Vocal processing method

[JD01]

Ok, I start with a take that I like.
Leaving it totally unprocessed I adjust the volume until its about right.
Check to see if could do with noise gating.
Hi pass it until I can really hear the effect then back off a bit.
Compression.
Sort out the amount of reverb and readjust the volume (should have started to sound like a mix by now)
Usually add a "vocal fattener " delay but then back it off bit so its not too apparent.
Once I've got this how I want it I'll add my final "shaping" EQ usually involving another hi pass and then working out where to shape it.
So the chain ends up as EQ(HiPass), compression, EQ(shaping), delay.

Then then its sent to reverb.

Often I'll add a distortion effect after the 2nd EQ.

What you think of this? What do you do?

[Lt. Bob]

I sing into whatever the last setting I had on my Art ProChannel Strip was ............ do whatever reverb thing occurs to me which can vary from being lazy where I use whatever happens when I turn the FX up without looking to see where it's set, to using a super fast delay for fattening .. e.g. fake double tracking.

Then I mix the volume .... done.

I have no rules at all and I do whatever occurs to me at the time ...... my mixes are always at least decent ..... good enough for moi.

[CrowsofFritz]

I make out with the mic.

Slap an LA-2A on it.

Call it a day.

I’ve gotten so lazy.

[vomitHatSteve]

I route the raw vocal to a separate compressor and reverb (both dimed); then I blend the 3

[JD01]

OK @Greg_L I don't want to spam your mix thread.

Thanks. I don't remember which mic I used. Probably a basic cheap AT2020. But it might have been a MXL V67g. Until very recently I've always used cheapo budget LDCs for vocals. There is no magic microphone that can help this voice so I just use whatever LDC I have laying around.

Lemme open the project here....


Okay there's an AdHd Leveling tool on the raw vocal track. Quick attack, medium release, low ratio. I'm assuming I did this to even out the vocal track before it goes to the main vocal bus.

And then the vocal bus has an Antress Modern compressor set really heavy, then a de-esser for my hissy spitties, then a mono delay set for 1/4 note single repeat...like a slap-back, then a "voc ambient" reverb impulse that's fairly subtle, and last an EQ that's just a high-pass at 100hz. The backups have their own bus. This main vocal bus is just the main vocal and the main vocal harmony.

That's not dissimilar to what I do. Although I do hi-pass first, I think I watched a tutorial (probably Warren Huart) where he suggested hi-passing before a compressor is good, 'cos the lows tend to hi the compressor quite hard first so its best to get rid of them. The compressor will bring them back up anyway.

Shit... that levelling tool is free! I'll have to get that.
So - you go, Mic>leveller (compressor)>modern compressor>de-esser>delay>reverb
Mine is similar:
NT1 (mic)>ReaEQ (hi-pass)>Really heavy compression (Red3 or Deathcore)>EQ (Red2) inc a hi-pass>ReaDelay "vocal fattener">send to reverb.

Depending on the song I often also put a distortion effect before the delay.
I do reduce the wet signal quite a lot in the vocal fattener preset - maybe I'll try something simpler like you.
My reverb impulse is "Live Great Room" but my whole project goes through that.

Re: Your previous comments about fatties wearing baggie clothes. I totally get what you mean by that.
I think what you don't like with my vocal processing is that I also double track.
My second track tends to have a couple of 2db more reverb, but no delay, or distortion - just the EQ and compression. Then I turn it right down, normally about -10 in comparison to the lead where I just find its providing a bit of support but without being obvious. My timing on double tracking has got much better than it used to be.

[Greg_L]

That's not dissimilar to what I do. Although I do hi-pass first, I think I watched a tutorial (probably Warren Huart) where he suggested hi-passing before a compressor is good, 'cos the lows tend to hi the compressor quite hard first so its best to get rid of them. The compressor will bring them back up anyway.

Lol I strictly avoid "tutorials" as much as possible. I ended up with EQ last through trial-and-error because I don't EQ anything unless I think it needs it. There's not enough information in a raw vocal track for me to make those judgements. I don't want to EQ it before it gets murdered by compression and delay and all that shit. I want to hear what's happening after all that, then EQ if it needs it. I usually roll off the very low end to get the mud out of the reverb and any proximity effect rumbling that might show itself after all that compression. Sometimes I don't EQ vocals at all. Sometimes it's a high shelf cut. It just depends. I never do anything just to do it before I even know if it needs it.

Shit... that levelling tool is free! I'll have to get that.

Yeah get it. Pretty much everything I use is free stuff.

So - you go, Mic>leveller (compressor)>modern compressor>de-esser>delay>reverb
Mine is similar:
NT1 (mic)>ReaEQ (hi-pass)>Really heavy compression (Red3 or Deathcore)>EQ (Red2) inc a hi-pass>ReaDelay "vocal fattener">send to reverb.

Depending on the song I often also put a distortion effect before the delay.
I do reduce the wet signal quite a lot in the vocal fattener preset - maybe I'll try something simpler like you.
My reverb impulse is "Live Great Room" but my whole project goes through that.

Re: Your previous comments about fatties wearing baggie clothes. I totally get what you mean by that.
I think what you don't like with my vocal processing is that I also double track.
My second track tends to have a couple of 2db more reverb, but no delay, or distortion - just the EQ and compression. Then I turn it right down, normally about -10 in comparison to the lead where I just find its providing a bit of support but without being obvious. My timing on double tracking has got much better than it used to be.

It's true I don't like double-tracking when it's not done very good. And I don't think it's necessary most of the time. Sure, go for it as an effect, but as a fix? No. I also generally don't like things that call themselves "fatteners" or thickeners or whatever name they use to hype up some part of the audio spectrum. It's rarely good.

I think my problem with your vocals is usually how you mangle them in relation to the rest of the mix. And I think that's a confidence thing. It's not your performance. I am by no means a good singer so I'm not bagging on anyone about how they sing. But I am confident, or at least comfortable, with how I do what I do so it's no big deal to me. You just need to get there yourself. You do all sorts of things to make your vocals "sit" or not draw too much attention and, like the fat people in baggy clothes, it does the opposite. It just draws more attention. And I know the stuff you listen to. I know the stuff that inspires you. Nothing you listen to has vocals buried under fatteners and delays and reverbs. And no, you're not the best singer, but so fucking what? Neither was Kurt Cobain. Neither is James Hetfield. But you can hear those guys loud and clear. They own it. They are what they are and people like them because they are what they are. That goes a very long way. For people like you and me that make music that fortunately is not reliant on beautiful operatic vocals, we can get away with being a little off. Our stuff is more about content and energy than a five octave vocal range with pitch perfection. The only things our vocals need are "close enough" and a believable confident delivery that's on time. And it's not like you don't have the equipment or plug-ins to get clean and clear vocals. You do. You're just not using them right because again, IMO it's just a confidence thing. And I think everyone goes through that at first. I sure did, and every single home-recorder I've ever heard does too. There is no magic gear, formula, or tutorial to get past that. You just have to get over it on your own.

[JD01]

Cheers - I know you're right really. I'm just not there with my voice yet - not in singing ability (although that's a work in progress) but hearing it. I still can't quite get past the "Oh fuck, that's me singing" thing. I always managed to scrape by with the "Oh, I'm the lead guitarist, I don't sing" excuse and limited myself to gang-backings and metal backing shouty distorted stuff. Some of it is lyrical confidence too, but I think I'm getting quite good at lyrics, particularly on my latest songs.

I haven't re-mixed "Old Friends" yet - the song where you made the baggy clothes comment - I'll try that in the next few days and try and take as much artificial bollocks of the vocal as I can bare.

[Greg_L]

Cheers - I know you're right really. I'm just not there with my voice yet - not in singing ability (although that's a work in progress) but hearing it. I still can't quite get past the "Oh fuck, that's me singing" thing. I always managed to scrape by with the "Oh, I'm the lead guitarist, I don't sing" excuse and limited myself to gang-backings and metal backing shouty distorted stuff. Some of it is lyrical confidence too, but I think I'm getting quite good at lyrics, particularly on my latest songs.

I haven't re-mixed "Old Friends" yet - the song where you made the baggy clothes comment - I'll try that in the next few days and try and take as much artificial bollocks of the vocal as I can bare.

Yes exactly. It's a confidence issue. You are now laid bare to the whole universe. That's you singing your words. You can't explain it away. That's you. It can be terrifying. That's why you have to fucking take control of it. You go from "oh shit that's me", to "fuck yeah that's me". I don't even think about my vocals anymore. I quit caring a long time ago. I try to write what I think are good words and deliver them with confidence and purpose. If there is a melody I try my best. That kind of whatever attitude did way more for my performance than sweating over it ever did. I freed my mind from thinking about how bad I am and it actually made me way better.

And when I play live....I KNOW I'm the worst drummer or guitarist in the place. There's no question about it. I think every player in every other band is better than me. They probably practice and study their instruments and all that shit. Do I care? Not a bit. I laugh at it. What do I do about it? I take full ownership of what I do. 100% of Greg is 1000% better than 100% of anyone else. I believe that. Confidence.

[WhiskeyJack]

I record my takes, then I'll stick ReaComp in there and apply a very light bit of compression to shave off any transients and high parts, just smooth it out a bit, then i De-ess, a little bit of high and low pass eq to tidy up the low end in the high end that is not needed and make it pop a little at that point, then i slam it down using the fish fillets compressor, and then a final EQ to nestle it into the mix. After all that is done I'll ship it off to a reverb and a delay bus. All of that is just stock in the box reaper plugs except for the fish fillets plugs. I like the fish fillets compressor becasue it is stupid asy to work with and i find that little output knob and saturation knob to be VERY responsive those alone really control the detail of the output.

I tend not to use gating any more. I found once i got a rough grasp of how to compress half decent i would just cut out all the dead air space bits in a vocal track and then glue all those bits back together ensuring a 0db noise floor going into any effects.

this is the process that has worked for me lately and i have been pretty happy with. But over all i still have pretty dark mixes half the time. I don't know if that is my ears or my set up so i don't know if my vocal chains are anything to write home about.


also @JD01 this thread is a wealth of tips. viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1625

Dispite the fact that the way you myself greg and a few others might deliver their vocals a bit more aggressively, we may lack the dynamic range to play with that @Armistice does, i do find the way he wrestles his vocals into a mix to be pretty top shelf. Lots to digest and unpack in his thread. Worth looking at to see if you can apply anything he does to your mixes.

[rayc]

When it's my voice I, traditionally, do whatever Bubba likes least - LOTS of things to attempt to get my weak voice and limited range tidy.
On other voices I use the ReaComp vocal preset , (I used to use the Fishfillets Blockfish because it's great though it can create artefacts - these days I can't get it to run properly under W10),
after which I sus out weak spots and boost those with ReaEq and def high pass just before the lowest serious bump,
next I may add the ReaDelay fattener if needed.
After context and soloing I manually de-ess.
I may go back and add the Red3 comp OR Density MkII if it needs more squishing. I'm not fussed on the Reds - it's the user interface bugs me.I've been tooling about with Deathcore lately to learn it but haven't committed anything to it yet.

[SweetDan]

The

...gang-backings and metal backing shouty...

bits you've done are the best bits. Do the main vocal like you do the shouty bits, and it will be golden.

[JD01]

Cheers - I know you're right really. I'm just not there with my voice yet - not in singing ability (although that's a work in progress) but hearing it. I still can't quite get past the "Oh fuck, that's me singing" thing. I always managed to scrape by with the "Oh, I'm the lead guitarist, I don't sing" excuse and limited myself to gang-backings and metal backing shouty distorted stuff. Some of it is lyrical confidence too, but I think I'm getting quite good at lyrics, particularly on my latest songs.

I haven't re-mixed "Old Friends" yet - the song where you made the baggy clothes comment - I'll try that in the next few days and try and take as much artificial bollocks of the vocal as I can bare.

Yes exactly. It's a confidence issue. You are now laid bare to the whole universe. That's you singing your words. You can't explain it away. That's you. It can be terrifying. That's why you have to fucking take control of it. You go from "oh shit that's me", to "fuck yeah that's me". I don't even think about my vocals anymore. I quit caring a long time ago. I try to write what I think are good words and deliver them with confidence and purpose. If there is a melody I try my best. That kind of whatever attitude did way more for my performance than sweating over it ever did. I freed my mind from thinking about how bad I am and it actually made me way better.

And when I play live....I KNOW I'm the worst drummer or guitarist in the place. There's no question about it. I think every player in every other band is better than me. They probably practice and study their instruments and all that shit. Do I care? Not a bit. I laugh at it. What do I do about it? I take full ownership of what I do. 100% of Greg is 1000% better than 100% of anyone else. I believe that. Confidence.

Bugger - just recorded some vocals to see what you think and the site won't let me upload and MP3. Can you have a crack to see if its knackered for you too. If it is, I'll hassle Shan.

[Greg_L]

Bugger - just recorded some vocals to see what you think and the site won't let me upload and MP3. Can you have a crack to see if its knackered for you too. If it is, I'll hassle Shan.

No dice

[JD01]

That's annoying - I'm pretty pleased with this too.

[JD01]

Bugger - just recorded some vocals to see what you think and the site won't let me upload and MP3. Can you have a crack to see if its knackered for you too. If it is, I'll hassle Shan.

No dice

OK, so this should work now.
Vocal has a hi-pass, then a fuck load of compression, a bit of EQ, a little bit of overdrive and a little bit of delay. Then its sent to the reverb.

Verse Vocal.mp3

[Greg_L]

OK, so this should work now.
Vocal has a hi-pass, then a fuck load of compression, a bit of EQ, a little bit of overdrive and a little bit of delay. Then its sent to the reverb.
Verse Vocal.mp3

That's definitely an improvement. I think it has a bit of a distant "sea shell" kind of sound to it, like you're way off the mic. But the clarity and balance is much better than what you were previously doing.

[JD01]

OK, so this should work now.
Vocal has a hi-pass, then a fuck load of compression, a bit of EQ, a little bit of overdrive and a little bit of delay. Then its sent to the reverb.
Verse Vocal.mp3

That's definitely an improvement. I think it has a bit of a distant "sea shell" kind of sound to it, like you're way off the mic. But the clarity and balance is much better than what you were previously doing.

I wasn't right off the mic for this. I found when I was right up against the screen I was getting to much proximity and it was quite grating. I'm about 15 to 20cm from the pop screen.

[Greg_L]

I wasn't right off the mic for this. I found when I was right up against the screen I was getting to much proximity and it was quite grating. I'm about 15 to 20cm from the pop screen.

That should still be close enough to minimize the room sound. Maybe it's the reverb you're using.

[JD01]

I wasn't right off the mic for this. I found when I was right up against the screen I was getting to much proximity and it was quite grating. I'm about 15 to 20cm from the pop screen.

That should still be close enough to minimize the room sound. Maybe it's the reverb you're using.

Its a really dry room too. Ill have a fiddle with some different verbs.

[Greg_L]

Its a really dry room too. Ill have a fiddle with some different verbs.

It's not a big deal. It's not bad. It's just to my ears the last little bit to get sorted if you want really clean and clear vocal tracks.