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Pop Music Vocal Processing?
So here's the skinny. I'm very good at making instrumentals and am very good at recording my vocals. However, when it comes time to create a final mix, I have a hard time judging how loud or soft to set them, or how to process them so they sit in a mix rather than come off sounding like amateur hour. There's more infighting for space in a mix than ten Kardashians in a loo. It normally takes me an average of two weeks to a month before I figure out how to get the vocals to sit right in the mix, and that's only for that particular mix.
So, my question to you is...do you have any advice on how best to process pop vocals or know any techniques used by "the pros"? Thanks mates. (Hopefully this thread helps others too actually.)
Comments
Do you have some examples we can hear? It might make the issues clearer.
I've spent a lot of time and effort on improving my vocal mixes over the last couple of years, and while I'm far from being the finished article I can definitely provide the insights that I've gleaned.
Firstly if you're mixing your own music you have to fight the tendency to make the vocals too quiet: you know exactly what you're singing, so to you it's all perfectly clear, but to others it won't be and often people who mix their own tracks tend to make the vocals too quiet, meaning that the lyrics will be hard to follow. In a vocal track generally the vocals need to be front and centre.
In terms of effects the main ones I tend to use are the basics: compression, some very subtle delay, and reverb. You may or may not need some pitch correction depending on the vocalist. I only use EQ if there is an obvious need for it, otherwise I leave it out (it's very hard to "improve" an already good vocal with EQ in my experience). However the reverb send must absolutely have EQ to tame the highs and lows (or use a reverb like Pro-R where you can control the tonality). Also rather than using EQ to emphasize the nice parts of the vocalist's timbre I like to emphasize those frequencies in the reverb instead, it adds a nice level of lushness to the voice. So for example on a male singer singing a low to medium part I would add some EQ boost to the reverb at around 1000 Hz so that the reverb is emphasizing the the pleasing tones in the voice. In a high part you add the emphasis higher up, use a frequency analyser to help locate where to add the EQ.
Compression is generally set to 4:1 or 5:1 with fast-ish attack and medium release times. The more aggressive the compression, the more likely there is to be sibilance and generally I find some mild compression works better and allows me to avoid having to use a de-esser. If there are really big peaks in volume it's worth adding a limiter before the compressor or simply automating the volume - I tend to chop the waveform up and add or remove gain from individual sections to control volume peaks. The right compression can really help to bring out the natural timbre in the voice, so it's worth spending some time getting this right - make sure the compression is helping the voice by carefully listening to its effect.
I also often use a fake ADT-like effect, using PSP Echo because it's a decent emulation of a tape delay, so the natural wow and flutter it adds gives a decent recreation of ADT. I make sure the wet signal is only barely audible so that it sits just behind the vocal to give it a little extra thickness.
This is of course just my workflow and it may not suit everyone. The other thing I always do is comp the vocal from multiple takes, to get the best possible performance - this makes more difference than everything else put together.
An example of my processing and mixing for reference: all the techniques I mention are used in this one:
(edit) In this one I also created a fake harmony for the vocal by copying the vocal to a new track and pitching it up by 5 semitones, and mixing that to be just audible below the main voice.
How/where do you find best to do this magical pitching of which you speak?
I copy and paste the waveforms from the vocal track to a new track in Auria, select all the copies in the timeline and then just go to Process --> Pitch and pitch up by 5 semitones.
See, I would never be as simple and intelligent as that. Would be out into Twisted Wave and fiddling while the cows were begging to be milked etc. Thanks.
you're not alone Johnny, I would have done it with that Autotune plugin in Auria, only to be disappointed with the results. Thanks @richardyot
good thread BTW, I'm interested in this as well. I'm most of the way through the Coursera Vocal Processing course (auditing for free), and there are some good nuggets of info in those video. I wish iOS had a "Revoice" at iOS prices!
@JohnnyGoodyear that's the thing, if you have Auria you don't really need TwistedWave. I bought it when it was on sale and haven't ever used it.
Don't doubt it. It's a common thing hereabouts for me to be noodling something and have it dawn on me that I could have/should have done the same thing from the getgo in AP....
You may do this already, but the first thing I do is highpass the vocals, to get rid of any boominess and unrelated low frequency noise in the mic. Listen to the vocal as you bring up the highpass, and take it until it starts to take away the body of the voice, then back it off. Vocals are so loud in a mix, that unwanted low end in them will make a mix woofy without it always being apparent it is the vocal. Then compressor, after the highpass, so the compressor isn't reacting to the low sounds that you are cutting out.
Pop vocals are usually crisp, and upfront, one way to get that clarity is boosting the highs, with a high shelf, in your channel EQ. An alternative to an EQ is an exciter, which is a form of distortion, but only on the high frequencies. It can manufacture treble that isn't there to start with, rather than boosting it, like an EQ. It can make sings sound more electric. This usually makes the S's obnoxiously loud, so is followed by a de-esser.
Many pop vocals are double tracked, which usually sounds good, as long as the consonants are tight with the first take. You don't have to mix the double track 50/50 with the original, you can just have it in a little bit as a sweetener. The double can be de-essed harder than the original, or eq'd darker, if the consonants poke out, or better, can be performed with softer consanants. Some engineers will use a chorus effect to simulate this, which sounds different, but can sound good, in a synthetic way.
Along with reverb and delay, one other move to try is a short, stereo delay that decays quickly, something to splatter the sound in a stereo way, and widen it while adding a bit of ambience.
For the royal treatment, when the mix is pretty far along, automate the volume, line by line. This can be a substitute for compression, and often sounds better than just squashing it, it just takes longer.
This is how you do it
Not an iOS solution, but Izotope Nectar. Sine qua non.
Please elucidate just at least a little tiny bit...
Just going through, each section of the song, and drawing in volume automation for when it's to loud or too quiet. This means you can use a softer ratio, like 2:1, on your compressor, and still be able to control the volume. A compressor is an automatic volume control, here, it is being used together with a manual volume control (the automation), for a more transparent, tailored result.
Can be better, even if you aren't going line by line, to draw some automation, for example, for a couple loud S's or P's, rather than trying to make the compressor compress the rest of the track in an overly aggressive way.
@JohnnyGoodyear In Auria Pro I find it much easier to chop up the waveform and adjust gain on small individual sections rather than automating the fader volume: it's easier to edit and also doesn't lock the channel fader to the automation track (which makes it hard to then adjust the track volume without using a group or a bus). You can be quite surgical with this technique too, by isolating short loud sounds visually on the waveform.
Here's a mini-tutorial to explain how it works.
Shame one can't make a living doing tutorials. Yours are not only very welcome, but they are also incredibly clear.
Well, funny you should say that, but I do make a big chunk of my living doing tutorials
Not for iOS music apps though. Maybe one day, who knows?
This this THIS! Sorry, Richard - I've been meaning to respond to your excellent advice from my No Loss thread, but I just stumbled across this. I've also found that no matter how close to the "edge" of my comfort zone a part is - i.e., times when fear of vocal fatigue might set in - it still holds true. Your 11th take will sound better than your 1st, as a whole. 21st would probably be even better. Vocals are just like any other instrument. You need to warm up and put in the hours.
When I was a much younger lad, I used to sing everywhere. Shower, bedroom, walking the streets, walking the woods, then later, driving the car. Oh, and at band rehearsals and shows. Sadly, I fell out of that about the time I "settled down." I found your advice on my thread about putting in the time on vocals very relevant and close to my heart, as well as my own advice to my son regarding, well, just about anything: you have to put the hours in. No short cuts. Thank you for that feedback
For the OP, I would add this thought ... the number of people who can waltz into a recording session, nail the whole song in one take, and waltz back out is probably very, very, very low, and includes almost none of the current crop of Pop Megastars. The number of people who can do that and then mix it, themselves, successfully? Much, much, much lower. Like maybe 23, 24 people (and a fair portion of those are already here in the SOTMC). So ... put in the hours, comp your vocals - oh, and a good way to check how loud your vox are in a mix in a slightly more objective way is to put your mix into mono. Auria has a button for that on the master fader, not sure about Cubasis ... apologies if you already know all this or it's already been discussed.
Thanks for all your sage advice, Richard, as well as your continued plum batch of Auria tips, and best of luck with your vocal mixes, @jwmmakerofmusic! Better takes = better mixes
+1
+1 more, but OMG, when you're as lame of a vocalist as I am, and can't get two consecutive phrases right, piecing together all those vocal tracks is tedious work. It's true though, that, this coupled with doubling (or more) vocal tracks has finally given me vocal tracks I almost like! Someday I might even have the courage to share one with the forum!
All the great advice you wonderful people have provided me will be used on the cover track I make for Covers Club this month. Started preliminary work on that.
I've largely avoided the Covers Club (for fear of getting sucked in
), but I'd like to hear your effort....
Bet you'll never guess in a million years what I'm planning to cover/recreate. Hint, it was used as a demonstration for a music creation app but never officially released in full.