face Mix"




I often get asked questions like “how do you get these great sounding mixes?” or “hey man, the vocals sound crystal clear and smooth how did you do that?” It's really not all that complicated and I'm going to share some simple technics on positioning the vocal to sound front and center while staying completely transparent.  There are four things that must be applied to a vocal every time no matter which genre of music or tempo one is working with.

In no specific order here they are:
1. EQ (Equalization)
2. Compression (Vocal Dynamics Control)
3. Desser (Syllabus Control - S's and T's)
4. Reverb (Vocal Room Sound)

Now, these aren’t the only processing functions used on vocals but the majority of the time you’re going to see these applied to vocals by a professional mix engineer. So you’re probably wondering "This isn’t new to me I already know this" ok granted, but this is where we leave the known for the unknown. Lets begin with - what does one do to a vocal before adding any processing to the mix? I like to call it vocal cleaning, picture a butcher at a meat market that will carve out all the fat and leave just the lean meat, that is the basic idea here. Sounds good right? So, how does one accomplish that? First thing, start with the lead vocal and listen on solo. Run thru the lead straight through and take notes on areas that sound problematic. Common issues are noise between vocals and headphone bleed and anything that isn't part of the natural vocalist performance.  Eliminate by simply cutting out dead space (audio space) that doesn't have any vocal data. Finally create slight volume fades in the beginning and end of each vocal region for smooth transitions.

Breathing, Breathing, Breathing…

Considered possibly the most overlooked area by experts, this is where I spend a chunk of time making sure to do it right because it makes a huge difference in the mix hands down. Now, just like anything in the creative realm there is an art to it. Some remove the breath completely mostly because it’s quick and easy, others use volume automation, where in the final mix they adjust the volume on the track to diminish the breathing. My way might take longer but it produces a much more natural result which I believe works best.

Often when compressing the vocal one can achieve a great sound with a compressor but the breathing may cause to lower the compression level to compensate.  To get that really nice tight compression sound in the listeners face one has to lower the breathing level before adding the compressor. I accomplish this by pushing the compressor to a ridiculous amount just for the purpose of hearing the breathing sound in a very asthmatic tone. Next I go to the audio track and I directly lower the breath on the region so that it sounds natural to the compressed vocal. This method takes practice and it will be necessary throughout the whole song by going line-by-line bringing down the breath till it sounds natural to the compressed vocal. Once you have done this you can set your compressor to a more desirable threshold.

Congratulations we are half way there; we are now going to learn to control the S's and T's (syllabus control). Many plug-ins exist that help with this and work very well but my personal favorite is the “Waves Renaissance Desser” which is really easy and sounds right on the money. It’s purpose is to reduce those piercing high frequency noises derived from shhhh, tut, and tee sounds which can get in the way of keeping the vocal in the sweet spot of the mix. Certain frequencies can cause annoyances in the area of 4k - 8K depending on the vocalists’ gender.

Now that the vocal is clean we want to create room for it. I like to use two reverbs on my vocals. First, I use a short small room reverb applied directly to the track and next I balance the mix of the vocal and the reverb within the plug-in itself. This gives the vocal a nice near feel making it sound like it’s right there in the room with you singing in your ear. The second reverb is a longer one and I apply it through the use of a bus send. I send the signal of the vocal channel to a bus channel where the reverb will then play back while the original track stays intact not altering the sound of the original track but adding more reverberation to it. This creates a very nice sound. One cool thing to do is once the long reverb is set to its optimal level we can also automate the volume of the long reverb throughout the vocal to create cool effects.

All things considered to someone who is just starting out this may not make much sense in a applicable approach, but to someone who is seasoned using DAW’s such as: Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and Cubase the terms should seem familiar.  Assuming you have been cutting vocals and wanting to get the best mix possible out of your vocals but just couldn't find a way, well I may have just made your day or better yet your year! Ha, Ha, Ha. If you had an “aha” moment after reading this, then that is what inspired me to write this.

Happy carving, cleaning and fading :)

Written by David Anthony Producer/Mix engineer