If you’ve been following my “first single release” journey for my new band deadsoulrevival.com you know I’ve been examining how we recorded, mixed, and promoted our upcoming release. You can download Black Roses and Down for the Last Time at the link above.
Today let’s continue with vocal fx and how to mix them. This is the secret sauce that really brings the vocal to life.
For an even more depth look into vocals pick up a copy of my course The Sound Visualization Method.
When many people think of vocal fx they think of reverb. I like to get my vocals sounding great before I even think about adding reverb.
Instead I start with saturation, pitch shifting, and delays.
I like to run my vocals through some type of saturation plugin for starters to give them a little overdriven edge. This will help them cut through a thick mix. In isolation it may sound a bit much, but in the context of a mix can work great.
Next I may add some stereo pitch shifting if I think the vocal could use some thickness. 5 cents up on one side and 5 cents down on the other is a time tested formula. The Micro Shift plugin is good for this.
My mixing template has at least 4 different delay patches that I will experiment with. These range from delays that are very short to simulate a room to longer 1/8 and 1/4 note delays. Delays come in many flavors as does reverb so it’s worth your time to get to know them.
I like my effects on auxiliary channels so I can eq and compress them separately. Rolling off the high and low end will help keep your mix from getting clouded. This is a big reason for using delays by the way. Reverb can cloud up a mix in a hurry so it needs extra special treatment.
I like to squeeze as much of the sound with just delays before I start adding any reverb. When I do use reverb I do the same high and low pass eq trick on the reverb returns.
I also like to use side chain compression to duck the reverb a bit when the vocalist is singing. The instant they stop the reverb comes up a bit. I do this by using a vocal send that feeds the compressor’s sidechain. So when the vocal is present the compressor is working. Once the vocal stops it is not. This is definitely a tweak it by ear scenario.
Effects tend to work much better on vocals when you use numerous of them in smaller doses. The sum is worth more than the individual parts.
I also like to use different effects for different sections of a song. This way they can be tailored to what is happening musically. Plus it subconsciously keeps the the listener engaged.
Until next time…
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