Need A Vocal To Set On Top? Try This!

Generally speaking, the vocal is one of the hardest things to get "perfect" simply because it has to compete with so many other frequencies. It also is the "star" of any given song (unless your working  in a trance/edm style) and thus we have a conundrum. How do we get that thing to poke out when it is buried under so many sounds that it has almost no room to breath? (no pun intended) Well there are a few fundamentals that need to be in place first. These are as follows...

  • You have to have a good source/singer
  • You need a pop filter in place
  • You need a mic that "fit" the artist 
  • You need proper levels and placement

Now, after these are in place there comes a few things that are subjective to the mixing engineer. For instance, I personally use these tactics...
  • I mix the vocals last
  • I put a HPF on at about 100hz and dial it in from there while the mix is in mono
  • Boosting the high mids, cutting around 3000khz, and at times a small boost at around 6800khz
Okay, so those are the methods of my approach in most cases. Of course every mix is different, but one way to really speed up your mixing is to have set patterns that have worked time and time again and to use them as starting points. Its almost like having a template, in fact I have a template saved that already has these settings dialed in! That makes things insanely simple and fast!

Every once in awhile, all of these things may only get us halfway there, or there might just seem to be something missing. Then it is time for...

Yes that's right, the mixing ninja tricks! Below is a video I recently shot on one way of many that you can achieve that sound your wanting. Check it out and let me know what you think below inthe comments section, or send me an email! You have a blessed day!