Lessons

Lesson Info

Basic Vocal Sound

So let's see. We have now and we don't need to see that this guy anymore. Okay, Now we have everything basically set up. I want to do I originally said which is get the basic vocal sound again. This is not meant to be the final vocal sound, but don't get close enough that I can work with it and know what that make the vocal Gonna pretty much sound like this in the end and then build everything else around that because the vocal is King. When it comes to mixing these mixing a pop song like this so well, Turner vocals on, in fact, easy to turn everything also off by going a drum folder and turning all these off except for a leave vocal. Let's make this bigger. Zoom in close to other vocal. I don't know if I can do anything more with Don't you? I don't think that I can be, You know, the first thing I'm noticing on this. Besides the fact that's very dynamic, it's a little Wolfie sounding. There's a little bit of low mid range that's giving energy that I don't really think we need in this. ...

We just hear what, later, and see if it's still there. I would conquer space and time to have you thinking by my side. I do away in a thing to be with you. The way to run it sounds bad. So I may want Teoh treat these early vocals. I don't know. With a little bit different in that situation, I would put them on a separate track. Treat divers Vocal is different than the core circles, but I'm not gonna get to that yet because this is still just our basic vocal sound. So let's start off with, Ah, low frequency EQ. You are just any Q and adjust the low frequencies in it. So I'll use the stock one by clearing my filter and go to Ryukyu and started first by rolling off the real Oh, and get rid of any real I wouldn't say this is mud. This is more just really low frequency energy that you don't need in the vocal so we could start. It's what was 20 and work our way up, see how much we need. I don't know where I can do anything more with don't you? I don't think that I can be you know, around 90 and down would probably don't really need it. All 90 hurts, but to get rid of some of the mud, we're gonna go up here to a little shelf. Sorry for three. Which is a band eq you, which is what I consider about peaky Q or Parametric EQ. You and you could use that to notch out some of the low mids. I don't know if I can. Do you know anything more with don't you? I don't think that I can be. You know, somewhere around here on 2 50 I don't know if I can do anything more with don't you? I don't think that I can be. You know, that sounds a lot cleaner to me. Listen to before I don't know evac. And then after, I don't know if I can do you know anything more without you and by getting rid of that mud, you obviously makes it cut through the mix a lot better. And it just not adding a whole bunch of will win information that we don't need because a lot of tracks were using that have that low mids and we don't want to fight with that. But again, vocalist is the most important thing. So we have to consider that. But I think in this situation, the vocal can do with a little less of that. Uh, well, wait, I guess you'd call it. So now, before we start ending some prettiness to the top end, we're gonna add a compressor. And the reason for this is when I comes to vocal that almost every track, whenever I'm cutting something, like to cut it before it hits the compressor. This way that information or that low information isn't hitting the compressor and triggering it unnecessarily. And then you try to eat cute later to get rid of it. Don't want to do it that way. So I pulled this down first before we go to a compressor. But when it comes to boosting things, which is what we're gonna do with the with the top and e que, I wanted that after the compressor, I'm gonna contain the vocal. So it's nice and contained dynamic wise, and then you can add to make you do it. We have to worry about the e que jumping up and down like crazy, cause it's so dynamic or crushing that new week. You just added by the compressor coming after me. So I like to do that in this order. Anything. I cut something. I cut it first and boost something. I boost it after the compressor. So it's any cute, uh, compressing. And again we use the built in one in Reaper. So it starts off with this CQ and goes to this compressor Now, like I start off with around 4 to 1 for this. So just type that in and get me of our attack A release and we're not gonna use any filtering for that. And we probably won't even use the auto makeup game, but we'll see. So what's just here with the vocal sounds like with some compression by Justin the threshold right here which decides how much the compressor kicks in by how loud vocal is. I don't know where I can Do you know anything more without you? I don't think that I can be, you know, yes. So far ruin from May space between goes and this thing not only one woman in all my own I would conquer space and time to have you thinking by my side do anything to be with you. I would take right to the skies if you would make you realize there was nothing that I wouldn't. Uh, now it seems like a bit much going to start with it. That there we could always readjust it later. And the automaker game sounds pretty good on there. Which makes up the game automatically based how much is cut? Everything. You want to be careful with that on this plug in, and sometimes it overloads. But it's not doing that now, so I'm gonna leave it. And if it did over, though, I would just bring the wet signal, which is the output gain at this point? Down a little bit, but it seems OK, so I'm gonna leave that on. Um I'm gonna leave the attack of released where they are. They sound pretty good. I just play with it for a second. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more without you? I don't think that I can be. You know, you're so far away from me Space between goes and this leading Not only one woman in all my own is pretty good. I just explain briefly with the attack and release do the attack decides how quickly the compression reacts, so you have a fast sound that's coming in. If the attack is set very quickly, it's gonna grab it right away. If it said loosely, it'll let the first part of it the transient go through and then compress. Afterwards. You need a nice attack, but the second part of sound we're actually more controlled, and the release decides how quickly the threshold jumps back down each time. So it's right. If you release is very slow. Every time it comes, your sound goes up and down past the threshold. It's gonna react a lot slower is gonna be very lazy. But if you have it very quick, every time that sounded jumping up and down, it's gonna react as quick as possible. Which is nice is that it contains it nicely, But it also sounds very unnatural, too, because you don't want the sound of the volume being constant adjusted. So the release makes it a little bit lazy that way and sound a little more natural. That's your brief explanation of compression. So now we're gonna add a little top into it because I think compresses actually make things down a little muddier to eso a lecture top and always helps afterwards. So we'll go to the Reaper que again, And this time I'm gonna focus in the high frequency range appear Now there's two different wares areas I'd like to cover with. That one is a high shelving which boosts from the frequency and shows all the way up to as high as it goes, which is 20 kilohertz, which makes him very pretty sound, because the boost is very wide. So it sounds very natural. I'll show you right now if I did that with five right here. So you're boosts from their frequency, orderly up. I don't know if I can do anything more with don't you? I don't think that I can be, you know, Whereas if we use this one right here, which I believe is a band or a parametric peaky Q. It's gonna boost Onley that frequency and then a little bit around it. Depending on how we set the band with be really thin or really wide, it's gonna sound a little less natural. So it might sound a bit more nasal, depending where you put it. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more without you? I don't think that I can be, you know, So I tend not to use that on vocals too much, because because of its peaking nature, I try to start off with the high shelving. But if for some reason I still need a little more boost in that, like upper mid, I'll put a Parametric on top of it. So I'll start with this and then I'll bring some of this. And if I need it so to you, it sounds like I don't know if I can Do you know anything more without you? I don't think that I can be, you know, yes. So far ruin from me space between goes and this name Not on one moment in all my own, not to bring a little parametric in there. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more without you? I don't think that I can be, you know, yes. So far ruin from me space between goes and this name not only one moment in all my own that's working pretty nice for now again, this is still a basic one as we bring other instruments in, its gonna change exactly how he sounds. You know, usually you don't want to spend too much time in solo. Human, your vocal. You want to hear in the track and bring it back out and then make your adjustments so I don't go too crazy with this. This is still just a basic sound, but I think this sounds a lot better. So let's compare it before and after by turning it off here. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more without you and it after? I don't know if I can Do you know anything more without you? I don't think that I can be. You know what's here? That the track even before you had some effects to it. So it's go Time mixer. We can scroll right over toe are plug ins or folders that we turned off and let's hear it in the mix. I'm gonna grab my feet quickly. I don't know if I can do anything more with that You I don't know that I can be. You know, you're so far from space between goes and this'll. I don't work space Santa you with? I think it's a little too bright, so let's take our heifer unseen. Six. Let's make it five, and I think this one will be OK. Space center you with Now my goal and when mixing vocals is to try to get that vocal to sit right up front. Obviously, it's completely dry, so it's pretty easy, but compression really does that, too. It really puts it up in front of speakers and from your face and then build the rest of the truck around that. So I understand. Add some effects to it, which is gonna give it some ethereal nous and some distance. But it's still always trying to get that vocal to sit here, and you could tell what the compressor it even it out a bit, but not completely. Some of these notes are still jumping out a lot, so I'm gonna do is later on not necessary this early, going to go into the vocal and adjust some of the levels line by line. Actually just in their way forms either cutting them and splitting them and change the volume there or going to the pre effects Alma Lope and we could just make adjustments there, but we're not gonna do that yet. But first we're gonna do Is that so? Effects to this. So it sounds a little more finished. Because I sound like this. I would never keep the vocal this dry. So gonna put some effects on it at least, um, one of the things I want to use is a slap back vocal, which I know sounds pretty good on him. So make a new track because I don't want to put the effect right on the lead vocal. Want to put on effects return So you make a new track and make sure it's not in a folder, which is not. And we'll name this echo, which is really just a quick delay by called an echo. And then we ascend from by routing from the vocal to this, she turns to a patch bay. We could drop this right here, and I were actually sending from here to here. It's a post fader send, which is what you want to use for things like reverb and delay. Because we do a pre fader send. Then if I change the level of this as I'm writing the vocal. The echo is going to stay the same level. We don't want that. So we make a post fader. It sends from this track to this track based on the level of the fader right here as we change the level here, lower, louder the delay or should say the echo is gonna change with it, which is what you want to stay. You wanted to stay in proportion to the lead vocal. So for the most part, you want to make these post fader. So we have that. I also see that directly by going toe are routing, which is now in a different place. Putin, who do I get very confused when we I move this over too far, Much more used to being here with the routing here anyway, so here is that send I don't want to start zero has a low to high. So let's start with it right about here. You can adjust it afterwards. It's not gonna put effect on this eco track. Let's go to our affects, which they are right here. So we're gonna choose the main Reaper ones and go to read away, which is again one that comes with Reaper. I'm going to set this now. You could set this musical based on the song tempo. We're not gonna do that for the Echo. For that, I'm gonna use milliseconds, and I could start around 1 80 is a nice slap back, like kind of they called like a slap back. Elvis used to use that. I think Elvis you choose a shorter one. More like a 50 60 milliseconds, I think a bit longer, but it still what they call it a slap back delay, which used to be done with two tape machines. But obviously we don't have to do that anymore. So I'm going to 1 milliseconds with no feedback, and you could we could filter out of Will top End. So it's not quite as bright. Let's go down to around eight kilohertz and I felt is the delay. So it's not so bright and leave everything else the way it is. For now, actually know the dry sound has to be turned completely down because we're dealing with an effects return and effects send. We don't want any of the original sound. The direct sound of dry sound to come out of this track, The echo track. We're all to come out of the wet track. I should say we want just delay to come out of the echo track we use wet. Which is that so that should be good. Let's hear what it sounds like in the track with our send opened so I can adjust the level of it and we'll soul it. I don't know if I can do anything more without you. I don't think that I can be Yes, so far ruin from me space between goes and this thing not only one bombing in all my own creating lights and be in effect where creativity It's not reverb which will end a little bit, but it just creates some kind of slap back, some kind of slight echo to his voice, which makes it sound a little more process sounding. Now, this is a mono one. So we vocals in the middle and the slap back echo is now in the middle is Well, just check that out. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more with that? You If you want that stereo, which I'm gonna try on this song, Go back to the effect Right now, this is only one tap which is basically won the way. So if we pan this to the left and then we add another tap, the second tap and the first half have the same settings, which is perfect. We'll take the second tap and pay into the right, and I wouldn't change the delay time of the 2nd 1 The reason for that is if we keep in both the same, it's still gonna sound motto as you'll see if I play it now. I don't know if I can. Do you have to do weighs one in each speaker at the exact same point. So we have two things in the same. Both speakers that are the same. It sounds like mono. That's how stereo or mono work. So we need to make it sound a little different. So we're gonna do is make this a little bit longer about 30 milliseconds, which would make this to 10. So now that should be a 30 millisecond difference between the left speaker and the right speaker for the echo. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more with making a little bit louder. She can hear the effect find my rounding there is I don't know if I can do anything more with that You I don't think that I can be No, was that stereo effect really is not the vocal here? One slap back here, another Scott back over here. But that's obviously way too that so let's bring it down. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more with don't you? I don't think that I can be, you know. And now we should always check, See how it sounds in the track. I don't know if I can do anything more that you don't know. He also far from me space between goes and go a little more. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more about you? I don't think that I can be, you know, Now we take the echo because in effect, return and we could give it a different color. In fact, let's not do that yet, but I want to add a reverb and I'll give them the same color. So what's at a rear up to this now, too? Well, first save this and I'll make another new track, which goes right below it. Make sure it's not in a folder. Nicole, this river actually gonna call this vocal verb because I'm using it for the vocal. The reason for that is if I might use a different river for something else, let's say the drums and I want to name it something different. So I know exactly what I'm using this for so called vocal verb. I will do the same thing again. We'll drag from the routing to this track. It automatically makes that adjustment and it's at the post Fader, which is good. I'm gonna bring this down to nothing and readjust it. Once we had a reverb to this track. So now we'll go to this track. I'm gonna add a river to it under the Reaper, problems that come with it. We have went down here called reverb, and again we want to take the dry sound all the way down and the wet sound only up. And we're going to add a little calm against modules to this because right now there's nothing actually working. You can add these few modules right here called eco generator file, which is basically ir file, which you might be familiar with that ir reverb use. You get a filter you could normalize reverb, generator, reverse or trimming stretch. It really is a few of those for this. What's add file? And we could add a file. Ah, River ir for this I'm gonna choose. I think I left it in here. Call Big G's Lexicon for 80 reverb. I found this on the Internet, and it's free so you don't have to pay for it. But it's a really nice choice of Ah, I ours. I think it's in here when I'm looking for she. I'm not really sure what what I'm looking for yet. What's go by name. Don't Over here, we have a vocal plate. Let's see what that one sounds like. So double click it. It shows up in here and now let's open up our vocal routing and we could send this. Make sure it's people at the same time to this. So add this to the vocal. But for a do that, let's just turn off the delay so I could hear it. I should say that echo. So we're not hearing the just hearing the reverb. So this I did it again Gets me every time. I don't know if I can do you know, I don't think that I can be. You know, you're so far away from me. Speak. My foot gets a little too dense. So I do is I'm gonna try a different file. What's delete that one at a new one? What's try? There's another one here. I liked not only park that's way too big a jump. Lee. Um, what's try the medium haul? Sure there's another one here. Let's try the medium haul for a second and we go back to the routing. Oh, this one. I don't know if I can. Do you know anything more with Don't you? I don't think that I can be. You know, we could make this bigger by going to this here at adding a trimmed being stretch. If we do that, we can go to stretch make this longer. I don't know. That's probably too long, so I'm a little bit longer. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more without you? I don't think that I can be You know this physical too dense to me as well. So let's get rid of this file. Add another one. Let's go back to the first focal plate. I think if we just stretched that one, we could probably get to work. Put this before that one. And just the stretch on this one. I don't know, with that's a little better. Stretch it a little bit more, which stretches out the I. R. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more with don't you? I don't think that I can be, you know, But here, with the delay, I should say the echo. I don't know if I can Do you know anything more with, don't you? I don't think that I can be, you know. And once you get to that in the track, I don't know if I can do you No. Think moment that you I don't think that I can be. You know, that's pretty good. So just go later in the song and make sure it sounds even because I've just been listening to the one side of the song too much here from Stratos. Get and it's gonna go back to our main compressor, which is on the Mr the 41. It's fine, and it's bringing this compress it down a little bit. Watch me, Stratus. You know, I want to know that that's pretty good for now. Again, this is just the but we've worked on so far is the lead vocal but starting sound a lot more finished in the vocal.