[0:00] how do you make vocals sound
[0:01] professional you don't need a $10,000
[0:03] mic or a million doll Studio you can get
[0:05] professional sounding vocals in a home
[0:07] studio as long as you get these three
[0:09] things right that I'm going to show you
[0:11] today let's jump in first thing you got
[0:12] to understand Prov vocals aren't timid
[0:15] I'm talking about the performance and
[0:17] the recording if you skip over this and
[0:19] Skip straight to mixing I'm going to get
[0:21] to the mixing stuff I promise but if you
[0:23] don't do a good job here your mix will
[0:25] never sound professional the vocal part
[0:29] the vocal per performance needs to sound
[0:31] professional and a big key to
[0:33] professional sounding vocals is
[0:35] confidence I've played on stage and in
[0:38] studios with professional musicians and
[0:40] the biggest distinguishing Factor
[0:42] amongst all of them is confidence this
[0:45] confidence that you can hear in the
[0:48] performance if your vocal tracks don't
[0:50] have that it is worth spending whatever
[0:53] amount of time it takes to fix that
[0:56] problem that may mean voice lessons that
[0:58] may mean simply re-re recording a number
[1:00] of times until you get to that place
[1:02] where the vocal is coming through
[1:04] confidently but it is 100% worth it part
[1:08] of that confidence comes through in
[1:10] simply like good vocal technique right
[1:12] singing out versus singing quietly
[1:15] that's a part of it and singing out will
[1:17] help the compression work a whole lot
[1:18] better when you go to use compression
[1:20] but it's not about loud versus soft it's
[1:22] about confident versus timid confident
[1:25] vocals produce great sounding mixes next
[1:28] Prov vocals aren't woy what do I mean by
[1:31] woy let's dive into Studio One and
[1:33] listen here's the raw vocal recording of
[1:35] a Christmas song I'm working on with my
[1:37] kids this is my vocal recorded actually
[1:39] with this microphone here this is an
[1:41] Earthworks mic um that's specifically
[1:43] designed for voiceover but it's been fun
[1:45] to use uh in a vocal recording session I
[1:47] even recorded clarinette with it I'll
[1:49] put a link to it in the description U
[1:51] but it's really great but it's designed
[1:52] to give a nice thick sound that's great
[1:55] for voiceover great for podcast but for
[1:58] mixing in the actual ual vocal mix on a
[2:01] song it's pretty woy here's what that
[2:03] sounds like joyful all ye nations R when
[2:08] I say woy I mean the vocal has too much
[2:10] of
[2:13] this there's a whole bunch of stuff
[2:15] happening down in the low Miz and the
[2:16] low end there is never a reason why I
[2:19] want my vocals to have that much low end
[2:22] you might hear it and say o it's warm
[2:23] and full and sounds like a tube or
[2:26] whatever uh but that is not going to
[2:28] work in a vocal mix here's what that
[2:30] sounds like on top of the music Joy all
[2:33] ye
[2:35] nations can't really hear the bass now
[2:37] the guitars kind of muffled it's all
[2:39] hidden under the vocal plus this isn't
[2:41] what Pro vocals sound like they have a
[2:43] nice crispness to them uh and there's
[2:45] not a hint of that W wolfiness that's
[2:49] there but once I mix it it sounds closer
[2:51] to this joyful all ye nations rise
[2:56] there's still warmth there but it's not
[2:58] woy here's woy joyful all ye nations
[3:03] rise here's not woy joyful all ye
[3:08] nation and how does it work in the mix
[3:10] it fits so much better
[3:13] Joy
[3:15] Nations by the way before we dive into
[3:17] the third one if you don't already have
[3:19] a simple repeatable process for getting
[3:22] great sounding mixes every time steal my
[3:25] process go to fstep mix.com to find out
[3:27] more and the final piece provocal sit on
[3:30] top of the mix now I understand that
[3:33] sitting on top of the mix is so vague
[3:36] what does that actually mean for me it
[3:38] actually means three specific things the
[3:39] first thing is ringing there's no
[3:42] ringing frequencies in the vocal that
[3:45] jump louder than where the vocal is
[3:47] sitting so if this is the music I
[3:49] typically want my vocal to sit just
[3:50] right on top of it not way over it but
[3:53] not buried in it either but the only way
[3:56] the vocal can sit there is if there's no
[3:58] specific frequency that jump out on
[4:01] certain words and one of the biggest
[4:02] places I hear that in my work is this
[4:05] kind of ringing that happens on certain
[4:07] vowel sound so using the same spot that
[4:10] we've already used listen to this phrase
[4:12] for me joyful all ye nations rise all
[4:17] right I'm going to give you a hint
[4:18] listen to the word all going from joyful
[4:22] all there's something weird there take a
[4:23] listen
[4:25] joyful ye do you hear it one more time
[4:29] joyful
[4:30] there's
[4:32] a for some reason when I go from the L
[4:35] Sound to the a there's this extra
[4:37] resonance in my nose or my I don't know
[4:40] what's causing it but it happens all the
[4:41] time and with any singer I've ever
[4:43] worked with there's some variation of
[4:45] this but there is a ringing that's
[4:47] happening let me turn it down and I'll
[4:49] boost that frequency it's about 2.7k so
[4:51] you can hear it
[4:55] joyfuls doesn't happen on every word but
[4:58] on some words it is ridiculously
[5:00] pronounced now that you've heard it I'm
[5:02] going to turn that off listen to it
[5:04] again you'll hear it a little bit better
[5:08] joyful so on top of a mix if the vocal
[5:11] is here and the rest of the
[5:13] instrumentation is here if that that
[5:15] little bit of is going to cause the
[5:16] vocal to sound too loud you may not
[5:18] realize what's happening but it makes
[5:19] your ear go I don't like it and so you
[5:21] go to turn the vocal down well now the
[5:23] vocal is buried I wanted the vocal to
[5:24] sit what do I do some people might reach
[5:26] for compression and all sorts of you
[5:28] don't need that for this uh I love
[5:30] compression on vocals but you just need
[5:32] something like this a simple Notch that
[5:34] just turns it down like crazy and then
[5:37] the vocal sounds smooth like this joyful
[5:40] all ye
[5:42] nations turn down a little bit more here
[5:45] it is
[5:46] joyful ye nations
[5:49] joyful ye nations versus before
[5:56] joyful like it's it's like a pronounce
[5:58] like that comes through and even the mix
[6:00] we would hear that as a vocal seemingly
[6:02] too loud so that's the first thing
[6:04] ringing second thing that can keep a
[6:06] vocal from sitting in the mix is certain
[6:08] phrases that just pop out I'm a big fan
[6:10] of compression on a vocal and sometimes
[6:13] you can just use a nice aggressive
[6:15] compressor like this and you can see
[6:17] it's doing good amount of compression
[6:19] and that's just perfect for the vocal
[6:21] but sometimes that sounds perfect on
[6:23] just about everything but there are
[6:25] phrases that are jumping out like this
[6:27] one right here is pretty loud
[6:32] that one's still a little bit loud what
[6:33] do we do there well we could trim that
[6:35] down like cut this up and like trim it
[6:38] down like that or a simpler solution is
[6:40] to just add another compressor to the
[6:42] end of the chain set it up something
[6:44] like this where it's uh very high ratio
[6:47] very fast attack quick release and set
[6:50] the threshold such that it really only
[6:52] does any gain reduction on the loudest
[6:54] parts so if you watch this right here as
[6:57] it gets to this section where the loud
[6:59] part is that's the only place where
[7:00] you'll see any compression my God
[7:04] and Reon so it just acts like kind of a
[7:09] bouncer who's just there saying you you
[7:11] stay in line and if you jump up too high
[7:13] I'm going to smack you back down that's
[7:14] what we first learned compression to do
[7:18] right we typically use it more
[7:19] aggressively to give us tones but this
[7:21] is an example where I'll use compression
[7:23] in exactly this manner to keep certain
[7:25] things from getting too loud so that my
[7:27] vocal still sits nicely on top of the m
[7:29] the third piece you probably already
[7:30] know this but in case you don't a dser
[7:33] vocals especially once you start
[7:34] compressing can be pretty cilent listen
[7:37] to the S's and T's
[7:41] here that s is pretty ridiculously loud
[7:45] with a dser we can tame those s's that
[7:48] we've accentuated through EQ and
[7:50] compression so that everything stays
[7:52] right where we want it and those s's
[7:54] don't jump out above that nice level
[7:56] we've set for the vocal God and S
[8:00] reconcile we can still hear them but
[8:03] they're not like taking over the
[8:04] performance all right that's it for this
[8:06] video thanks for watching be sure to
[8:07] like And subscribe and do all the things
[8:09] I have some homework for you go to your
[8:11] studio sit in your listening position
[8:13] whether that's headphones or speakers
[8:14] listen to your three favorite songs and
[8:17] focus specifically on the vocal tone
[8:20] what does the lead vocal sound like in
[8:23] those mixes I bet you haven't done this
[8:25] in a while and I bet you'll hear things
[8:28] and think oh in my mind I always thought
[8:30] that vocal was really thick and woy but
[8:33] in reality it's actually pretty thin and
[8:36] I'm seeing that as a consistency across
[8:38] all the music that I listen to go try it
[8:40] out come back and leave a comment let us
[8:42] know how it worked I'll see you in the
[8:43] next one