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Producers Guide to Mixing Vocals

TOC
1. Setting a goal
2. Setting up your session
3. EQ
4. Compression/Limiters
5. Distortion
6. Reverb
7. Delay
8. Creative effects (chorus, panning, pitching)
9. Review (no wrong way to mix)

Introduction
Mixing vocals is one of the most important skills a producer can
learn. It’s an art that quickly separates the professionals from the
amateurs. There is a lot of confusion and obscurity around mixing
vocals. You can watch 5 videos on Youtube that teach vocal mixing
and all 5 will teach it to you in a different way.

When I was starting out I wished there was a one-stop shop plugin for
mixing vocals. It was extremely frustrating recording a great singer
and not being able to get that pristine high-end or that crisp punch
often heard on the radio.

The main issue is that every vocal is different. There are also many
variables that affect the vocal character all coming into play when
we’re mixing. We may want to fix some aspect of a vocal like a
boomy low-end. We may want to accentuate a beautiful shine in the
top-end. Sometimes a vocalist sounds a little underwhelming during
the performance and were trying to pick up the pieces after the fact,
adding a little saturation to give grit and texture.
Step 1. Setting a Goal
When mixing vocals we should always have an end goal in mind.
What are we looking to do with the vocal? Is there anything the vocal
lacks that we can improve? Is there anything we love about the vocal
that we would like to accentuate?

These are key questions we must address from the outset; they help
us get to where we’re going.

If you’re looking to set a goal and don’t know where to start, try
picking a reference track to compare your vocal against. For example,
if you make hiphop music, pick a hiphop artist that you aspire your
vocal to sound like sonically.

After you have your reference track, listen to how the reference vocal
sounds over the beat… Does it cut through the mix really well? Why?

When asking “why” it’s important to get to the root of the question.
Typically a vocalist with a higher register voice will sound amazing
over beats that sit in the lower frequency range. For example, rap
artists Gunna and Roddy Ricch do this all the time. They have voices
that are in a higher register than artists like Da Baby, so their beats
reflect that. The beats compliment their voices. This is extremely
important to note. If you are mixing a low voice like Da Baby, you
likely won’t be able to completely change that voice to sound like
Roddy Ricch. The makeup of his voice is different. On the other hand,
a vocalist could contort their voice in the recording process to change
their sound. It’s up to us as the producer to help bring out the
amazing qualities of our artists unique voice and suppress the parts
that either conflict with the track or don’t sound especially great.

Finding these qualities in a vocalists voice is completely subjective

and partially what makes mixing vocals an art form. Trust your
instincts and what you think is cool. Music is all about style, don’t be
afraid to show yours.
2. Setting Up Your Session

When your setting up your session make sure the meter in your
recording program isn’t peaking. Have your vocalist do some loud
takes (like vocal phrases) so you can get a sense for how much you
need to bring down your levels. When recording, if the vocalists
records loudly into the microphone, the input will sometimes peak
out. Usually you can tell it’s peaking when you see the highlighted
“red” on the input meter. We want to make sure we bring these down
to a reasonable level. By reasonable, they should be hovering around
between -5db and -10db.

We make sure our levels are in this range so we don’t have

unnecessary peaking. Peaking is also known as clipping. Clipping is a
type of distortion. Think of distortion like an overarching term,
Clipping is one of the types of distortions. Clipping can be fine at
times so don’t get too worried, we usually like to make sure if we do
clip, it’s on purpose and controlled. A lot of big songs utilize
controlled clipping and people love it, but when you record a singer
try not to do it. When we do it during recording we can’t get rid of it.
So we’re stuck with it. If a singer has a great take but there’s too
much clipping, we’re screwed. In theory, we would need to go back
and rerecord it. No bueno.

So now that we’ve got our session levels set up we should take note
of the plugins we’re using on our vocal channel. Depending on what
vocal preset you’re using, make sure any plugins that are causing
delay in the headphones are muted. A quick way to do this would be
to activate “Low Latency Mode”. Low Latency Mode basically
disables the plugins that slow down your computer so that you don’t
have a delayed sound coming out of the headphones while recording.
This tends to trip up singers. As soon as you are done recording you
can just turn off low latency mode and the plugins will be re-enabled,
so it doesn’t throw off your workflow too much.
3. EQ aka The Equalizer

In my opinion EQing is one of the toughest concepts to grasp in

mixing, so I’ll try to make it as simple as possible. The EQ can do a lot
of different things. It can cut out low end for a less defined sound, it
can cut out high end to make something sit more in the background,
it can also do just about anything else in terms of blending sounds
together.

There are 4 different approaches I tend to take with the EQ.

1 is the Creative approach. I use the creative approach when I’m

looking to turn a sound into something a little different. This could
mean cutting out all of the low end and boosting the highs to create
something a little more novel in the background, like ear candy.

2 is the Spatial approach. I use the spatial approach when I’m trying
to make space in a mix. Sometimes when there are a lot of sounds on
top of one another, the mix can get cluttered. In order to make this
listenable for the listener I will typically group all of the conflicting
channels and add an EQ with a semi-wide frequency dip to lower the
volume of the sounds containing the clutter. I will then take one of the
sounds from that group, remove it from the group and place a
counter boost over the same semi-wide frequency band, essentially
boosting in the one sound what I removed in others. Long story short,
this enables that one sound within the cluttered group to stand out.
It’s always nice to have a couple stand out elements instead of a
bunch of stand out elements. We need contrast in our mixes in order
to achieve clarity. The spatial approach helps us create space for the
one or two sounds of our choosing. We could also create space by
using filters (another type of EQ). Filters are high cut and low cut EQ’s
essentially repackaged and sold as an additional product. The same
can be done in an EQ. A filter can help us put a sound in the
background by filtering out highs, remove mud and conflict by
filtering out lows, and add cool effects by automating them.
3 is the Clean approach. For this approach we want to clean up the
vocal. We can dip frequencies that we don’t like, we can boost
frequencies we do like. As a typical rule of thumb, we should aim to
decrease muddiness and always look to cut before boosting
frequencies. If we start boosting frequencies recklessly our sound
becomes unbalanced. Striving to achieve balance in your mixes is a
top priority. Especially with vocals.

4 is the Balance approach. Balance is making a sound feel whole

within a mix. If there is not enough low, people will say it sounds thin,
if there is not enough high, people will say it sounds muddy. Balance
is the perfect sweet spot between the two. We want to make sure
when finding balance we are doing it within the context of the mix,
never on solo. This is because we are going to be listening to the mix
altogether when it’s finished. Soloing sounds and mixing them serves
very little purpose. Having balanced vocals is the first thing the
listener will hear once the vocal comes into your song. The more
cluttered your song is, the more room for error you may have with
having an unbalanced vocal, the other aspects of the song can fill in
the gaps. In rap/hiphop you typically have no room for error as the
beats are typically minimal. Achieving balance can be relatively
subjective. You can typically hear it when you hear it. When first
starting out it will take some messing around with the EQ to figure
out how to get that balanced fullness many radio songs have. Use
your gut when analyzing and try suppressing EQ bands before
boosting.

When mixing vocals, all of these techniques are important. We should

use them all every time we mix.

Unless we are doing something experimental, we will want lead

vocals to sit in the center as the main prominent feature in our songs.
Make sure the vocal is dominating the upper mid-range of the EQ
spectrum. Typically adding a little high boost around this upper
midrange can help the vocal “pop” a little more. I know I mentioned
before cut, before boosting. This is assuming your vocal is already
balanced. We should also aim to cut some of the low end completely
out of the vocal to let the bass sit (under 80hz) and EQ dip some of
the frequencies around 250hz if they sound like they’re conflicting
with other aspects of the song.

4. Compressors and Limiters

Compression could easily be the most confusing and misunderstood

tool learned by producers. The confusion comes from what it’s doing.
When you get to the core of it, it can be simplified. In a broad view it’s
really just volume adjustment. For example, by setting a compressors
release time you can help make the audio tail of a recorded sound sit
in the mix better, essentially by instructing the compressor to pull the
volume down on the audio tail. You can also set a slow attack time to
cut off or lessen the attack of the audio signal. In short, using light
compression on incoming signal is signal shaping. You can help
shape the sound coming through the incoming signal to better
compliment the other instruments around it.

Additionally there are special types of compressors called “limiters”.

It took me a while to figure out limiters are compressors with hard
ratios. A ratio is how soft or hard the compressor reacts to the audio
signal that exceeds the compressors threshold. If you have a sound
coming into the compressor and it is exceeding the input threshold
line (causing the compressor to react), then a soft ratio (lower ratio
setting) will cause the compressor to delicately bring the volume
down (for downward compression – most used form of
compression) or up (for upward compression). Alternatively a hard
ratio will cause the compressor to act aggressively to adjust the
volume. A soft ratio could be used for making a guitar sit in the mix
better, it’s great for tame adjustments. A hard ratio might be used for
stopping a signal from exceeding a certain threshold, if you turn the
ratio all the way up you are creating a limiter, essentially ‘limiting’ the
sound from exceeding a certain volume. This can be effective if there
are audio spikes and artifacts in your recording. It can be useful to
use a limiter on these spikes, cutting them off, in order to maintain
consistency in the audio recording. This ensures the process of
adding additional plugins and eventually mastering goes smoothly.
Random spikes can make some parts of your mix unnecessarily loud.
There are a couple techniques advanced producers use to get a
different shaping quality out of their compressors. The first is
“sidechaining”. This is used to cause one instrument to react to
another instrument. For a while this was popular in EDM music where
producers would make their synth drops sound like they were
‘pumping’ to the bass. This is the most basic form of sidechaining.
This technique can also be applied to vocals in some creative ways.
When a chorus comes in you can sidechain the instruments in the
song to lower in volume 1db when the vocal is playing. When the
vocal stops the instrument volumes will raise back to initial levels and
this can help a mix sound more full and like elements aren’t coming
and going, offering the listener a more consistent experience.

Another type of compressor trick producers like to use is called

“parallel compression”. The concept for this is that on your main
channel you don’t add any compression, instead set up the audio to
be routed to a bus and add a compressor on that bus. The producer
will then add harsh compression settings; fast attack, quick release,
hard ratio. Next, the producer will start sending some of the dry signal
via the bus to the compressed signal and mixing in a subtle amount.
This typically gives elements of a track an interesting tonal quality
and can help make those sounds rip through a cluttered mix.

Before moving forward I think it’s important to address the necessity

of compressors in modern music. As music becomes more and more
digital some music equipment is becoming less of a necessity. This
includes compressors. In the past all instruments were analog and
with that came rawer audio. This meant that a producer or engineer
needed to clean up a sound during processing. Lately this is
becoming less of the case. Digital synthesizers for one allow the
producer to leave the sound as MIDI and adjust the original
synthesizer sound on the fly during the songs development. This has
major advantages as the creative producer can adjust the Attack,
Sustain, Decay and Release as they go. This was partially what
producers needed compressors for. As more instruments become
digital the use of compressors will continue to fall by the wayside as
more specific tools to edit sounds become more refined, powerful
and accessible. For audio signals that don’t come from a digital
source; vocals and live guitar, compressors are still very much
necessary. Just know this may not always be the case moving
forward.
For this next section we’ll talk about the parts of a compressor. As
music becomes more digital and the algorithms powering these tools
become more developed for specific musical niches, the names of
these elements may change. Just know despite the name change
these 5 elements are always present.

Threshold – The compressor threshold typically meters the input

audio signal and allows the producer to have control over when the
compressor will take effect. This is useful but can get overwhelming
fast. For one, the producer needs to know how much of a signal they
want to compress. Lots of trial and error will give you a clear vision of
what you want. To start off, try leaving the threshold on the lightest
setting and slowly bringing it down until it starts effecting the audio
signal (leave all other compressor settings on default). What starts
happening to the signal? Do you like the effect? Do you think some of
the other settings left on default (like attack, decay etc.) need to be
adjusted? What happens when you do? This is art so whatever you
feel as the producer is the move you should make.

Attack – The compressors attack knob lets the producer control

when the effect will happen. For example, if the compressor
threshold is set to -5db, the attack will determine how long after the
input signal hits that threshold it will start working. This gives a
different type of control. It can allow the producer to ease in the
compressor with a slow attack or make it affect the signal
immediately, with a fast attack. With the compressor threshold still
set at the setting you liked from the Threshold section, try modulating
the attack from fast to slow. You should notice a change in the
beginning of the audio every time the input hits the threshold. That
means if you have a vocal, every time the vocal starts you should hear
the compressor affecting the beginning. When the vocal stops, the
compressor will reset and start again on new signal input. It will only
adjust the attacks of the beginning of new audio signal hitting the
threshold for the first time. The only real way to get a grasp is to
practice, it’s suggested you play around with this setting.
Release – this knob essentially is the opposite of attack. The release
knob adjusts what will happen at the end of the audio signal. This can
be used to tighten up a sloppy recording in which the audio tails are
audibly too long or even as a subtle effect utilizing a slow release in
order to tuck in the tail a little bit. Experiment with this knob. I
personally find this knob to be useful for controlling the assimilation
of a sound into a mix.

Knee – the knee is probably the least crucial element of a

compressor and isn’t always included as an option for the producer
to tinker with. The knee basically allows the producer to soften or
harden the effect the compressor has on the signal.

Ratio – this is one of the most important parameters in a

compressor. Ratio controls how aggressively the compressor will
react to the signal passing through the threshold. A low ratio will
affect the signal subtly. A high ratio can be extremely aggressive.
Having a ratio at 20:1 or higher is typically considered brick wall
territory. A brick wall is a term used to describe a type of limiting that
prevents 100% of the signal from passing after hitting the threshold.
This is what makes a limiter a type of compressor.

Make Up Gain – this essentially just makes up for lost volume in the
compressing process. As we previously discussed, compression is
affecting the volume. Typically we are inputting parameters to tell the
compressor when to pull the volume down. Make up gain makes up
for this loss in volume. Some compressors have an automatic make
up gain feature. This can be useful.
5. Distortion

Distortion, Saturation, Overdrive, Bitcrush; these are some popular

effects engineers and producers use to give sounds more of a “bite”.
Adding a little bit of distortion can quickly turn a boring sound that a
listener may deem boring into an attention grabbing highlight in your
song. The different types of Saturators, Distortion effects, Bitcrushers
and other audio effects in this category all have similar concepts but
work in various ways. For example, bitcrushers typically lower the
sample rate of a particular sound. You can easily use a bitcrusher to
achieve that 8-bit video game sound from the 80’s. Saturation on the
other hand is a subtle type of distortion popular in old mixing
consoles. Saturation is partially what makes analog hardware sound
pleasing to listeners. This is one of my favorite effects to use on
vocals. A saturator can take a soft vocal that’s lacking power and
make it rip through the speakers. Saturators bring out additional
harmonics in the audio and can really be used to enhance everything.
The key is to use them sparingly as they can quickly cloud up your
mix and make your song sound like noise. Another form of distortion
is clip distortion. This is essentially when a sound is running in the
red through the output. This can sound unpleasant when done within
your computer so all audio software typically comes with either
compressors that have a “clip” setting or “clip distortion” plugins.
This way you can simulate analog clipping within your computer. Clip
distortion can take your mix to the next level. I typically don’t use it on
vocals unless I’m going for an effect. For mixing lead vocals I’ll
typically just stick with the Saturator.

When mixing vocals, the saturator is your friend. The original sound
of your vocal will determine how much you need. For example, if you
have a belting vocalist or a yelling vocalist, I would suggest using a
tiny amount; 1%-2% drive. You may not even want to use it on this
style of vocal at all. For a quieter, whispery style of vocal (think Billie
Eilish), I would use more drive. I may push the saturator to 5%. I
typically wouldn’t go any higher than 7% on the “Drive” knob unless
you are going for an effect. If you go higher than 7% drive the vocal
will typically sound unnatural to the listener. Saturation can sound
amazing but keep it in small doses.
As a producer you can also use a saturator to fix some issues with
your vocal. If the vocalist recorded the vocal far away from the
microphone, you can use a saturator to give the listener the illusion
that the vocalist was standing closer to the microphone. This will
make the vocal sound closer to your listener’s ear.

Sometimes when a singer records too far away their vocal

performance can sound lifeless. It’s always better to rerecord the
vocal, but sometimes we don’t have that luxury. In this case adding a
little bit of drive can help bring the voice closer to the microphone.
Just be careful and make sure there is no background noise in the
background during recording. This unwanted noise will also be
brought to the front using this technique.

Always apply distortion and all mixing plugins for that matter while
listening in the mix. Some producers will solo a sound,
EQ/Compress/Distort/Reverb etc. and then take the specific sound
off solo and introduce it back in the mix. This is illogical. When you
are listening to a song you are listening to all of the tracks in the
session playing together, not individual tracks solo’d one at a time.
Therefore when you mix you should simulate the end listeners
listening environment. That will help you get the best result the
fastest. Soloing specific audio tracks is important during the mix
stage to edit, draw fades, cut out certain breaths and background
artifacts in between performances but should not be used when
trying to have the audio track sit comfortably in a mix. When mixing
refrain from soloing unless it’s to do something surgical.
6. Reverb

Much like distortion, Reverb comes in many different variations.

Producers can choose from practical reverbs like; Hall, Room,
Chamber and Plates etc. We also have the choice among the many
novelty reverbs like Shimmer. Before choosing a reverb, know that
there is no right or wrong choice. The reverb you choose is dependent
on your taste and style. Knowing what your taste is takes repetition,
experimentation and practice.

Typically when choosing a reverb for a vocal I will play the vocal with
the track and cycle through some settings in my reverb of choice. I
typically go with the Valhalla brand reverbs, mainly for their intuitive
design. Your DAW comes with a collection of reverbs, all of which are
more than adequate.

When cycling through reverbs I will typically look for something

realistic to use on a vocal. This could be a room, hall or chamber,
maybe even a plate. A plate is an artificial reverb. Back in the day
recording studios would run audio through steel plates so that the
audio would reverberate off of the steel. Sometimes this type of
reverb sounds good on vocals. If it’s a slow minimal track, like a
piano ballad, I might lean towards a chamber reverb to fill in the
space (chamber reverbs have a long tail). If we’re working on an up-
tempo dance track I may go for more of a room style reverb,
something with a quick tail so that the mix doesn’t get muddy. When
cycling through reverb settings I am looking for something that
doesn’t need much editing. The presets are designed to sound like
something specific. I may adjust 2-3 knobs at most. Also, depending
on how you want the reverb to sound you may want to put the reverb
on the channel strip or on a buss. Putting the reverb on a buss will
maintain the original punch of the vocal. It basically plays your dry
vocal with your reverb vocal in parallel. This gives an interesting
effect. Most of the time I will put the reverb on the original channel
strip as it gives the vocal a more realistic effect. This is how it would
actually sound if a singer was singing in a room, they would have
reverb on their voice, not a dry vocal and reverb effected vocal playing
in parallel. Both can sound great though so experiment. Again, there
is no right or wrong choice. Typically when putting the reverb on the
channel strip (as opposed to on a buss), I will take the mix knob and
bring it down until I can just start to hear the reverb. We don’t want to
overdo the effect.

For more novelty types of reverbs I try to use them in small doses.
For example, when using a shimmer, I might use it on one word or a
short phrase. I take the vocal and put that one phrase or lyric on a
new track and add the effect. This can sound pretty cool in small
doses. If you listen to Taylor Swift – Blank Space when Taylor sings
“And You Love The Game” you can hear this effect used. It sounds
like they’re using a hall reverb on the one phrase. Contrasted with the
short reverb used on her main vocal, having the hall reverb intermixed
in the production creates ear candy. Being deliberate about your
reverb use and introducing contrast in interesting spots can take your
production to the next level and add more dynamics to the vocal.

EQing your reverb can also be helpful for having it sit well in your mix.
All reverbs aren’t meant for every mix so it is typically helpful to add
some hi-cut to your reverb. If you neglect to add high cut to a long
tailed reverb, the reverb can sometimes end up sounding harsh. With
shorter reverbs I may not hi-cut as much because the effect is so
short the harshness isn’t as prevalent.

I highly suggest you experiment with reverbs a lot. Trends are always
changing and new techniques are constantly being introduced.
7. Delay

Delay is an effect whose scope of possibility exceeds the narrow

assumptions granted by its name. Delay in the most basic sense is a
repetition of dry signal. Feeding a dry signal into a delay will repeat
the audio at the rate that you set in the delay. For example if you set a
delay to 1/4 the dry signal (now wet) will repeat as ¼ notes. Typically
the effect starts sounding good when you bring down the delay signal
in the mix (so It’s barely audible) and you put a low pass filter on it.
This makes the delay sit in the background. You can also mess with
the delay settings so that it repeats at different rates like 16th notes,
8th note, dotted notes etc. Dotted notes are slightly off beat variations
of the note it’s associated with. For most rap music I wouldn’t worry
about dotted notes as much since modern music is very on beat. For
reggae music I may experiment with this more.

There are different types of delays. The first type of delay that
requires mentioning is “Slap” delay. A Slap delay is a quick delay that
was made popular in the Rock era. The concept is that the delay
happens almost immediately after the original vocal audio. There is
typically a short feedback as well so you only get one or a few
feedback delays. This makes the vocal sound like it’s in a small
echochamber. This is a powerful tool for making vocals sit in the
front of the mix. It’s great for really getting that vocal in the listener’s
ear. I tend to use it in a cluttered mix with a lot of distorted
instruments, to help give contrast from the rest of the instruments
and help bring the vocal to the front. You can make it obvious for
effect or bring it down in the mix and put a low pass filter on it.
Experiment.

The second type of delay is the Stereo delay. A Stereo delay can be
referred to as ping pong delay as well depending on how you use it. A
Stereo delay makes the left speaker delay and the right speaker delay
independent from one another. A typical delay has one time setting
and delays the signal with both speakers in unison. The Stereo delay
splits the wet signal into left and right speakers and lets you choose
how often the delay happens in each speaker. This is useful for
minimal mixes with not much going on. It helps the vocal fill in the
stereo space and gives the listener some ear candy. In a cluttered
mix (like a rock song) I would use this sparingly. In a rap song I may
only use it to highlight certain sections. In pop I may bring it down in
the mix and have it sit in the background to fill in some background
space.

My favorite delay is the “Sample” delay. A Sample delay splits your

signal into left and right speaker and adds a short delay to either or
both sides. Typically I like to leave the left side untouched and delay
the right side by a few milliseconds. This gives the listener an illusion
of width. This can be a great effect for making a vocal wide to
emphasize a certain word or as an alternative to using a widening
plugin such as a chorus or a stereo imager. Since these three width
plugins use different techniques to make a sound wide, they will all
sound different (but still wide) to the listener. I like to use a sample
delay to give a sound contrasting width. Sample delays can sound
great on hi hats and background vocals as well.

The last delay I think should be mentioned is the “Tape” delay. This is
one of my favorite delays. Basically, a digital delay (the standard
delay), delays a signal as exact replicas. A Tape delay delays the
signal with slight variations in dynamic. This gives the signal more
depth and makes it more interesting to the listener’s ear. I like to use
Tape delays on vocals mainly. I typically refrain from using them on
synths because those sounds can be interesting on their own. I like to
use the Tape delay on vocals to make them more compelling.
8. Creative Effects

Next I want to go over some of the most useful creative effects.

There are loads of creative effects out there. A lot of them do similar
things. For example; at first glance a phaser and a flanger have
similar sounds to them but ultimately are different. The devil is in the
details with how some of these effects sound different than one
another.

Flanger/Phaser – These effects are different from one another but

I’m putting them together because they’re very similar. Flangers and
Phasers make the audio signal sound like it’s either moving up and
down or in and out. These can be super useful with a high mix setting
when adding a more creative effect to a sound, the song “Tell Me
Baby” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers” uses a fast modulating phaser
on the hook guitars. These effects can also be used with a low mix to
give a sound some movement. A low mix Flanger can sound great on
bass guitars. I typically would only use these plugins on vocals on a
low mix in an experimental mix. For example, I wouldn’t use it on a
2019 rap song. I would however experiment with it (with low mix) on
a song by The Weeknd. These plugins take experimentation. In small
doses they can really upgrade a sound and give it another dimension.

Chorus – This is my favorite stereo imaging plugin. Chorus with a low

mix can make a sound wide without that overly “Chorusy” effect that
can sometimes sound corny. I use Chorus’ on vocals often. When
listening to your vocal in the mix try introducing a chorus in the vocal
chain and go from a 0% mix and start bringing the mix up. When the
vocal sounds like it’s in its own stereo space, stop. Sometimes if you
have a cluttered mix a chorus won’t do it but if you have a sonically
great sounding beat and the vocal is sounding too mono or not sitting
right, introducing chorus can really put the vocal in its own space. The
way you know when a vocal is sitting in its own space is when it
sounds like a gap has been filled in the mix. I typically end up
applying 0%-10% mix for chorus on lead vocal.
Soft Clipper – This is my favorite plugin hands down, the secret
sauce. Soft Clippers are a type of distortion so it should go in that
section but I like to think of it as a creative effect so talking about it
here. In short, soft clipping simulates the type of distortion found in
analog audio systems. When people talk about loving that analog
warm sound, a soft clipper will get you there. There are stand-alone
soft clipper plugins, they also exist inside some of your DAWs
distortion plugins. You will see a setting where you can turn on soft
clipping. A quick google search will show you which plugin in your
DAW comes with it. They all have it. Soft Clipping can take your vocal,
master buss or individual instrument tracks (including drums) to the
next level. This effect just sounds great to the ears. I try not to use it
on every instrument in the track as I like to create contrast but I will
use it on my master buss in small doses. This will surely take your
track to the next level. It’s also a great way to make vocals stand out
and sound professional. A soft clipper can take a Billie Eilish type
vocal, quiet and whispery, and give it a hard texture so it doesn’t
sound weak. Use this plugin! When I learned how to use it many of my
questions for how producers got their tracks to sound so
professional were answered.

Autotune / Pitch Plugins – These are essential. Even in small doses

(for popular music). Our ears have become so accustomed to great
pitch over the years that an out of pitch vocal can quickly irritate a
typical listener. Usually they won’t know what’s wrong with the vocal
but they will be able to identify it out of pitch. This is because we
have been listening to perfect vocals on the radio for the last 10+
years. Much of rap music today has overly autotuned vocals as a
creative effect. This can sound great, it used to sound unprofessional
years ago. Listeners have begun to enjoy the sound of perfect vocals
that they now like these types of effects when applied creatively.
Pitch plugins are also extremely effective when applied in small
doses, with a slower response. With a slower response, instead of
automatically setting the vocal into perfect pitch, the pitch plugin will
slowly nudge the vocal into place. So if you have a sustained note the
plugin will start to nudge the vocal into pitch after a couple
milliseconds. This sounds more natural to the listener and can be
heard on everything from Maroon 5 to Rihanna.
Review

In conclusion, I want to be sure to emphasize the importance of

trusting your ear. If it sounds good, it is good. The listener doesn’t
know what types of plugins or effects you add to your vocals, they
just know if it sounds good or bad. If you don’t want to add a
compressor to a lead vocal, don’t feel compelled to because a
Youtube video told you to.

This is by no means an exhaustive guide on how to mix vocals. There

have been many books that have already done that. My goal for this
ebook is to make vocal mixing less overwhelming and give you an
overview of what everything does and a basic guide for how I
approach mixing vocals.

Other than trusting your ear, always have an idea for where you want
to go with your vocal mix. Slapping plugins on a vocal and hoping it
sounds good can work, but it’s really like shooting in the dark. If you
can pinpoint where the problem areas are you can quickly try
different ideas on how to suppress them. If you have something
special you want to highlight, you can quickly figure out how to
highlight it.

Having an idea of what you like and don’t like goes a long way and
translates into having unique personal taste. Figuring out over time
how to realize your tastes within a mix gives you personal style. Just
like any art form mixing takes time to learn and master.

If you have any additional questions or additions you think should be

added to this ebook reach out and let me know.

Best,
Ryan