How to Mix a Lead Vocal

I am often asked how I go about getting a great, in-your-face vocal sound heard on much of today's contemporary pop music. It's not uncommon to receive a project where the bulk of the material has been recorded at someone's home studio. Digital technology has made vast improvements and has become readily available at consumer price points. Many well known recording artists rely on this very technology as it provides them the convenience of working from home. Though I am a major proponent of these methods it does pose the possibility of substandard engineering. I will show you a handful of techniques that I readily employ in an attempt to either salvage a great vocal performance that may suffer sonically or make a great one even better.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• ProTools HD or LE recording system
• EQ and compressor plug-ins
• Computer suitable for mixing

1. I ordinarily reach first for an EQ to dial in the or remove unwanted frequencies from the vocal track.
   
   If the vocal was recorded in a small room, such as a closet, it will inherently sound boxy or boomy.
   
   If we remove a judicious amount of 100Hz it will become to less bassy and reveal more of the upper frequencies.
   
   If the vocal sounds a little hazy I usually move right over to the frequency of 300Hz. This is what sounds similar to throwing a blanket over the speakers. I will subtract a fair amount of this frequency in order to make the lyrics more intelligible.
   
   Next up I move to the upper register and shelve up at approximately 8k. This adds more presence to the vocal, but adding to much can bring out more sibilance.
   
   Remember EQ is short for equalization. So in reality you are balancing the frequencies.
2. The next processor in the chain will be a compressor. The compressor will make softer passages louder while retaining an overall level relative to the loudest peak.
   
   The amount of processing is solely contingent upon the source material and will vary from song to song. There is no one size fits all method.
   
   I am a big fan of using serial compression on a lead vocal. Serial compression is the process of adding multiple compressors in series.
   
   Sometimes, let's say it's a really dynamic rock vocal within a dense mix.
   
   We really want that vocal to be very present and impactive.
   
   I will start by a inserting a UAD 1176 with a ratio of 8-12:1. A fast attack, medium release and 3db of reduction.
   
   If I'm feeling really adventurous I'll go with "all button in" mode.
   
   I will then follow that with a UAD LA2A with maybe 3 db of reduction.
   
   At this point the vocal is pretty well glued into place and not going anywhere.
   
   I'll then send that to a gnarly Waves L1 to handle the peaks. It will only react to very loud passages.
3. When it comes to adding spatial effect I tend to refrain from using reverbs. Instead I prefer very short delays with no residual echo and stereo pitch shifting.
   
   Verses are typically pretty dry in a pop mix.
   
   Depending upon the song I may choose to add a smidgeon of plate reverb, but not often.

Tips & Warnings

• Be adventurous. The art of mixing provides much sonic joy and will allow you to possibly stumble of new techniques. Again there is no method that work well for everything. There are too many variables. Have fun!
• Watch out...compression is multiplicative. This means if you apply one compressor with a ratio of 4:1 and then use another at 4:1, then 3:1, and another at 2: 1 the result is a combined ratio of 96:1.