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VOCAL MIXING CHAIN GSOLPRODUCTION.COM

INTRODUCTION With these vocal mixing techniques, you’ll Hey there, I’m Bunmi Solomon, a Veteran be able to mix vocals in genres such as Mix Engineer /Music Producer and Owner Hip Hop, Rap, Pop, R&B and EDM. of GSol Production. This guide is going to We will discuss the philosophy and cover as much ground as possible. We will mindset of mixing vocals. I will walk you discuss: through my personal vocal mixing chain. I • How to make your vocal sound will be sharing my mindset on why I do professional. what I do. • The type of effects you should put By the way, all the vocal mixing chain on vocals steps can be replicated in any DAW such • Vocal Mixing Chains as , FL Studio, and • Vocal Mixing Techniques . LET’S GET STARTED! In this Vocal Mixing Chain, We Have: !

STEPS 1-3 1. Corrective EQ - remove annoying frequencies 2. Dynamic Peak Compression - tame unruly peaks for more consistent vocal 3. Tonal Shaping EQ - bring out presence, midrange power, and air

STEPS 4&5

4. De-Esser - reduce and tame sibilance or harshness 5. Tonal Density Compression - create a STEPS 6&7 more compactness in sound quality

6. Volume - add gain and volume 7. Saturation - warm up the sound and increase pleasant harmonics GSOLPRODUCTION.COM STEP 1 - CORRECTIVE EQ

Remove annoying frequencies.

The first plug-in in the chain is a corrective EQ. And what we’re doing here is to remove any frequency that might be bugging us in the vocal. And, also we are rolling off the low bottom frequency around 80hz -150hz, depending on the vocal, also depending on the gender. Once we are done, we will move up to the next octave up. I will give you some pointers and some frequencies to look for. Always check around 200hz - 400hz area, that’s where the boxiness lives. And around 1k - 4K area for harsh and honky frequencies. I would generally do a sweep around these spots to find any annoying frequencies that need to be taken out. GSOLPRODUCTION.COM

I would recommend being very gentle when you remove these frequencies. The tighter the Q, the better. Use a very narrow bandwidth, cut between 2db to 6db depending on the vocal. STEP 2 - DYNAMIC COMPRESSION

tame unruly peaks for more consistent vocal.

This is where I would shave off the peaks of the vocal performance and tame its dynamics. I would assume that you guys already know what a dynamic compression does but however, I will give you my recommendations.

To be able to grab the transients in a vocal recording especially rap vocals, or singing vocals with a lot of energy in a fast-paced song, you would want to use a very fast attack.

Now I recommend an attack time between 3ms, 5ms or 7ms. Couple that with a medium to fast release. Release settings are usually based on the speed of the audio signal and the tempo of the song. My

GSOLPRODUCTION.COM recommendations is anything between 100ms - 300ms range. And like I said, depending on the tempo of the song. STEP 3 - TONAL SHAPING EQ

bring out presence, midrange power, and air

Tonal shaping EQ. What I usually do at this stage is sweep around to find a sweet spot in the vocal recording. I will try to give you some frequencies to look out for. Check anywhere between 1500hz all the way to 10Khz. Between 1.5khz to 2.5khz is good for a midrange5632 boost. Also between 3.5khz to 10K is good for presence and air boost. Use your ears to find a sweet spot for your specific vocal. GSOLPRODUCTION.COM STEP 4 - DE-ESSER

reduce and tame sibilance or harshness

De-essing is pretty simple. You may check this link on my blog about de-essing. De-essing is a process that gets rid of the "s"s. It uses a classic compressor to process out the sibilance. There are quite a few different techniques to try, and several ways to go about de-essing, so we'll tackle them one by one.

GSOLPRODUCTION.COM My recommendations: For de-essing, I would check out frequencies in the range between 3.5K all the way to 7K, sometimes 10K. But the usual culprits are normally round 3.5K to 7k. GSOLPRODUCTION.COM STEP 5 TONAL DENSITY COMPRESSION way down. -30db/-40db. thesonglikearound thelasttime). 50ms-150ms(basedonthetempoof (3.) Threshold settings: Pull thethreshold allthe My recommendations: (1.) Attack time:mediumslowattack around 20-40ms, (2.)Release time:mediumfast, release quality,order toachieve thistypeof wehavetosetupourcompressor inadifferent wayotherthanthelast. atone,tightness orcompactnessof greater density.” Tonal Density. The definitionaccording asoundassociated totheOxford withtheperceived Dictionaryis:“Thequalityof a more sound in quality compactness create

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GSOLPRODUCTION.COM STEP 6 - VOLUME example. We vocalinthis added8dbof have. with anygainorvolumecontrol you This issimple. Turn upthevolume and add volumegain

STEP 7 - SATURATION

warm up the sound and increase pleasant harmonics

Saturation is adding slight form of distortion which creates pleasant-sounding harmonics. In this case, we are using Ableton Live Saturation plugin in analog mode.

You may use tape saturation plugins, or transformer or tube GSOLPRODUCTION.COM saturation whichever you have available is fine. BONUS STEP

After you have done all these steps, if you listen and think your vocals still don’t sound professional, I’d recommend:

1. Doubling up on 1 or 2 of the previous steps for more hyper processed sound. Use them in parallel to retain some dynamics.

2. Request a new vocal recording with a better performance.

3. Hire an expert Mix Engineer GSOLPRODUCTION.COM THANK YOU

Congratulations, you made it to the end. This tells me that you are serious about creating a better sound in your music production. I did put quite a bit of information in this guide but all of this information is to get you started on your journey to creating the kind of vocal sound that you love.

Don’t feel overwhelmed. Take your time with each step. They are all achievable. You will get better at each of them the more you do them. This will help you grow tremendously; not only in your audio engineering pursuits, but it will also help you grow as a producer.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to visit gsolproduction.com and schedule a consultation with me.

GSOLPRODUCTION.COM BUNMI. S