Mixing Softer Vocals Part 2
Lesson 25 from: Recording Rock VocalsAndrew Wade
Mixing Softer Vocals Part 2
Lesson 25 from: Recording Rock VocalsAndrew Wade
Lessons
Day 1
1Introduction and A Capella Demo
21:18 2Acoustics and Vocal Frequency
14:52 3Soundproofing
24:20 4DIY Acoustics
12:34 5Signal Chain and Microphones
21:12 6Preamps, Compression & EQ
23:20 7Working with a Vocalist
36:53Arrangement and Tracking a Female Vocalist
20:00 9Tracking a Female Vocalist Part 1
29:40 10Tracking a Female Vocalist Part 2
35:49 11Tracking Screaming Vocals Part 1
19:19 12Tracking Screaming Vocals Part 2
33:59 13Tracking Group Vocals
22:39Day 2
14Editing Overview
34:31 15Fades and Basics of Melodyne
13:53 16Editing Female Vocals Part 1
27:39 17Editing Female Vocals Part 2
09:51 18Editing Vocals with VocALign
17:34 19Advanced Tips for Editing Raspy Vocals
15:58 20Editing Screaming Vocals
28:18 21Vocal Effects Part 1
33:20 22Vocal Effects Part 2
32:18 23Intro to Mixing
18:07 24Mixing Softer Vocals Part 1
32:42 25Mixing Softer Vocals Part 2
14:21 26Mixing Screaming Vocals
32:11Lesson Info
Mixing Softer Vocals Part 2
I noticed that the vocals sounded a little bit brittle, so I turned the president's down now I'm noticing that they sound almost a little bit too boxy now I think the quickest thing that anybody would do is turn down the frequencies where it's boxy but I say nay to that I would put on a high pass filter because the high pass filter can take care of a lot of that. So you remember when I was talking about how does this add clarity? This is what we're going to do we're going to actually turn on the high pass filter um and some people like to have it completely up and then take it down so the vocal sounds full enough some people like to start from the bottom and go from there I like to go start from the bottom I'll trade this money for awesome ah I'll take a look and find it like digging in for the o way eso to me that cleared the boxing it's right up and that's only up at uh hundred hurts now I don't actually know why that works exactly like that um what it does and it works great what it...
's it's so easy to like seek you out what you think you here, but when you know these little tricks like um, getting rid of the boxing is by using a high pass filter if if you notice it almost is also adding clarity in the mid range in the high end I don't know if it's because of this plug in or what but whenever I do what I used this on and get the best results so uh maybe there's some magic going on in this plug in I don't know but this is huge for me and when I figure this out I uh I used this on everything including screams should everybody that has come in here to teach some sort of class always seems to love that s l e q yeah it's a great everybody it seems yeah I uh I'm very glad that that it has been invented um okay, so I'm really liking the way this sounds I mean jessica's got a she's a great singer she has a good voice it's not much of a challenge. This is a simple song so let's just give it one more lesson here I'll trade this money for some I'll take a look and find it like diggin for go on now what I'm hearing is uh kind of her voice sounds good, but I'm not liking how much it stands out from everything I could turn it down, but I might like the volume of it so another solution to that is to actually use reverb because river kind of blends it blends in with everything else uh and like we're talking about earlier with reverb you don't want to start like with the reverb all the way at one hundred percent because that might throw you off you might think that sounds cool but when you're actually trying to mix something that's like a clear vocal pop vocal popular music um you just I want to use it for the reason that you're using it which is in this case to help blend it with the guitar and that and what other whatever other tracks air coming in so let's listen to this money for ah take way okay I don't usually use this version of the plug and it was super quiet um because it was turned down by like four dvd when you put the unknown just a little bizarre this money this money for sometime I'll take a look and find it like diggin for go wait okay just so you guys know what I'm doing here um I noticed I kind of wanted a little more compression and then when the course kicked in it was just not there was too much compression but um this double is way louder than I would have it anyway so let's just put that down about eight d b c what we think about that think this's way thing wait cool cool so we also have had some other vocals in here I just the male vocals that I also added now this could sound like a duet easily if we wanted to because, um jessica and I both saying quite different cadences in this so sometimes when you're doing duets that's kind of cool to actually do that and you don't use vocal line for that, especially during a duet you wouldn't use vocal line because then that just literally sounds like one person but you want it to sound like two people so you don't want it to be absolutely perfect on top of each other wait man tio tio way ah wei way to be a way. Okay, so, um this as if this was a duet I would actually not have these vocals going to the same bus just so you guys know uh, right now these vehicles are going to the same bus I'm going to make it I'm going to make another bus for it really quick. Do we have any questions? Absolutely. We do first off getting a few comments but interest what is definitely mentioned? This sounds like abba, which is awesome because this was just produced here in the studio right last yesterday actually in today. Yes. Amazing. Yeah that's great that's cool some of the questions also a kind of about the mix process now I think we're people are responding teo what's your problem which is a good thing people keep them coming suro nineteen sixty eight is again asking do you think you just buy with your ear or do you use a graphic analyzer is well no with my ear umm it's easy to get caught up in those things man like when you you're trying to go when you're doing your using a graphic like an analyzer someone you're using your eyes you're not using your ears at all it doesn't matter what it says er because if it doesn't sound good doesn't sound you know so and some people have a struggle they'll think uh well I think this sounds good but you know, on this analyzer it looks like it's wrong s oh, I should probably change it totally wrong way to think about it what sounds good, you know put it in put it you know it's important to have good studio monitors check it on that check it in your car checking on you know, on your tiny speaker on your phone checking on the laptop whatever you have at your disposal checking on all those things that is, uh, way smarter than using some kind of, you know, spectral analyzer or something like that. Well, you mentioned the having a good set of speakers drew our host from yesterday I think you all met him he was on our chat rooms and was actually wondering what speakers you actually have inside your studio uh dine audio bm five days beautiful also I have a sub sh I highly highly recommend I don't know how you can make sense out of sub sure along people mix without it but uh the b m nine I think it's like a matching subject goes with with the monitors and especially if you're mixing anything with a lot of low end I mean there's a lot that goes on in the low end that is just like missing from the speakers there's a whole range of there's a world of sound that is happening that we cannot even monitor so I highly recommend getting a sub any other it's the bm five days I think we also have used beom six days or something that they have a higher thing they're good too do you want take another question we want to keep moving on I'm good I got this way meant to be okay so just in case you guys were wondering what I just did uh the back of vocals that that I had I'm going to kind of mix this like a duet so you guys can see how this should sound it was kind of mixing with her vocal and compressing with her vocal kind of making her disappear a little bit and I want us to both be equal and uh when you have a male voice a female voice uh it's really easy to get this right if if you knew what you're doing so I literally copy the exact same effects that I put on her voice just online and then I'm just going to go through each one and tweak it uh to do what I like just oh and just so you guys know if you are curious I'll use on my signal chain for my vocals it's usually like this it will have the compressor then maybe an e q or like any special effects on the actual channel um usually lo fi effects will be before the compressor and then on the bus that they're going to it's a di essere un que um and then more compression and reverb or delay um on the signal chain for any given singular vocal track would usually go cue or compression first uh down here not on the bus yeah, not on the bus like on track yeah it's you if you're doing something really extreme it like has to be before the cue if you're doing something that's subtle it can kind of go either way. I haven't noticed of huge difference if it's like ah settled if a subtle change but if you're doing something really extreme, put that thing before the composer like crazy low end or something like that messing with the compressor yeah yeah yeah yeah um yeah if you if you're trying to add tons of low into it uh, well, actually, it also depends there in different situations for that, um, because if I wanted a vocal say to sound more basie like, if I'm doing voiceover work, like for a movie trailer, for instance, I would never put them if you know, the bass might be extreme, I would never put it before the compressor because I wanted to be kind of loud and wild if you want it to be loud and wild in a situation like that, you don't put impress you put it, you would put it afterwards, okay? Because you don't want the compressor crushing all that because, like, if you've ever put a compressor like on a guitar, like when you're doing really low stuff, it totally kills the lowland, and you kind of want the loan to be a little bit wild. So it's the same kind of thing with compression. But if you're doing let's, say, allo allo fi effect, or if you want to sound like a telephone, something super mid rangy that needs to be before the compressor, for whatever reason, it works better that way.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
exoslime
This is a superb course, was full of great informations and it has inspired me a lot. Learned alot of things, thanks to Andrew for this great presentation and sharing his knowledge and experience with us, also thanks to the people in the audience for bringing up good question and to the creative live team for making this happen. I really hope Andrew will come back to Creative Live someday, perhaps with a full course especially about working out and creating vocal harmonies :-)
a Creativelive Student
Absolutely essential information in this course. Very in depth. Even if you went and interned at a studio with a reputable producer, it would probably take months to absorb all the information so cohesively laid out in the course. I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone looking to properly record their own vocals, or for anyone looking to record other bands (whether in a bedroom, or a million dollar studio). Loved watching, learned a TON (learned a lot of great pro tools shortcuts as well). Well worth the money. Thanks for doing it Mr. Wade.
Student Work
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