---
title: 'Pro Vocals in 3 Easy Steps'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=pYCELQEGgL0'
video_id: 'pYCELQEGgL0'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# Pro Vocals in 3 Easy Steps

> Source: [Pro Vocals in 3 Easy Steps](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pYCELQEGgL0)

## Summary

Professional-sounding vocals don't require expensive gear. You can achieve them at home by focusing on three key areas: a confident performance, a non-woofy tonal balance, and ensuring the vocals sit cleanly on top of the mix.

### Key Points

- **Introduction** [0:00] — You don't need a $10,000 mic or a million dollar studio to get professional vocals. Focus on three specific things.
- **Pro Vocals Are Confident** [0:12] — The performance must be confident, not timid. Even a great mix can't fix a weak performance. Confidence is the biggest distinguishing factor between amateur and pro singers.
- **Pro Vocals Aren't 'Woofy'** [1:28] — A 'woofy' vocal has too much low-mid and low-end energy. This masks other instruments (like bass and guitar). The goal is a crisp sound with warmth, not woofiness.
- **Vocals Sit on Top of the Mix** [3:30] — The vocal should sit just on top of the instrumentation, not buried or overpowering. Three specific techniques help achieve this.
- **Fixing Ringing Frequencies** [3:42] — Certain vowel sounds can cause a resonant 'ringing' (e.g., at ~2.7kHz). Use a narrow notch EQ to cut these frequencies so the vocal level is consistent.
- **Taming Loud Phrases** [6:04] — Some phrases pop out too much. A compressor with a very high ratio, fast attack, and fast release (acts like a 'bouncer') can tame only the loudest parts.
- **De-essing** [7:29] — Compression can exaggerate sibilance. A de-esser tames loud 'S' and 'T' sounds so they don't jump out above the vocal's settled level.
- **Homework & Conclusion** [8:06] — Listen to your three favorite songs and focus specifically on the vocal tone. You'll likely find pro vocals are thinner and less woofy than you imagined.

### Conclusion

Achieving professional vocals at home is possible by securing a confident performance, controlling low-end woofiness with EQ, and using compression and de-essing to make the vocal sit cleanly on top of the mix.

## Transcript

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