---
title: '1000 Hours of Vocal Mixing Tutorials in 30 Minutes'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=UBigaeYW0mE'
video_id: 'UBigaeYW0mE'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 0
---

# 1000 Hours of Vocal Mixing Tutorials in 30 Minutes

> Source: [1000 Hours of Vocal Mixing Tutorials in 30 Minutes](https://youtube.com/watch?v=UBigaeYW0mE)

## Summary

This video condenses 12 years of vocal mixing experience into a 30-minute guide covering pitch correction, EQ, compression, de-essing, reverb, delay, doubles, background vocals, and creative effects. The creator emphasizes that performance and recording quality are far more important than plugins, and shares a clear hierarchy: performance > recording > microphone > plugins > mixing > mastering.

### Key Points

- **Pitch Correction** [00:50] — Manual pitch correction (e.g., Melodyne) gives better results but takes more time; automatic (e.g., Autotune Pro) is faster but less natural. Use depends on genre and singer's pitch accuracy.
- **EQ Essentials** [01:45] — EQ is the most important plugin. Common moves: cut below 100 Hz, add high shelf around 8 kHz, dip mud around 250–750 Hz. Subtractive EQ sounds more natural; additive EQ adds color. Analog emulations (Pultec, SSL) can add pleasant boosts.
- **Compression Techniques** [04:50] — FET compressors (e.g., 1176) add distinct flavor. Use fast attack, fast release, 4:1 ratio. Chain multiple compressors for natural results. Gain staging before compression helps tame peaks and preserve energy.
- **De-essing** [07:10] — De-essers target sibilance. Place one before EQ and one after compression for best results. Subtle taming of harsh S sounds makes a big difference.
- **Reverb and Delay** [08:16] — Reverb adds space; more reverb pushes vocal back. Use bus reverb for efficiency, automate reverb fills between phrases. Delay can replace reverb in busy mixes. Band-pass delay signal to avoid clashing with lead vocal.
- **Creative Effects** [14:38] — Flanger for width, formant shifters for timbre changes, LFOs for rhythmic stutter, distortion for grit (especially high-end), reversed vocals for swells, and creative busing with distortion/amp.
- **Doubles and Background Vocals** [17:15] — Record actual doubles/triples for width. Pan hard left/right. Fake doubles by detuning +15/-15 cents. Sync doubles in time for tighter sound. Use a different mic (e.g., SM7B) for background vocals to keep them warm and in the background.
- **Mixing and Volume Balance** [21:50] — Mix into a limiter, mix in mono at low volume. Only snare, vocals, and kick should poke through. Use sidechain compression on instrument submix to let vocal sit in the mix rather than on top.
- **Editing and Comping** [23:57] — Remove pops, clicks, plosives. Gain stage before compression. Comp best takes together; prioritize energy and emotion over pitch (pitch can be fixed later).
- **Recording Best Practices** [25:25] — Stand 4–6 inches from mic. Use large diaphragm condenser for sparkle. Record standing up, sing to a drum track instead of metronome. Keep mic ready on a desk arm to capture ideas instantly.
- **Hierarchy of Vocal Quality** [27:30] — Performance > Recording > Microphone > Plugins > Mixing > Mastering. A great singer (like Adele) will sound good even through an iPhone. Focus on improving singing ability first.

## Transcript

It's been 12 years since my journey
started of trying to get a better vocal
sound. And in that time, I've probably
mixed thousands of hours of vocals
alone. In this video, I'm going to
condense those thousand plus hours into
24 minutes of the most important things
I've learned in getting a professional
vocal sound. By the end of this video,
you'll know more about mixing and
recording vocals than 95% of artists out
there, and you won't have to go through
the years of frustration to get a good
vocal sound like I did. Let's get
started. We'll start off with what I
assume most of you struggle with most,
which is actually mixing vocals and
putting plugins on them. Although this
is far from the most important thing
that you can do to get a better vocal
sound. I'll get to that at the end of
the video. It's probably one of the most
confusing. Let's go over the plugins in
the order I normally use to process my
lead vocal in. Heads up, the vocals that
we'll be working with today is a custom
song that I made specifically for this
video. First plugin we'll start with is
pitch correction. For modern song
production, pitch correction is make or
break, and getting it right is
essential. That being said, pitch
correction is very genre and singer
dependent. If your singer is mostly on
pitch or you're working with a genre
like folk or acoustic, you might not
need it for this track. It feels more
pop, so it makes sense to use it.
There are two main types of pitch
correction. Manual, which involves
individually moving each note that was
sung, and automatic, which automatically
does it for you. In my opinion, manual
gives better results than using the
automatic counterpart, but it does take
significantly more time to dial in a
vocal. I normally use melodine for any
manual pitch correction that I'm trying
to do. On the other hand, automatic is
way faster, but in my opinion, doesn't
sound quite as good. For this
performance, and the vocal was already
sounding mostly on pitch, and for the
sake of time, I'm going to be using
automatic. In my opinion, the best
automatic sounding tuner is Autotune
Pro. Let's go on to the next plugin in
my vocal chain, EQ. EQ, in my opinion,
is the most important plugin that you're
going to put on your vocal chain today.
And most people have no idea what
they're doing with it. Out of all the
plugins we'll use today, it's one of the
hardest to get right. That's probably
because every vocal, every microphone,
every different recording needs slightly
different EQ settings. Even though
that's the case, there are some EQ moves
I find myself regularly doing regardless
of the singer and microphone that's
being used. Those moves are getting rid
of the bass below 100 hertz,
adding a high shelf around 8K and
boosting the shine and then dipping some
of the mud around 250 to 750 Hz.
[Music]
This is a good starting point for most
vocals. You can do this same type of EQ
move with any type of EQ that you
choose. Some of my favorites to use are
the ProQ4, like I'm using here, or
Logic's stock EQ. I also want to point
out that the majority of these are
subtractive EQ, or in other words,
taking away the sound. This cut and this
dip here. This is the opposite of
additive EQ, which would be adding or
boosting frequencies. I find that
subtractive EQ tends to sound more
natural, whereas additive EQ can add
some colors to the sound, which can be
pleasant. When I want to add those
colors to the sound, I often turn to
analog emulations of EQ to get the job
done. The first plugin that I'll use is
a simulation of a Ptech EQ. I often use
this to boost the highs of a vocal above
8k. I'll go up to 10k here. Turn up the
bandwidth and boost up
[Music]
just more present overall. I'll also use
the same technique to boost to low end.
I find that both of the boosts just have
a nice sound to them. The other analog
EQ I find myself using a lot is the
emulation of an SSL EQ. I used this
exact EQ setting for years on my vocals
and I stole it directly from a mixer
called Leslie Braithweight from a video
I watched about 8 years ago. Taking some
of the filter up to get rid of the body.
Taking more of that low end down.
Dipping some of the mids around 500 htz.
Dipping again at 4,000 htz and then
boosting at around 9k with a high shelf.
These settings I'm giving you are great
starting points for vocals, but you're
always going to get better results when
you can train your ears to identify the
frequencies that need help. Here's one
concept that really helped me with EQing
and just mixing in general. This tip has
to do with the mid-range of any
instrument. Think about 1K. It's one of
the most important and most heard parts
of any song or voice or instrument. And
you can think of that mid-range like a
rubber band. The more mid-range a voice
has, the more it's going to band towards
you and feel closer to you as a
producer.
[Music]
The less mid-range a vocal has, the more
it will start to blend in and dip back
into the rest of the track.
You can use this idea to help bring your
vocals more forward in the mix. I think
a lot of people would be really
surprised to hear how much actual
mid-range is on the vocals of some of
their favorite tracks. Now, let's move
on to the next plugin I'll put on the
chain, the compressor. Compression can
either glue your vocal perfectly or it
can completely destroy it. And the
difference is in understanding these
tips I'm about to share. The first one
is that different compressor types color
the sound differently. My favorite type
of compressor to use for vocals would be
the FET type compressor, which most
famously is the 1176. It adds a distinct
flavor that I've come to love and expect
when I hear my vocal tracks. I almost
always use as fast of release as it can
go, a pretty fast attack, and then a 4:1
ratio.
[Music]
I also tend to chain multiple
compressors together to get the best
sound possible. Having multiple
compressors in a row will reduce the
workload of any one compressor and often
leads to more natural sounding results.
After adding compression, you might
notice that you'll have some more lows
and low mids that you might want to get
rid of. You can always go back to the EQ
from before and adjust accordingly.
In this case, I think it sounds pretty
good. The vocal is sounding way better
in the mix, but there are still a couple
peaks in the vocal that need to be
tamed, that are being overcompressed,
which brings me into my next point. Get
out my iPad for this. With more
compression, oftent times the voice will
be more upfront and easily able to be
heard. But it also comes at a cost of
less energy. On the other hand, a vocal
that's less compressed will be farther
back and it will have more of that
original energy of the recording. This
is often an important trade-off to keep
in mind. The more you compress
something, the less of that original
performance energy that will have, but
the less you compress something, the
less it will be able to be understood.
For most modern mixes, you'll probably
want to lean more towards more
compression than anything. But there are
ways to have the best of both worlds
where you can get both energy and
compression at the same time. And that
has to do with gainstaging, which let me
show you now. Notice these peaks in my
vocal here. These parts are going to get
compressed way more than the smaller
parts of my vocal. To help fix that, all
you have to do is highlight the selected
vocal and then take it down in terms of
gain. You can either do this in the
region editor in Logic like this, or you
can automate everything.
I personally like to use the first
method and create different parts for
the regions because I can visually see
how loud those vocal waves are getting.
But actually, automating gain will
probably give you more fine-tuned
results. Let's move on to another
specific type of compression that can
really help save a badly recorded vocal.
That would be the DSer. A DSER is
basically a compressor that only targets
a narrow range of high frequencies,
specifically where S's and siblins live.
Mics tend to exaggerate these siblance
sounds while recording. They can make
your vocals sound very sharp or painful.
And if you're boosting the top end, like
I recommended with my EQ, this can
become even more of a problem. TSRs are
super easy to set up and they're very
easy to hear the difference between A
and B. Notice when it says show that
this DSER starts working, let's turn it
off.
[Music]
It's really subtle, but that small
taming can actually help a lot. This
particular vocal recording doesn't have
a lot of sibilent sounds, but others
definitely might. Just like with normal
compressors, you can chain DSERS for a
more natural effect. You can also affect
where they are in the vocal chain, which
will give you slightly different
results. My favorite thing to do for an
especially sibilent vocal is to have one
go before my EQ and then one sandwich my
EQ and compression. That means before I
boost anything, I'm dsing a little bit
and then I'm also dsing after my
compression to make sure that that S
isn't so harsh. Let's go over the next
types of plugins I'll put in my voice,
reverb and delay. Let's start with
reverb. Most people use reverb to add
space, but if you want your voice to
sound expensive, you'll need to
understand its nuances. There are two
main ways of putting reverb on a track,
either directly on the track or using a
bus track. Both have pros and cons.
Putting it on the track itself uses more
processing power, but it can be faster
and it can be easier to dial in and
automate. Busing reverb oftent times
requires less processing power. You have
more control over the reverb bus itself,
but it does take a little bit longer to
set up. I tend to use a combination of
both techniques on my vocal. If I'm
working with a lead vocal or an
instrument track, I have no problem just
throwing on a reverb track by itself on
there. Oftentimes, I'm trying to work as
creatively and as fast as possible so
that my ideas don't slip down the drain.
However, for background vocals or
something with 50 plus tracks, I'm
absolutely going to use bus reverb so I
can save on processing power. Let me add
one of my favorite reverbs here directly
to the lead vocal, the Valhalla Vintage
Verb.
The more reverb a vocal has, the farther
back it feels in the mix. Let me go back
to my iPad to demonstrate this. If you
are right here and you're in a hallway
and you hear a sound really close to
you, somebody's whispering into your
ear, you probably won't hear any reverb.
There's not going to be any extra room
reflections that bounce around and then
go back to your ear. However, on the
opposite side of the spectrum, if
somebody's yelling at you from across
the room, that sound is going to travel
forever until it hits your ears, which
is also going to introduce a lot of
extra noise reflections and a lot of
reverb. That being said, this would be
more reverb farther away, less reverb
right up close. Hopefully that makes
sense. Now, let me show you how I might
add reverb with a bus track. What's cool
about the bus track is it lets me add
any number of effects after the reverb
to further change the sound. For
example, a common one is to use an EQ to
really hone in what frequencies the
reverb is happening on.
[Music]
But this also works for other effects
like distortion, an amp, chorus,
flanger. To make a reverb feel more like
reverb without mudding up the vocal, I
like to automate the parts in between
when the vocal isn't singing. You can
either do that by automating the amount
of send you have on the bus track like
up or down or you can automate the
individual plugin itself which is why I
think the individual plugin shines. You
can see I'm just automating it so that
every time there is an empty space the
reverb comes in.
[Music]
You're just filling in that space to
give it that much more polish. The best
vocals in the world are doing this all
manually. and manually is the best way,
just like with pitch correction. But if
you're feeling lazy, you can do an
automatic version of this by adding a
side chain compressor to your reverb
bus. Make sure that lead is selected in
side chain on the compressor.
This compressor is set up in a way that
when the voice stops, that reverb will
come in. It's turning it down minus 10,
and then when it stops singing, it
won't, and you'll hear it better. In my
opinion, it doesn't sound quite as good
as the manual way, but it can really
save you some time if you just throw
this on. Let's move on to the next
plugin, delay. Even though delay is a
really popular effect, most people don't
take advantage of some of the best ways
of using it. Delay and reverb are very
much cousins. You can do all of the same
techniques that I just mentioned with
reverb with delay. Anytime I'm using a
delay, I almost always like to put it
before a reverb so that my delay isn't
dry. In this case, if I put delay
directly on the track, I'll use h delay,
which is one of my favorites. I'll put
it before the vintage verb
on a bus track. oftentimes that that
means me making a completely new bus
specifically for delay and then adding
its own reverb plugin after the fact to
make sure that it's not dry. The
majority of time I use delays, I band
pass the outcoming signal. Really easy
to do on an H delay like this. You just
take the highp pass, pull it up, and the
low pass, pull it down. This helps gets
it out of the way of the main lead vocal
so that you can have both living in the
same space but still be able to
understand. teach you how to make better
vocals. Just like reverb, probably to
get the best results and fill in some of
these spaces is to automate the delay to
fill them in. And just like reverb, you
can use that side chain compression
method to do the same thing. If delay is
a big part of the track sound, I'll
often make its own track just for the
delay itself. Sometimes what you hear as
a delay is actually just multiple tracks
stacked on top of each other with each
vocal pasted exactly where I want it.
This just gives me more control. For
example, I might do that with this lead
here. take the last part here and move
it over.
[Music]
And sometimes I'll record a completely
different part with background vocals
that I'll sing on over that. I'll get
more into background vocals in a little
bit, but I thought I'd point that out.
And here comes one of my most favorite
tips when it comes to using delay.
Delays are a fantastic replacement for
reverbs when it comes to a busy mix. If
you have a lot of elements going on
already and your mids and your low mids
are already very muddy and convoluted,
then it's really a good idea to use
delay instead of reverb. It will still
push back the sound like you want it,
but it won't muddy up the mix nearly as
much. You can do that with an H delay
right here. Instead of using the host
and syncing up with your BPM, go into
milliseconds, drop it down a little bit,
turn up the feedback, and then use the
dry wet knob to taste.
[Music]
that's got absolutely no reverb on it at
all. The only thing that's driving it
backwards in the mix is the delay
itself. This is a really good idea if
you have super busy mixes. It also goes
right in hand with the next point of my
delay. If you want to hear the delay of
your vocal, take it off of syncing with
your BPM. If you want your vocal delay
to blend in with the rest of the track,
then sync it to your BPM. 90% of the
time I'm syncing it to the BPM, but that
can be a really helpful hint. If you
want to actually hear your delay better,
then take it off and just use
milliseconds and put it to some random
value. Now, if all of these plugins and
things I'm talking about still seem
overwhelming, I've created a free vocal
preset that you can download in the link
below. If you download them, all you
have to do is click on them and they
will automatically load in. It will
automatically change the sound for you,
which is really cool. using some of
these same concepts I mentioned. You
don't have to worry about buying any of
these plugins I have here because it
only uses stock plugins. Go check them
out in the description below. Now, let
me do a quick fire round of some of the
other cool vocal effects I like to use.
First up, the flanger. Flanger is great
for adding width, and it's also a good
replacement if you didn't actually
record doubles or triples.
[Music]
The next up would be format shifters,
which I always put before any of my
other plugins. Foreman shifters are
great for changing the sound of a voice
without actually changing the pitch.
[Music]
Next up would be sampled vocals. Take a
portion of your lead vocal and drag it
to an empty track and put it into a
quick sampler. Turn on slice, take the
sensitivity down of the transients, and
all of a sudden you can play these chops
on the piano.
can be a super cool and creative way of
finding some cool ideas for vocal chops.
Next up would be LFOs. LFOs are really
great for emulating side chains or
rhythmic stutter effects like this.
Next plugin I talk about is creative
busing. Just like with our bust reverbs,
we can add some different effects to
them to get some interesting sounds. For
example, we might be able to add a clip
distortion or after that we could even
add a guitar amp. Now any of the reverb
that's going through this bus is going
to go through Valhalla room. It's going
to be side chained. Then it's going to
be distorted and then gone through an
amp.
This allows for a lot of really creative
effects and can give some cool results.
Next up would be reversing vocals. Take
the first part of your lead vocal, drag
it to a new track, turn on reverb, and
crank that thing up on the individual
track itself. Bounce it in place. Extend
the tail. Double click on it. Go to
functions. Reverse. And now you have a
vocal swell that you can put right
before your drop, that's going to sound
cool.
And if you put it right before your
actual drop, it's going to just hit even
harder.
[Music]
This next tip has to do with distortion.
Distortion is a heavier version of
saturation and can add grittiness and
energy to a vocal. Cranking it up is
great for genres like rock, punk, or
metal.
But I do want to point out that it won't
emulate the actual distortion that a
singer needs to sing to get the best
results. This is without Saturn, but me
singing with a slightly distorted tone.
You can hear that there. But sometimes
what I'll do is I'll only distort the
high end if I want some extra presence.
So I'm just going to distort this part
here. Take this part and turn it
completely down.
It's leaving that low and mid-range nice
and untouched, but it's really
distorting that high end. The lead vocal
is maybe the most important thing to
worry about when it comes to your vocal
tracks. But there are some other things
that really make a difference as well.
Let's move on to the next important
topic that can really transform your
vocal sound. Doubles. Doubles and
triples are when you have the singer
record the same part multiple times. You
can take these separate recordings and
pan them one hard left and one hard
right and they will create a new width
to your vocal. It sounds so much better
with doubles and triples if you're
trying to have more energy. To get
started with these doubles, I'll often
copy and paste the same exact settings I
have from my lead vocal onto my doubles.
Then I'll tweak the processing slightly
depending on what I want. The two most
common things I'll do is tune the
doubles and triples to be slightly more
tuned than the actual vocal itself and
then to take away some of the high-end
information with a high shelf EQ. That
just helps the lead vocal shine out even
more.
when you do what you're supposed to. If
for some reason that you didn't record
those doubles, you can fake them by
duplicating the lead vocal track twice,
duplicating it again twice, going to the
track, going to fine-tune, and going up
plus 15 on one track and minus5 on the
other track, panning one right, and one
left. And this is going to simulate that
same effect.
Notice it still sounds weird and that
the actual double and triple recorded
takes are always going to sound better.
If you need even more energy, I'd
recommend recording other vocal parts
either an octave up or an octave down.
Check out what this sounds like.
If you want a more detailed high-end,
you can do the same exact technique, but
instead of singing normally, you can
whisper into the microphone. Check out
what this sounds like.
It adds a nice presence to the mix
without being overbearing. I don't do
whisper vocals for every track, but for
certain genres, I find it works really
well, like pop. If you want your vocals
to be less noticeable and overall
tighter sounding with the actual lead
vocal itself, I recommend syncing them
up in time with the lead vocal. This can
be a time- inensive process because
you're going to take every single
transient and move it to where it needs
to be. But once you do, it's going to
give you a good result. Let me show you
what it sounds like with these timed up.
[Music]
And
without those small differences in
timing make the background doubles feel
a lot beefier. So, if you're going for a
tighter, more polished sound, you'll
probably want to sync them all up. I
also want to point out that I almost
never touch my lead vocal in terms of
rhythm. I just am looking for a good
solid performance and recording to
start. There's a decent chance that I'm
not exactly on the grid, but I find that
getting too close to the grid just can
sound a little bit robotic and
unnatural. And it can sound especially
unnatural if I have to do that in
post-production and move every single
transient. Now that we have our lead
vocals done and our doubles done, let's
go over some background vocals.
Background vocals often go unnoticed,
but without them they completely change
the feel of a mix. While recording
background vocals, I often recommend
using a different mic completely. In
this case, I used a SH SM7B. Most of the
time when you're recording lead vocals,
you'll use a large diaphragm condenser,
which has a nice sparkle to it. To make
sure your background vocals stay in the
background, it's important to use
something that is a warmer sounding
quality, like this dynamic microphone.
[Music]
If you're recording harmonies and you're
ever in doubt of what to sing, just find
the actual chords that are being played
in the instrumental and then sing each
triad or note of the chord itself on the
lyrics. That's what I did for these
harmonies. Check it out.
Also, keep in mind the more background
vocals that you actually record, the
more options you'll have for things like
panning and the beefier your sound will
be. for the same exact reasons as I
mentioned before when syncing up the
vocals to the lead vocal. When dealing
with a lot of background voices or
harmonies like this, I'll often group
them into one group and then process
them together. In this case, the only
thing that I put on them was an OTT,
which stands for over-the-top
compressor, which is a great free
multiband compressor and a channel EQ
already sounds pretty good, and I didn't
have to throw a thing on any of these
except autotune. My last tip for
background vocals is that they can also
just be there to help with the
instrumental itself. You can use them to
sing along with leads or other synths or
even guitars to help give them extra
texture or flavor. Or they can be the
actual synth line themselves just like I
did in this song. Check it out. pitch
correction.
[Music]
You can feel free to get really creative
with it, but the amount of times that I
use my voice as an instrument itself is
way higher than you might think. Okay,
so we've got all of our vocal tracks
done. Now, it's time to mix them. Let's
talk about mixing your vocal track and
balancing it volume-wise with the rest
of the instruments going on. I used to
think that vocals should just be on top
of the mix. But then I learned some of
these techniques and it really helped me
out. First, I recommend mixing into a
limiter. The limiter will affect the
overall volume relationship between the
vocal and the rest of the instruments.
And if you're going to have it on the
master in the end, you might as well
throw it on here so you can hear what
it's going to sound like.
Dial in the right volume for your voice
compared to the rest of the instruments.
you should mix in mono. It really helps
you understand how the rest of the track
is helping to sit together. If you're
mixing on headphones only, you can
always add a gain plugin to the end of
the stereo output and then turn it on
and you'll mix in mono.
[Music]
Once you're in mono, you can turn down
the volume of your monitors so that it's
really, really quiet. You want to barely
be able to hear anything. The only
things that you should be able to hear
poking its head through are the snare
drum, the vocals, and the words
themselves, and then maybe the kick
drum. If that's the case, then you know
that you're on to something good with
your mix. This is just a good mixing tip
in general is to listen to your mix at
really low volumes. You can also use
this same trick with reference tracks to
see how theirs sounds at really low
volumes. I find that to be one of the
easiest ways to dial in my vocal volume.
Another trick I can give is to stop
soloing your vocals. Nobody cares if
your vocal sounds really good by itself
because they aren't listening to it by
themselves. They're listening to it with
the rest of the track.
[Music]
And the last tip that I'll do has to do
with creating a submix of your
instruments and then sidechaining your
vocals to that bus. Let me explain what
I mean. You can route every single
instrument bus of your track into
something called a submix except for
your vocals. Then on that submix, you
can add a side chain so that any time
that that instruments hit and the vocal
is singing, it's going to dip out some
range right here in the mid-range here.
[Music]
This can just help that vocal sit in the
mix rather than on top of the mix even
more. Now, let's move on to maybe the
least sexy part about getting a good
vocal sound. Editing. A good vocal take
still needs editing to sound great.
Otherwise, it's just going to sound like
a demo. When I'm talking about vocal
editing, it means going through getting
rid of any extra noises, any pops,
clicks, taming any pllosives. I know I
heard one here. And that's what the
process is about. If I have a possive
right here, I can just quickly get rid
of it by adding a nice little fade
there. Already sounding way better.
Those small subtle changes like that are
going to add up to a big end result. One
of the biggest parts of editing I
already mentioned before comes from
gainstaging the track itself before it
hits a compressor. I know I talked about
this, but it it really is that
important. If you're struggling with
some noise in between your vocal takes,
you can get rid of it pretty easily with
something called a noise gate. But just
like most things in production, the best
results will come from manually going
through and getting rid of any of those
parts that might be problems. Another
part of the editing process involves
comping. Comping is short for compiling,
and it means you're going to take your
best vocal recorded takes and stitch
them together to make one crazy good
mega take. You can determine what part
sounds best and then select it, and this
will give you the best results. You can
get really crazy with this, but I
recommend trying to keep it simple.
Comping say six different vocal takes is
a lot easier than coping say 60 vocal
takes. And while choosing the best vocal
takes, the emotion and the energy of the
takes themselves is way more important
than the pitch. The pitch is oftentimes
one of the easiest things that you can
affect later. Whereas energy, there's
not a plugin for that. And finally,
let's go over the most important part
about getting a good vocal sound, the
recording itself. Now, I know a lot of
you out there are expecting to fix your
vocals with plugins and tricks and tips,
which is why I started this video with
them. But honestly, if you don't get the
recording part right, none of what I've
told you in this video so far is even
going to matter at all. While you're
recording, the closer you get to a
microphone, the boomier the sound is.
The farther you get from the microphone,
the thinner the voice becomes. I like to
stick somewhere between 4 to 6 in. to
keep artists from actually eating the
microphone while they record. You can
set that up at four to six inches away
as a shield and as a blocker. This will
also have the added benefit of helping
with sibilent sounds and pllosives. I've
already mentioned this, but I'll say it
again. My favorite type of mic to record
vocals is a large diaphragm condenser
mic. It has the most modern high-end
sparkle out of any type of microphone,
and especially for vocals, that is
extremely important. I'd recommend
buying the best one you can comfortably
afford. This next tip might sound a bit
strange, but if you record a lot of
vocals and produce a lot of your own
music, I highly recommend getting a desk
arm like this. When I'm not using it, I
can move my mic away. And when I am
using it, it's plugged in, it's ready to
go, and it's right at my mouth, ready to
record. I'd also like to add that this
desk arm or just having a microphone
ready to go allows me to easily record
any ideas I have that come out of my
head with my voice. If I don't record
those ideas, chances are very high that
they will just be lost forever in the
ether. I'd also recommend that if you're
doing a lot of recording that you get a
sitst stand desk like what I'm adjusting
with right now. Ideally, all of the
vocals that you record will be recorded
while standing. Standing opens up your
lungs more, your diaphragm more, and
gives you a more supported sound. That
brings me into my last tip that I'll
mention while recording. While
recording, I recommend actually singing
to a drum track rather than a metronome.
A metronome or a click track is okay,
but actually recording to a live drum
beat gets me way more in the pocket or
way more on rhythm. This doesn't have to
be a complicated drum pattern either.
You can drag in a loop from Splice or
you can just use Logic's session drummer
to automatically generate you one
immediately. Now, I know I've covered a
ton of information in this video. If it
seems overwhelming, that is completely
normal. Don't worry. To make things more
manageable, I'm going to hop back into
my iPad and draw out a hierarchy of
things you should be focusing on as an
artist to get a better vocal sound
because to be honest, most people focus
on the wrong things. This is the exact
order I think about things to get a good
vocal sound in the mix. We're going to
start actually first with the master. I
think in terms of what affects the sound
the least in terms of vocals, master is
probably the least. It does compress
things a little bit. It makes things
louder, but everything else I'm going to
talk about is going to affect things
more. Second thing that I would put
would be mixing. Yes, changing the
volume and the relationship between all
of the instruments can definitely help
your vocals shine, but if you don't have
the next three, then things aren't going
to matter. Next one I would put would be
plugins and effects. Your plugins are
more important than the mix. If you have
plugins that make your vocals sound bad
or muddy, then mixing isn't going to
matter at all, and then your master
isn't going to change that either. Next
up, I would say your mic. Your
microphone does make that big of a
difference. You can fix a lot of things
that you might otherwise not in EQ with
just the microphone and the actual
recording of it yourself. I'll actually
put slash recording cuz I think that
kind of goes along with it, like the
whole recording process. But the most
important thing that you need to get
right if you want good vocals is the
performance. The performance itself, the
singer. But if you don't have a good
recording and you don't have a good
singer, as much magic as I can pull from
my ass, I'm not going to be able to fix
it. I really am not. You really need to
get this first. I've said this before on
the channel, but if Adele were to sing
through an iPhone, she would probably
still sound great. I can do everything
else and it would be fine because she's
amazing at singing. And that's really
what you need to hear. Sometimes the the
truth hurts, but yes, if your vocal
tracks aren't sounding like you want
them to, maybe your rhythmic timing
isn't there, maybe your falsetto sounds
bad, maybe your chest voice sounds weak,
maybe your tamber, your vocal tone isn't
there. These are all things that you can
learn about and get better at. The more
you sing, the more you do, the better
you get. Probably talked about plugins
and all this jazz jazz and the other for
so long, but I'm I'm telling you, if if
you get the singer right, everything's
going to change for you. There it is.
everything I've learned about mixing
vocals since I've started 12 years ago.
Remember, you can grab that free vocal
chain I mentioned in the video earlier
in the description below. If you liked
this comprehensive video on mixing
vocals, I think you're really going to
like this one I made on music
production, which you can find right up