Waves Vocal Plugin Chain That Always Works...

Vocals can be very difficult to mix sometimes and depending on the singer and how the

vocal

s are recorded, what they use as microphones, whether it's a condenser microphone or a dynamic microphone like the one I'm using, you get so many different sound palettes. , so just having a single

plugin

chain

never seems to work so far. I want to share with you a strategy I've developed over the last 15 years for mixing

vocal

s that seems to work for any vocal I throw at it. It doesn't matter what genre it is, as long as you're looking for a modern sounding voice, don't get me wrong, you'll have to tweak it a bit depending on the song or project you're working on, but for 99 of the time, this

plugin

chain

Vocal Waves just

works

.

If you don't have any of these plugins or simply can't afford them right now, that's totally fine, you can definitely use any plugin available. that does the same thing, it may just require a little more work and if you're looking for some really good free mixi mastering plugins, I've put together a complete guide for you. There is already a link to that in the description of this guide. everything from compressors, limiters, trimmers, distortion, special effects, there are reverbs, these are plugins that I literally use to mix and master music every day and in my opinion some of them even sound better than some of my paid plugins, so if that sounds interesting to you, go and check it out Check out that guide again, there's a free download in the description if you don't know me yet.

My name is Bobby Bailo. I'm the mixing and mastering engineer at Raytown Productions, helping you make better-sounding music without having to buy expensive equipment. team, if you're new here, thank you so much for joining me today, make sure you hit the subscribe button because I upload new videos every week and you won't want to miss any because they'll help you level up. the quality of your music so today's session is by a band called Street Urchins and they're out of California so if you like what you hear definitely support them they're an awesome group of guys.

I have links to their social media accounts. and all that in the description too, so when you work with vocals in most sessions you will basically have two different tones, you will have a modern, airy, bright sounding vocal that is usually recorded with a large diaphragm condenser microphone or are you going to have something that's a little bit warmer and not as airy as this dynamic mic that I'm using, okay, so that we have a plugin chain that

works

for any of these things we need to find a way to sculpt the balance general in a way that fits both a condenser style microphone and a dynamic microphone, so the first thing we're going to do is put on a multiband compressor just to reshape these the tonality and balance of the voice, regardless of whether it's recorded with a condenser or a dynamic microphone, so let's listen to what the vocals sound like so you can hear that the vocal is not super bright, it sounds a little warm, so this is probably recorded. with a dynamic microphone now the way I like to reshape vocals is using wave c6 and I love this plugin this is my default loading state of this plugin okay so every time I load a track to work on this is what appears First, and you probably noticed that I didn't use an EQ before because we can handle all the explosives by adjusting to gain this low band.

Let me give you a quick run through of what I've set up here, so two of these bands. they're basically parametric bands okay move this wherever you want so I've set them to 150 hertz and 2 and 2500 hertz and the reason is that 150 is where vocals sometimes sound a little boomy or muddy and two and a half k is where they can get really annoying and a bit clipped and harsh and honky sounding, so I usually set it this way and then tune it depending on the style of the vocalist, everything below about 105 hertz, I'm basically clipping. completely away, I'm turning this down to 18 db and then we'll also do some multiband compression, uh, with a minus six db range, so you'll get another 6 db if the vocals get too bassy for some reason, so then I have a 105 hertz band at 3.5k, this is basically going to be the voice that plays on most lo-fi speaker systems, like let's say your car or a cell phone or something, so this band will do a lot of the heavy lifting for us, what I like to do here is lock in a very powerful full midrange vocal sound by increasing 3 db of the vocal tone and at the same time we're going to compress it again and we're going to compress it even lower than its normal level, so what this does is it boosts those frequencies in the compressor and the compressor is

always

actively pushing them down so that we have a very flat and consistent midrange in our voice throughout.

The performance is fine so this is helping to reshape the vocal tone regardless of your condenser or dynamic microphone. Okay, and we're going to follow the same strategy at the higher frequencies as well. Most modern vocal sounds are very bright and airy, that's fine. So what I like to do. It's we're going to increase this high band from 3.5 k to 9 and a half k quite aggressively, like maybe 8 db um, so it's remarkably bright, okay and we're going to do the same strategy where we have maybe up to 12 or sometimes i' We even will reduce to minus 16 db of potential gain reduction.

Well, again we're boosting those high frequencies so that on average the tone is on the bright side and then whenever things get too bright, the compressor will pick up all those frequencies coming out with exactly the same strategy for the airier band. high ok so everything above 9.5k I'm going to boost probably at least 8db if not more sometimes I've gone up to 12 or 16db if I'm missing that air turn off the voice again hold down this knob of range so we also attenuate it so that it doesn't escape us, okay, so let me show you how I mark this when we play the vocal like it's trapped. this routine for so long, I mean, if I go through all the bands, I'll put them on one at a time and I'm afraid to make a change from this laptop so that this one again will clear the plosives and any of the really boomy ones. base that we don't really want in our voice I feel alone, this band is just there to thicken it up and keep it consistent.

I've been stuck on this stick for so long and I'm afraid to make a perfect change from this. It will be our presence or I will like the articulation of the voice and I am afraid to make a change in this life that I am used to, but I know that without a goal, so you can see, it is very bright, but it never becomes too bright. Okay, let's add this air band. I'm just wasting time, wasting another day like I've been stuck in this routine for so long and I'm afraid to make a change in this life that I'm used to now if you.

If you're too aggressive with this, you can make the vocalist sound like they're lisping, so be very careful how much you're attenuating your thresholds, biting the track too much, or having too much gain reduction, so just reduce your range. Another thing you can do is change the attack and release parameters. I have very, very fast releases on all my high bands because I want the lightness to stay there. If you have a really long release, you'll get this weird, pump-like motion. the high frequencies and it will be really noticeable and distracting. If you want to add a little more aggression or presence to the vocal, you can also have a slower attack that will allow any of the little high-end transients to jump out sooner. it attenuates the really high frequencies so let me mark that like I've been stuck on this rod for such a short time let's open it up and I'm afraid to make a change in this life I'm used to but I know without a goal I'm jo, I feel so alone like I've been stuck in this rut ​​for so long and I'm afraid to make a change, so I think we're getting a good place here from this. life that I'm used to, well, let's turn on this 2.5k band just to help with a little bit of the feeling of being so alone and I'm afraid to make a change, so you can just use the solo band to Find the specific frequency of this life I'm used to but I know without a goal ah there it is, it's much softer now let me show you without it stuck on this stick for so long and I'm afraid to make a change from this life I'm used to cold perfect um and at this point I think we're pretty good in terms of using the c6 wave to shape the voice, let's now move on to the next step, so now we want to do what we want. to squeeze out the performance so that we have a consistent level and normally that is done using just a normal compressor, in this case I tend to use cla 76

waves

so this is just a 1176 compressor.

I think the bluey mode sounds a little cooler , it just has a little more vibe than black. I

always

use this one. Now there are basically two main parameters you need to worry about: attack and release. I think for vocals you usually want them very close to the front of the mix, so have that. a really fast release is fine and on this type of compressor a fast release is a high number, it's a bit backwards from how most compressors are designed but just turn it up here if the vocalist feels it's too far forward you can just slow down the speed. the release down and that will give the feeling that the vocalist is going further back in the mix and then you can think of this attack knob as an aggression knob, okay if you have it too fast it will just be flat, it's really It's not going to have a lot of movement, it's going to be pretty much the same throughout, which is a little boring in my opinion, so I like to have the attack between five and maybe two somewhere in here that allows for a little bit of movement. the performance steps up so it feels a little livelier, let's add a little bit of compression here and get a nice, solid, consistent performance just.

I like having been stuck on this rod for so long and I'm afraid to make a change. This life I'm used to but I know without a goal I'm just wasting time and I would say be careful when looking at the meter, trust your ears, you'll know if you're compressing it too much. I know I know a lot of times people look at it and say wow, go up to -10db, don't let that fool you, that could be a loud moment in the song, so if it sounds good, move on. I'm so alone that I like I've been stuck on this stick for so long great, this is a good starting point.

I like it. I'll say it after compressing my voice. I think that's a little positive, so let's come back here. let's turn these down a little bit and increase that lower mid band that helps thicken the vocals here and I'm afraid to make a change in this life that I'm used to, well, here we go everyone. Well, I think we're ready. The next thing I do is I put another compressor after this one, but this is a different style, so we use the 76 compressor. Now I'm going to use cla2a, so this is an optical style compressor.

Basically, it's a lot slower when reacting to a cue, so this will help create a more dynamic performance that just makes the vocals more interesting and, in my opinion, also helps tie them together, so let's check this off. I've been stuck on this stick for so long and I'm afraid to make a change in this life that I'm used to, but I know, so it's getting too compressed, so let me back off. A little lonely, like I've been stuck on this stick for so long and I'm afraid to make a change in this life I'm used to, but I know that without a goal that feels right to me, I usually don't. too much compression with this one this one is just there like I said it's like an insurance policy okay at this point now I have an EQ here in case there's anything that might be difficult that's breaking through so we can do a bit.

A little bit of a cut, but for now I think we're good. I don't think we really need to use this right now. I always like to put a desesser here in case something sneaks through one of the things. What drives me crazy about listening to music is that if you have a very sibilant voice and all you need to fix is ​​a de-esser and the

waves

are great and it's just called a de-esser, it doesn't get any simpler than that. Okay, okay, so let's dial this in and make sure that it picks up any of the offending frequencies like it's been stuck on this rod for so long and if you really want to dial in the right frequency for this plugin. you can go to the sidechain monitor button here and now you'll only hear the frequencies that you're hearing to attenuate them properly, so down here is where those frequencies sound harshest, so let's get back to this. audio monitor button and now we will simply lower this attenuator so that thevoice be a little easier for this bar to listen to for a long time and I'm afraid to make a change in this life I'm used to, but I know if this dim light flashes all the time, you probably have your threshold too low.

Okay, this should only activate when the voices get too bright, but I know that without a goal I'm just wasting time, wasting another day. I feel so lonely. I've been stuck on this stick for so long, I actually like it better with this, I opened this filter open, now we have one more thing and this could be something you say, what are you doing? But listen to me, okay? always put a limiter at the end, yes I know people like why a limiterI already put three compressors on the vocals, why do you need a limiter? They are not limiters for mastering well, perhaps, but they also sound good on vocals.

Okay, in the big picture of mixing a song, we have to have control over each of the different elements, otherwise, I can spend all day writing the volume so that all the pieces fit, so if you can really control the vocal performance, then you don't have to use any automation, the song basically works fine, so I always tend to put a limiter. then at the end of my vocal chain just to make absolutely sure nothing slips through and makes a little moment too high in the track, I'm literally using waze l1, it's like the oldest plugin they have.

I've probably had it once and I'm going to tear it down and basically put it on a brick wall at the point where you barely touch it okay so let's do it and I'm afraid to make a change in this life that I'm I used to do it but I know, without a goal, so you can see, the breaths are actually super strong and I'm afraid to make a change, let's see how this barely blinks, I'm just used to it at certain times in this life, but I know without it, there you got it, okay, let's listen to how it sounds before and after after the vocal chain for so long and I'm afraid to make a change in this life that I'm used to, but I know without a goal.

I'm just wasting time wasting another day. I feel so alone like I've been stuck in this routine for so long and I'm afraid to make a change in this life that I'm used to but that I know has no goal. I think you can instantly hear it turn a dull, boring voice that was probably recorded with a dynamic microphone into something that sounds modern, bright, and airy that we're used to hearing, so the only thing left to do at this point is basically just add your effects, okay, so your reverbs delay all that stuff. I've already taken up a lot of your time, so I'll save it for another video, but just to give you a little taste, well, I'll give you a little. a little sample, here you go, that plugin chain works every time I use it, it's amazing, I can literally load that and it doesn't matter what performer, what singer, what microphone, what preamp they used, this chain always works, so which one You are going to use these vocal mixing tricks for your mixing workflow.

Let me know in the comments. I love seeing people leave comments about their experiences with plugins or different strategies for doing things because anyone who comes across them will learn from what I want. to remind you to go and get your free downloadable copy of my favorite mixing and mashing plugins and again, these are plugins that I use almost every day, they sound amazing and are totally free, what more could you ask for? By supporting me or this channel, all you have to do is share my video with some of your friends online or on Facebook or Reddit or some other community where people are trying to learn how to mix music.

I'm sure this will help someone somewhere, so I would really appreciate it and with that I want to thank you very much for your time and attention today and I hope to see you in another video.