Pro Vocals in 3 Easy Steps

[00:00] how do you make vocals sound

[00:01] professional you don't need a $10,000

[00:03] mic or a million doll Studio you can get

[00:05] professional sounding vocals in a home

[00:07] studio as long as you get these three

[00:09] things right that I'm going to show you

[00:11] today let's jump in first thing you got

[00:12] to understand Prov vocals aren't timid

[00:15] I'm talking about the performance and

[00:17] the recording if you skip over this and

[00:19] Skip straight to mixing I'm going to get

[00:21] to the mixing stuff I promise but if you

[00:23] don't do a good job here your mix will

[00:25] never sound professional the vocal part

[00:29] the vocal per performance needs to sound

[00:31] professional and a big key to

[00:33] professional sounding vocals is

[00:35] confidence I've played on stage and in

[00:38] studios with professional musicians and

[00:40] the biggest distinguishing Factor

[00:42] amongst all of them is confidence this

[00:45] confidence that you can hear in the

[00:48] performance if your vocal tracks don't

[00:50] have that it is worth spending whatever

[00:53] amount of time it takes to fix that

[00:56] problem that may mean voice lessons that

[00:58] may mean simply re-re recording a number

[01:00] of times until you get to that place

[01:02] where the vocal is coming through

[01:04] confidently but it is 100% worth it part

[01:08] of that confidence comes through in

[01:10] simply like good vocal technique right

[01:12] singing out versus singing quietly

[01:15] that's a part of it and singing out will

[01:17] help the compression work a whole lot

[01:18] better when you go to use compression

[01:20] but it's not about loud versus soft it's

[01:22] about confident versus timid confident

[01:25] vocals produce great sounding mixes next

[01:28] Prov vocals aren't woy what do I mean by

[01:31] woy let's dive into Studio One and

[01:33] listen here's the raw vocal recording of

[01:35] a Christmas song I'm working on with my

[01:37] kids this is my vocal recorded actually

[01:39] with this microphone here this is an

[01:41] Earthworks mic um that's specifically

[01:43] designed for voiceover but it's been fun

[01:45] to use uh in a vocal recording session I

[01:47] even recorded clarinette with it I'll

[01:49] put a link to it in the description U

[01:51] but it's really great but it's designed

[01:52] to give a nice thick sound that's great

[01:55] for voiceover great for podcast but for

[01:58] mixing in the actual ual vocal mix on a

[02:01] song it's pretty woy here's what that

[02:03] sounds like joyful all ye nations R when

[02:08] I say woy I mean the vocal has too much

[02:10] of

[02:13] this there's a whole bunch of stuff

[02:15] happening down in the low Miz and the

[02:16] low end there is never a reason why I

[02:19] want my vocals to have that much low end

[02:22] you might hear it and say o it's warm

[02:23] and full and sounds like a tube or

[02:26] whatever uh but that is not going to

[02:28] work in a vocal mix here's what that

[02:30] sounds like on top of the music Joy all

[02:33] ye

[02:35] nations can't really hear the bass now

[02:37] the guitars kind of muffled it's all

[02:39] hidden under the vocal plus this isn't

[02:41] what Pro vocals sound like they have a

[02:43] nice crispness to them uh and there's

[02:45] not a hint of that W wolfiness that's

[02:49] there but once I mix it it sounds closer

[02:51] to this joyful all ye nations rise

[02:56] there's still warmth there but it's not

[02:58] woy here's woy joyful all ye nations

[03:03] rise here's not woy joyful all ye

[03:08] nation and how does it work in the mix

[03:10] it fits so much better

[03:13] Joy

[03:15] Nations by the way before we dive into

[03:17] the third one if you don't already have

[03:19] a simple repeatable process for getting

[03:22] great sounding mixes every time steal my

[03:25] process go to fstep mix.com to find out

[03:27] more and the final piece provocal sit on

[03:30] top of the mix now I understand that

[03:33] sitting on top of the mix is so vague

[03:36] what does that actually mean for me it

[03:38] actually means three specific things the

[03:39] first thing is ringing there's no

[03:42] ringing frequencies in the vocal that

[03:45] jump louder than where the vocal is

[03:47] sitting so if this is the music I

[03:49] typically want my vocal to sit just

[03:50] right on top of it not way over it but

[03:53] not buried in it either but the only way

[03:56] the vocal can sit there is if there's no

[03:58] specific frequency that jump out on

[04:01] certain words and one of the biggest

[04:02] places I hear that in my work is this

[04:05] kind of ringing that happens on certain

[04:07] vowel sound so using the same spot that

[04:10] we've already used listen to this phrase

[04:12] for me joyful all ye nations rise all

[04:17] right I'm going to give you a hint

[04:18] listen to the word all going from joyful

[04:22] all there's something weird there take a

[04:23] listen

[04:25] joyful ye do you hear it one more time

[04:29] joyful

[04:30] there's

[04:32] a for some reason when I go from the L

[04:35] Sound to the a there's this extra

[04:37] resonance in my nose or my I don't know

[04:40] what's causing it but it happens all the

[04:41] time and with any singer I've ever

[04:43] worked with there's some variation of

[04:45] this but there is a ringing that's

[04:47] happening let me turn it down and I'll

[04:49] boost that frequency it's about 2.7k so

[04:51] you can hear it

[04:55] joyfuls doesn't happen on every word but

[04:58] on some words it is ridiculously

[05:00] pronounced now that you've heard it I'm

[05:02] going to turn that off listen to it

[05:04] again you'll hear it a little bit better

[05:08] joyful so on top of a mix if the vocal

[05:11] is here and the rest of the

[05:13] instrumentation is here if that that

[05:15] little bit of is going to cause the

[05:16] vocal to sound too loud you may not

[05:18] realize what's happening but it makes

[05:19] your ear go I don't like it and so you

[05:21] go to turn the vocal down well now the

[05:23] vocal is buried I wanted the vocal to

[05:24] sit what do I do some people might reach

[05:26] for compression and all sorts of you

[05:28] don't need that for this uh I love

[05:30] compression on vocals but you just need

[05:32] something like this a simple Notch that

[05:34] just turns it down like crazy and then

[05:37] the vocal sounds smooth like this joyful

[05:40] all ye

[05:42] nations turn down a little bit more here

[05:45] it is

[05:46] joyful ye nations

[05:49] joyful ye nations versus before

[05:56] joyful like it's it's like a pronounce

[05:58] like that comes through and even the mix

[06:00] we would hear that as a vocal seemingly

[06:02] too loud so that's the first thing

[06:04] ringing second thing that can keep a

[06:06] vocal from sitting in the mix is certain

[06:08] phrases that just pop out I'm a big fan

[06:10] of compression on a vocal and sometimes

[06:13] you can just use a nice aggressive

[06:15] compressor like this and you can see

[06:17] it's doing good amount of compression

[06:19] and that's just perfect for the vocal

[06:21] but sometimes that sounds perfect on

[06:23] just about everything but there are

[06:25] phrases that are jumping out like this

[06:27] one right here is pretty loud

[06:32] that one's still a little bit loud what

[06:33] do we do there well we could trim that

[06:35] down like cut this up and like trim it

[06:38] down like that or a simpler solution is

[06:40] to just add another compressor to the

[06:42] end of the chain set it up something

[06:44] like this where it's uh very high ratio

[06:47] very fast attack quick release and set

[06:50] the threshold such that it really only

[06:52] does any gain reduction on the loudest

[06:54] parts so if you watch this right here as

[06:57] it gets to this section where the loud

[06:59] part is that's the only place where

[07:00] you'll see any compression my God

[07:04] and Reon so it just acts like kind of a

[07:09] bouncer who's just there saying you you

[07:11] stay in line and if you jump up too high

[07:13] I'm going to smack you back down that's

[07:14] what we first learned compression to do

[07:18] right we typically use it more

[07:19] aggressively to give us tones but this

[07:21] is an example where I'll use compression

[07:23] in exactly this manner to keep certain

[07:25] things from getting too loud so that my

[07:27] vocal still sits nicely on top of the m

[07:29] the third piece you probably already

[07:30] know this but in case you don't a dser

[07:33] vocals especially once you start

[07:34] compressing can be pretty cilent listen

[07:37] to the S's and T's

[07:41] here that s is pretty ridiculously loud

[07:45] with a dser we can tame those s's that

[07:48] we've accentuated through EQ and

[07:50] compression so that everything stays

[07:52] right where we want it and those s's

[07:54] don't jump out above that nice level

[07:56] we've set for the vocal God and S

[08:00] reconcile we can still hear them but

[08:03] they're not like taking over the

[08:04] performance all right that's it for this

[08:06] video thanks for watching be sure to

[08:07] like And subscribe and do all the things

[08:09] I have some homework for you go to your

[08:11] studio sit in your listening position

[08:13] whether that's headphones or speakers

[08:14] listen to your three favorite songs and

[08:17] focus specifically on the vocal tone

[08:20] what does the lead vocal sound like in

[08:23] those mixes I bet you haven't done this

[08:25] in a while and I bet you'll hear things

[08:28] and think oh in my mind I always thought

[08:30] that vocal was really thick and woy but

[08:33] in reality it's actually pretty thin and

[08:36] I'm seeing that as a consistency across

[08:38] all the music that I listen to go try it

[08:40] out come back and leave a comment let us

[08:42] know how it worked I'll see you in the

[08:43] next one