I have been producing for a long time, not a professional by any means though. This makes a huge difference I have to try this. I use a lot of multiband plugins and it gets a similar effect, but this really seems worth using the Fabfilter Q Pro. Most multibands just have a couple points and this really made a huge difference.
It's wild how I actually hear the instrumental better when the EQ is actively cutting those frequencies. Even on my laptop speakers. It's a massive difference.
I do not believe you. I'd be willing to bet that if you did a blind test, you'd fail. Try hearing for a difference without being influenced by the EQ jiggling.
I’ve been mixing a track from a live band recording from a gig, and although I have really clean stems with minimal bleed, I was losing something of the ‘live’ feel with the vocal not sitting right. I was making some headway with ducking some of the melodic instruments, but doing this with FF fixed it straight away, and I mean instantly. Very grateful mate, too TOP tip
It also works with soothe2... and better. You just put it at the end of the instrumental track, and send a vocal sidechain into the plugin. Then adjust reduction intensity and overall q. It is way more precise cause it follows the vocal frequencies on real time and compress those areas.
Yes, soothe2 is great, and useful. But its price is the price of a new house in Dubai. Only for rich. Seiously, its now 199$... a casual hobbyst cannot afford it.
@@tiborreszegi6185 You can get it with discount price ($120 I believe, Pro-Q is around $169) a few times a year. The other option is Trackspacer, that you can get at $40 on discount.
Side chaining is too difficult for me, although I have Soothe 2. I needed it for improving the vocal track, but I don’t fully understand the side chaining process in this vocal track!
I've been mixing over 3 years now and never seen anyone do this before! This is very advanced and I'm so thankful I've come across this video because I love learning new things about mixing everyday! I'll go to sleep tn fulfilled because of this video. THANK YOU
TrackSpacer is what did it for me. I wanted to have something like it for a decade but it’s useful to notice what needs to be cut when making room manually on tracks separately (usually it’s the pads and lead synths that need room on vocal range 250hz, 500hz, 1khz, 2k roughly). Just a bit of TrackSpacer on those tracks usually is the answer and a short cut to make the mix sit better.
Do you prefer TrackSpacer or this way? I do love Trackspacer more for my reverb and some instruments but this pro q 3 version seems to be working nicely these days. I guess maybe more control? Also do you play with the attack on TrackSpacer as well? Thank you.
@@konumusic I usually set Trackspacer and then leave it as it is. It's great for digging out space for vocals when treating instruments, a little 10-12% in the midrange usually does enough 👌 I haven't tried Pro Q 3 but it sounds good.
This guy is the real deal 💯 Just bookmarked and created an account on his website. Gonna be my one-stop shop for learning mixing and mastering for the next few months
The autopilot to find the frequencies is a very nice trick! But you can do it also with TDR Nova GE for 6 bands, though it is not linear phase, but under 1-2 dB this should not matter too much. With the free Nova you can manually adjust 4 frequencies, that you find in the spectral display, and better than nothing, depends on the vocal, how it may vary.
@@mgmthegrand not sure about Kirchhoff. but did you not demo the Nova GE? creates it's own kind of points, then you can adjust everything. for me, it worked very well a couple of times, when there was room resonance in a mic, especially vocals and room mics for drums (that have so much resonance you can't find the forest for the trees).
This is fantastic. Was having exactly this issue and following your instruction, I've now got vocals that sit really well within the mix. I was also able to reduce the vocal stem by 3dB which is quite extreme. Great advice as always. Thank you, Streaky
when should I apply this technique, at the start of mixing my vocals with the beat? Or first I should finish processing my vocals and everything and then I should apply this?
Good idea for a vocal chained to an individual instrument. Pros will mostly mix from stems though, so most of that frequency adjusting is done thru the instruments/effects directly. A multi band would be better if applied to a full beat like this, so you can dial in exactly how and when each freq. band is pushed and pulled. ProMB is great for that!
@@Gang-25j Yes, have to admit (as it wasn't obvious) - was stock in Melda/Izotope/UAD etc world for too long :) Haven't notice the new huge universe right in front of me :)
A more custom trackspacer. Dope! Thanks Streaky! Want next level? Try the same thing with a mid-side play. Instrumental “sides” will bloom and sound wider.
Sorry for necro post, but this sounded super interesting. I have just recently managed to get really sweet sounding acoustic guitar recordings with M/S, would be fun to try to tweak this even more. Would your advice apply also for acoustic guitar, blooming the stereo "sides", or would side chain ducking of a same-recording (different mic) mid just kill off the mid? If I understand correctly I use the side channel(s) to duck the volume of the mid channel, so that the side channels gets more space for their characteristic, and that I may be able to achieve this more simpler with trackspacer (until I learn the more detailed approach of this video).
@@marcrobertson4735 Put soothe2 on the instrumental track and set the sidechain to your vocal bus, then listen for the frequency range that is most dominant/resonant in your vocals, pull those bands up and soothe2 will basically start working like a sidechain dynamic EQ to duck those frequencies in the instrumental, thus carving space for your vocals. If you want to take a step further, changing it to mid only will also help the vocals sit better.
That was probably one of the best before-and-after A/Bs I've ever heard on a youtube tutorial. Can you explain why it's important to use a linear-phase EQ for this? My understanding was that linear-phase EQ is best used for parallel processing. Aren't you necessarily introducing the possibility for pre-ringing into the instrumental track?
Perhaps linear phase was chosen to avoid phase going back and forth when EQ engages. It probably would be fine on this scale, but to keep things simple for video, linear phase was chosen as that would be more suitable in different cases. You can try to exaggerate settings on material where changes to the sound are clear, and compare natural and linear phase to choose what you prefer better. Natural phase has audible changes too, so filter with certain settings (frequency, "shape"...) on particular material may sound better with linear phase
Great video! I am really grateful for the info shared here. I have always had trouble getting my vocal to sit correctly. Combined with the sidechain compression of reverb/delay on your newest video it really is a massive upgrade with few tweaks. That's the power of a "secret". It's not difficult, It's not overly time consuming. It works! Thanks a lot, Streaky!
I've been using trackspacer to do this for the last year or so, but this seems like a much more detailed, accurate way of doing it. Great video, thanks.
I have to say... This is the MOST useful mixing trick I have ever come across. I tried this and it worked beautifully! I am now a subscriber. Thank You!! 🙂👍
I have one beginner question, when should I apply this technique, at the start of mixing my vocals with the beat? Or first I should finish processing my vocals and everything and then I should apply this?
@@mukeshpathak7302you can do both. But i'd rather do this after i process the vocals and export them for mastering... this comfort me that i wont mix the vocals again
In my Matrix Reloaded Merovingian voice - Well, well, well... it appears you do in fact have some skill. 🤗 I think you may have finally won me over and I'm going to look into your mixing academy after this video.
Great trick, but very similar to something like Trackspacer, yes? I love putting it on my instrumental bus and have it triggered just slightly by the dry vocal.
This is incredibly clever. And I just got the FabF Pro-Q 3 last week. I knew that it is a great EQ plug-in, and with the features of the ProQ, this is what i wanted to do. Thank you for the roadmap! Kudos.
Your tracking code is broken at the ? in your description. You might want to bounce that off of your site via htaccess to ensure it's tracking properly.
Alternatively, just use Trackspacer set between 5 and 10%. Also amazing for film/TV music so the dialogue and sound FX duck the music out the way. It’ll stop whoever is mixing the final audio from constantly turning down your music
I have Trackspacer. Does it do exactly this job though? I mean, it works perfectly for me, but I've never actually tried the method in this video to see if there's a difference.
@@xanderpills linear phase pre-ringing will smear more than the regular EQ. But since it's entirely dynamic and more of a spectral tool, you're not getting a consistent smearing in one place.
@@ShalowRecord you put the plugin on the instrumental you're cutting into. You send vocals to the sidechain. Tell it to use the sidechain, and adjust the parameters to where it's doing the job as intended etc.
I also do this with soothe2, much easier than this version. Anyway this technique is very important, especially if you only got a beat and acapella track.
Thank you Streaky for these videos. When I'm feeling down and depressed I always check on your videos for some genuine smiles from the bullshitery you have constantly going on here. Thanks again and don't you dare open a fckin' proper book about sound engineering!We need you!
Hi. Do you have another video in where you work in a different process. For example as you stated in the 1st 2 minutes of this clip, using a side chain. Thanks!
Btw I meant if you gave a video where you show how to do this when you have all instruments and vocals not just a backtrack and a vocal. Also, if you just have waves plugins you’re screwed no? Lolol Waves Q10 is the closest thing I’m thinking and still comes short of fabfilter Idk if fab is for fabulous, but it should be.
Interesting! I tried it on something I had recently recorded and there's definitely an audible difference in the way the vocal track sits in the mix. I used to do this with waves' linear phase multi band compressor, but this approach [with the proq3] is much more surgical. Question: would you route your entire vocal buss (including harmonies, etc), or just the lead vocals? Also, the FX busses should remain directed to the stereo buss and should NOT be sidechained into the proq3 correct?
Thank you for this. I would make a gentle suggestion that if you say "bus the vocal out" that it would be helpful to explain how to do that so we can continue to follow the help you're providing with this. Thanks.
What you're asking is pretty novice, and the tips he's giving are far from that -- a quick google search will answer questions like that for you. Basically you create an auxiliary track as your vocal group and send/bus all your vocal tracks to it, and that "vocal bus" will send/out to the master -- just like a bus full of people gathering and being transported to a destination. So instead of your (vocal) tracks being sent directly to your master, they're being bussed together into a group (and can be processed together) and then sent to the master (or another bus -- like sending all your leads to a lead vocal bus and your backups to a stereo background vocal bus which are both sent to your final vocal bus, and then that being sent to your 2 buss/master along with the 2 track/instrument busses). It's pretty easy once you get an understanding of it, and it can open up a lot more creativity when mixing. Good luck!
I mix boom bap for vinyl releases if you find yourself needing a hand dude. Most recent thing was the Triple Darkness double vinyl LP, got a bunch of other mixes waiting to drop tho
Just wanted to thank you and shout you out for this video. I took what you did, made a submix channel (instead of bouncing the instrumental) and this process worked like a dream. Thanks again!
The problem with most ”how to do ” videos is that its always with very simple productions, for example RAP or Housemusic. Try to do one with skilled music, pop music like for example Pet Shop Boys or other 80s music. I have for example in my projects like 30-80 tracks of chorus and many many layers with vocal tracks. And THAT IS A CHALLENGE. I cant just put on a sidechange, on which track in that case . But keep up the good work , i like it ♥️🇸🇪🌷🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
Hola! It also works very well when instead of choosing it to work over the stereo, we choose it to work only on the CENTER channel, which is where the vocals are usually placed in many mixes. Greetings!
Q: How do professional mixing engineers make the vocals sit so perfectly with the backing track. A: They don't! For decades, there has been been a tendency to mix the vocals louder and louder (driven by unmusical excecutives). This has made the vocals become disconnected with the instruments. Just compare mixes from the 50's, 60's 70's and 80's, with "modern" mixes. The vocals were part of the track. Today, they are a separate entity from the instruments. Yes, it's correct to use EQ to make room for the vocal. But before you do anything, lower the vocal a with bout 3dB and you will find that the vocal "gels" much better with the instruments. (I have done tests with separating vocals, for several tracks, and lowering the vocals by aproximately 3dB "improves" the track a lot by making the vocal connect with the instruments.). This has been driven by corporate excecutives, that has no knowlege about music. There are lots of mixing engineers that intentionally misslabel the "normal" level mix as "vocal up", in order to trick the excecutives. I saw an interview with a mixing engineer (I don't recall the name), who said that he always sent three mixes to the labels named; vocal down, normal, vocal up. Nobody used the "vocal down" mix. A few used the "normal" mix. But the majority used the "vocal up" mix. The thing is that the "normal" and the "vocal up" mixes were identical! Just the fact that the mix was labeled "vocal up" convinced the executives that it was "better"! What can we learn about this? Before you do anything, make sure that the vocal sits at a LEVEL that makes it feel like part of the mix. Not something that is disconnected and soars far above the music. THEN you can use EQ (and compression) to improve the legibility of the vocal. That's the differece between songs and musically backed poetry recitals.
Closed my eyes, couldn’t here the difference. Listening through QC35s. I challenge you to close your eyes and signal to a second person when the effect is in/out
Also, good sir: If you are working on an "organic beat" like a full band instrumental behind the Vox, would you bounce the various backing instruments into a "beat" track so that all the drums, guitars, bass etc can be dealt with in a similar fashion to this example, and the ducking side chain effect can be more easily applied across the various instruments? thank you again!
@@joechapman8208 really? You know you can adjust the attack and release? With insanely fast attack and release I find there's no obvious and audible pumping
Isn’t this attenuating each band according to amplitude instead of frequency? Would there be a way for it to act more like a side-chained Soothe, or IZ Unmask / Trackspacer, where it ducks the track only at the fundamentals that peak out instead of flatly ducking all the masking frequencies by the same amount? Asking for a friend
Visual placebo is amazing I love it. The difference to me is unnoticeable if I'm not looking, I don't know when it's bypassed. Also willing to bet everything that literally nobody is doing this :)))) But hey it might actually be useful at some point, as with all your tips n tricks. :)
Top mixing engineers DO do this to some extent (although they might prefer other tools and plugins to reduce frequency masking) but it's only really for final polish on major label stuff where it's "important". The average listener can't tell a 1dB drop in volume on an entire track, let alone in very narrow frequency ranges. I think this is the sort of thing that separates Grammy winners from nominees, but it's mostly irrelevant for bedroom producers with 38 subscribers. (Albeit there's some fun to be had just from learning the tools and techniques of top producers, even if you don't create songs as good as theirs).
@@AutPen38 spot on, but also, people think these kinds of crazy techniques is what makes a song sound great. If the song is good, good vocals, good vibe, great hook and everything just really inspired, the rest doesnt really matter. As the saying goes, cant polish a turd. :) and it just so happens that great songs also receive top-end mixing and mastering but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be there without the extra polish. Just my view.
@@GabrielSuceaOfficial Yeah, I love watching production and mixing tutorials as much as the next person, and I can lose hours in my home studio doing little tweaks as I try to sprinkle magic dust on my tracks using the various tricks I've learned, but it's kind of pointless spending so much time working on the "final 1%" if the song is no good in the first place. It's fun to learn those technical processes though.
Streaky I know your a good teacher - But i've never heard your mixes or productions. Time to show us, so I can actually trust your guidance based off proof.
@@matttanner1062 And you write long answers back but refuse to tell me one single record he's produced... time for introspection honey. You claim he's a prominent mixer and producer - prove it. I don't have to google your claims.
It’s not bad without. And it’s debatable that it’s “better” with it. I for one don’t want strangely dynamically ducked pop song. The beat is critically important. I want the full range power of the instrumental-unmolested. If the vocals are static on top, fader automation/surgical cuts on the instrumental and or parallel processing is the better route. Lastly, in a hybrid pitch-catch setup this technique becomes wildly complex and not worth the trouble.
Why bother with all this if the music we have today are dynamically compressed? When you compress the final result, it doesn't matter. Today audio engineers need to learn a lot from the old ones.
This is an interaction between the vocal and the music. Your comment makes no sense. It’s like saying ‘why carve dovetails in these wooden panels when later on I’m gonna paint everything’
You read my mind. Thank you for your divine timing and sharing this insight! Haven’t seen a video of yours in months, and when I had a specific question I wanted to research, you “randomly “ appeared on my YT feed with the answer. Thank you! Looking forward to trying this out. ❤🎉
Hi. I use the Cubase 13 DAW. I don’t have any Fabliter Pro plug-ins. My main question to you is this can I use the EQ’s that come with Cubase 13 and use the same ratios of those db’s and sidechan information you keep talking about in your various video. Will the same information apply using stock plug-ins on my vocals, in my DAW? I am just a beginner who just wanted to learn how to do some basic recordings but, some of the things I have watched you do in some of your videos, you make the vocals sound so professional and clear and clean. I wish you continued success with all of your future videos and other musical endeavors. I also wish you continued success financially as well. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us beginners and I hope to some day make my vocals sound as professional as I have seen some of you examples turn out to be. Thank you again and have a wonderful day
Is there an effective way to do this without the fabfilter pro EQ, only using logic’s stock EQ? Just to analyse the main frequencies in the vocal without it essentially?
Sidechain ducking the relevant spectrum of the vocals in the instrumental is a good way to integrate the vocals. But this is not a musical approach. The bands are very narrow and since most vocals are changing in pitch the cuts are often in the wrong position. The human voice is much broader so using a Multiband compressor like Pro MB gives me quick and good results much faster.
Hey Sneaky, I have another content suggestion!: Since waves just released its subscription plan, you should make a video about the most essentia plug-ins you need, instead of needing a whole fleet of plug-ins you’ll never use.
0:05 first off, I don't have the same impression. They use the right compressor type, the right amount of compression and "more 2k than the rest" to punch their voices into your face. But taking a look at how many people are involved in "getting a mix" not even mastered I'm quite sure the last in line just uses track spacer to wash out all the "creative decisions" his predecessors made.
This is what you call sharing free game brotha.. ty for taking the time to share this with us!
This has just transformed my mix. Unbelievable.
Huge thank you! you have no idea how long I've been struggling to get the vocals to pop in just the right way and this made a big difference
I have been producing for a long time, not a professional by any means though. This makes a huge difference I have to try this. I use a lot of multiband plugins and it gets a similar effect, but this really seems worth using the Fabfilter Q Pro. Most multibands just have a couple points and this really made a huge difference.
It's wild how I actually hear the instrumental better when the EQ is actively cutting those frequencies. Even on my laptop speakers. It's a massive difference.
Power of un-masking frequencies in relation to each other , instant clarity improvement ... Gullfos works on the same principles
You have helped me so much bruv!!!
I do not believe you. I'd be willing to bet that if you did a blind test, you'd fail. Try hearing for a difference without being influenced by the EQ jiggling.
yeah brother, even on my phone speakers
@@mr.player7104 you know what, I’ll make a video doing this exact process and have it be a blind test for the viewer. I will get back to you.
I’ve been mixing a track from a live band recording from a gig, and although I have really clean stems with minimal bleed, I was losing something of the ‘live’ feel with the vocal not sitting right. I was making some headway with ducking some of the melodic instruments, but doing this with FF fixed it straight away, and I mean instantly. Very grateful mate, too TOP tip
yo, the way the vocal was mixed is insane, glad I could learn a thing or two, thank you.
It also works with soothe2... and better. You just put it at the end of the instrumental track, and send a vocal sidechain into the plugin. Then adjust reduction intensity and overall q. It is way more precise cause it follows the vocal frequencies on real time and compress those areas.
Yes, soothe2 is great, and useful. But its price is the price of a new house in Dubai. Only for rich.
Seiously, its now 199$... a casual hobbyst cannot afford it.
@@tiborreszegi6185 Trackspacer instead? It's under 50 to buy
@@tiborreszegi6185 You can get it with discount price ($120 I believe, Pro-Q is around $169) a few times a year. The other option is Trackspacer, that you can get at $40 on discount.
@@TzoHill I've got Trackspacer besides soothe2. TS is way more difficult to dial in I feel. It's not easy to use it well on an "instruments" bus.
Side chaining is too difficult for me, although I have Soothe 2. I needed it for improving the vocal track, but I don’t fully understand the side chaining process in this vocal track!
This is otherworldly genius-like knowledge that has just been a total revelation to me! Thanks Fella 👍🏻
and i was just using the sidechain from FLstudio, click "sidechain to this track" thinking i'm a genius.
I've been mixing over 3 years now and never seen anyone do this before! This is very advanced and I'm so thankful I've come across this video because I love learning new things about mixing everyday! I'll go to sleep tn fulfilled because of this video. THANK YOU
Use Track Spacer or Gulfoss
because most people don't do it. never seen a pro mixer do this kinda thing. not saying it's bad, but Taylor Swifts vocals aren't mixed like this haha
@@Randuski This video was released because Dynamic EQ is THE thing in the industry atm.
This method isn't for mixing vocals when you have all the damn parts, it's for mixing vocals on top of finished tracks@@Randuski
@@djLovelyTime ah yes. Taylor swift is known to sing on top of instrumentals often
Thank you! This will make a difference in my work life. I've had Fabfilter 3 for a long time, and had no idea it was this powerful!
TrackSpacer is what did it for me. I wanted to have something like it for a decade but it’s useful to notice what needs to be cut when making room manually on tracks separately (usually it’s the pads and lead synths that need room on vocal range 250hz, 500hz, 1khz, 2k roughly). Just a bit of TrackSpacer on those tracks usually is the answer and a short cut to make the mix sit better.
Do you prefer TrackSpacer or this way? I do love Trackspacer more for my reverb and some instruments but this pro q 3 version seems to be working nicely these days. I guess maybe more control? Also do you play with the attack on TrackSpacer as well? Thank you.
@@konumusic I usually set Trackspacer and then leave it as it is. It's great for digging out space for vocals when treating instruments, a little 10-12% in the midrange usually does enough 👌 I haven't tried Pro Q 3 but it sounds good.
@@DCXTV 🙏🏽
First person to explain this process without gatekeeping something !
This guy is the real deal 💯 Just bookmarked and created an account on his website. Gonna be my one-stop shop for learning mixing and mastering for the next few months
The autopilot to find the frequencies is a very nice trick!
But you can do it also with TDR Nova GE for 6 bands, though it is not linear phase, but under 1-2 dB this should not matter too much.
With the free Nova you can manually adjust 4 frequencies, that you find in the spectral display, and better than nothing, depends on the vocal, how it may vary.
Is the auto frequency detection that creates the points on the curve unique to Fabfilter? No other EQ does this?
@@mgmthegrand not sure about Kirchhoff.
but did you not demo the Nova GE? creates it's own kind of points, then you can adjust everything.
for me, it worked very well a couple of times, when there was room resonance in a mic, especially vocals and room mics for drums (that have so much resonance you can't find the forest for the trees).
This is fantastic. Was having exactly this issue and following your instruction, I've now got vocals that sit really well within the mix. I was also able to reduce the vocal stem by 3dB which is quite extreme. Great advice as always. Thank you, Streaky
when should I apply this technique, at the start of mixing my vocals with the beat? Or first I should finish processing my vocals and everything and then I should apply this?
@@mukeshpathak7302the vocal sounds like it has a chain on it already. You can then tweak the vocals here in there if needed
Good idea for a vocal chained to an individual instrument. Pros will mostly mix from stems though, so most of that frequency adjusting is done thru the instruments/effects directly. A multi band would be better if applied to a full beat like this, so you can dial in exactly how and when each freq. band is pushed and pulled. ProMB is great for that!
OMG. I did NOT know Fab can do that. Always was relying on different methods of demasking... Thank you so much, an eye opener indeed!
Are you new to fabfilter?
@@Gang-25j lol
@@Gang-25j not new. Just buy plugins, don't read manuals and use the bare minimum features. Until finding a video like this
@@Gang-25j Yes, have to admit (as it wasn't obvious) - was stock in Melda/Izotope/UAD etc world for too long :) Haven't notice the new huge universe right in front of me :)
@@kahyui2486 Nice ☺
This is an ELITE mixing tip. So glad I found this. Thank you for sharing this.
i was doing something similar manually by using broader qs where colliding frequencies exist but this effect is so much cleaner. great tutorial
A more custom trackspacer. Dope! Thanks Streaky! Want next level? Try the same thing with a mid-side play. Instrumental “sides” will bloom and sound wider.
Exactly, good idea.
Sorry for necro post, but this sounded super interesting. I have just recently managed to get really sweet sounding acoustic guitar recordings with M/S, would be fun to try to tweak this even more. Would your advice apply also for acoustic guitar, blooming the stereo "sides", or would side chain ducking of a same-recording (different mic) mid just kill off the mid? If I understand correctly I use the side channel(s) to duck the volume of the mid channel, so that the side channels gets more space for their characteristic, and that I may be able to achieve this more simpler with trackspacer (until I learn the more detailed approach of this video).
Bought your mixing course, its very concise and easy to follow, kudos!
You can do it with soothe 2 and it's more accurat i think, and exactly moving with the vocal !
Or Trackspacer.
How would you do it with Soothe 2? I don't have Pro Q3.
@@marcrobertson4735 Put soothe2 on the instrumental track and set the sidechain to your vocal bus, then listen for the frequency range that is most dominant/resonant in your vocals, pull those bands up and soothe2 will basically start working like a sidechain dynamic EQ to duck those frequencies in the instrumental, thus carving space for your vocals. If you want to take a step further, changing it to mid only will also help the vocals sit better.
Baby audio Smooth operator also does this and it dynamically changes frequencies in real time
Or DSEQ on side chain mode
It’s was about bloody time for me to decipher those advanced options in Q3. Thank you
Great technique, thanks. On that particular track you could also try sidechaining the vocal to a ducker on the actual vocal track, set at 100%
That was probably one of the best before-and-after A/Bs I've ever heard on a youtube tutorial.
Can you explain why it's important to use a linear-phase EQ for this? My understanding was that linear-phase EQ is best used for parallel processing. Aren't you necessarily introducing the possibility for pre-ringing into the instrumental track?
I second this question
Perhaps linear phase was chosen to avoid phase going back and forth when EQ engages. It probably would be fine on this scale, but to keep things simple for video, linear phase was chosen as that would be more suitable in different cases.
You can try to exaggerate settings on material where changes to the sound are clear, and compare natural and linear phase to choose what you prefer better.
Natural phase has audible changes too, so filter with certain settings (frequency, "shape"...) on particular material may sound better with linear phase
Great video! I am really grateful for the info shared here. I have always had trouble getting my vocal to sit correctly. Combined with the sidechain compression of reverb/delay on your newest video it really is a massive upgrade with few tweaks. That's the power of a "secret". It's not difficult, It's not overly time consuming. It works! Thanks a lot, Streaky!
I've been using trackspacer to do this for the last year or so, but this seems like a much more detailed, accurate way of doing it. Great video, thanks.
Have you tried this method? I have been using trackspacer also
Soothe 2 is like this but even better.
I have to say... This is the MOST useful mixing trick I have ever come across. I tried this and it worked beautifully! I am now a subscriber. Thank You!! 🙂👍
This video is extremely useful... Especially for us artists who are trying to mix all by ourselves. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I have one beginner question, when should I apply this technique, at the start of mixing my vocals with the beat? Or first I should finish processing my vocals and everything and then I should apply this?
@@mukeshpathak7302id say after you processed the vocals
@@mukeshpathak7302finish processing
@@mukeshpathak7302you can do both. But i'd rather do this after i process the vocals and export them for mastering... this comfort me that i wont mix the vocals again
@@mukeshpathak7302I’m not a professional but I would for sure do it after they are processed
very intuitive tutorial my pro q3 interface doesnt look like yours unfortunately finding it hard to do a step by step
In my Matrix Reloaded Merovingian voice - Well, well, well... it appears you do in fact have some skill. 🤗
I think you may have finally won me over and I'm going to look into your mixing academy after this video.
Great trick, but very similar to something like Trackspacer, yes? I love putting it on my instrumental bus and have it triggered just slightly by the dry vocal.
Damn Streaky, you have swept all my mixing heroes away, “the crown is yours Lord Streaky”.
Great techniques, thanks. Any recommendations for achieving this with logic stock, or free plugins?
This is incredibly clever. And I just got the FabF Pro-Q 3 last week. I knew that it is a great EQ plug-in, and with the features of the ProQ, this is what i wanted to do.
Thank you for the roadmap! Kudos.
Your tracking code is broken at the ? in your description. You might want to bounce that off of your site via htaccess to ensure it's tracking properly.
Alternatively, just use Trackspacer set between 5 and 10%. Also amazing for film/TV music so the dialogue and sound FX duck the music out the way. It’ll stop whoever is mixing the final audio from constantly turning down your music
I have Trackspacer. Does it do exactly this job though? I mean, it works perfectly for me, but I've never actually tried the method in this video to see if there's a difference.
This!
My ProQ3 doesn't have the side chain button next to the gain knob. Am I missing something? Maybe I need a newer version?
Streaky thanks for this as im about to lay down my vocals on some projects soon so this will be very helpful mate !
I do this with Soothe 2. Also a tip: set it to mid/side mode. That way you select how much it eats from the "sides".
Soothe2 doesn't allow Linear Phase-mode though, right? It means you're smearing a lot of the transients as you're doing it.
@@xanderpills linear phase pre-ringing will smear more than the regular EQ. But since it's entirely dynamic and more of a spectral tool, you're not getting a consistent smearing in one place.
Can you give more detail how you do it with soothe2
@@ShalowRecord you put the plugin on the instrumental you're cutting into. You send vocals to the sidechain. Tell it to use the sidechain, and adjust the parameters to where it's doing the job as intended etc.
I also do this with soothe2, much easier than this version.
Anyway this technique is very important, especially if you only got a beat and acapella track.
Massive difference, Thank you Streaky another hidden gem in Pro Q3, 👌👌
Thank you Streaky for these videos. When I'm feeling down and depressed I always check on your videos for some genuine smiles from the bullshitery you have constantly going on here. Thanks again and don't you dare open a fckin' proper book about sound engineering!We need you!
Thanks for everything Streaky!
Great video! Thanks for that.
I didn’t know proQ had a match EQ function and I use it everyday …gonna try this out now :)
This is pretty good! Hope to see more videos like this on your channel!
Awesome technique! 👍
This is powerful, I just tried it out it brings some unity to the track
Genius… So in essence you are creating a dynamic EQ where the cuts are the inverse of the vocals peak frequencies?
Im using Pro-Q3 since like 3 years now and I dind't know, that this plugin can do that... Very great video!
sameeee
Hi. Do you have another video in where you work in a different process. For example as you stated in the 1st 2 minutes of this clip, using a side chain.
Thanks!
Btw I meant if you gave a video where you show how to do this when you have all instruments and vocals not just a backtrack and a vocal. Also, if you just have waves plugins you’re screwed no? Lolol
Waves Q10 is the closest thing I’m thinking and still comes short of fabfilter
Idk if fab is for fabulous, but it should be.
Interesting! I tried it on something I had recently recorded and there's definitely an audible difference in the way the vocal track sits in the mix. I used to do this with waves' linear phase multi band compressor, but this approach [with the proq3] is much more surgical. Question: would you route your entire vocal buss (including harmonies, etc), or just the lead vocals? Also, the FX busses should remain directed to the stereo buss and should NOT be sidechained into the proq3 correct?
Streaky is great. Thank you for putting out all this amazing content! Pro tip: get his course. It ROCKS.
Thank you for this. I would make a gentle suggestion that if you say "bus the vocal out" that it would be helpful to explain how to do that so we can continue to follow the help you're providing with this. Thanks.
What you're asking is pretty novice, and the tips he's giving are far from that -- a quick google search will answer questions like that for you.
Basically you create an auxiliary track as your vocal group and send/bus all your vocal tracks to it, and that "vocal bus" will send/out to the master -- just like a bus full of people gathering and being transported to a destination. So instead of your (vocal) tracks being sent directly to your master, they're being bussed together into a group (and can be processed together) and then sent to the master (or another bus -- like sending all your leads to a lead vocal bus and your backups to a stereo background vocal bus which are both sent to your final vocal bus, and then that being sent to your 2 buss/master along with the 2 track/instrument busses). It's pretty easy once you get an understanding of it, and it can open up a lot more creativity when mixing. Good luck!
Volume automation will help as well. Use your ears and ride the fader.
hi Streaky, in the case of RAP music, wich sidechain method do you recomend for us to record our Vocals?
Huge thank you!
I produce hip hop sampled from records and this is also a great way to layer samples and get it all sounding clean. Great video mate, plus one sub!
I mix boom bap for vinyl releases if you find yourself needing a hand dude. Most recent thing was the Triple Darkness double vinyl LP, got a bunch of other mixes waiting to drop tho
@@UncleBenjs what's your website/social?
@@Elliott.Revell Or are you in Streakys Audio Anorak community?
@@UncleBenjs not in either sorry mate.
@@UncleBenjs what’s your discord?
Just wanted to thank you and shout you out for this video. I took what you did, made a submix channel (instead of bouncing the instrumental) and this process worked like a dream. Thanks again!
The problem with most ”how to do ” videos is that its always with very simple productions, for example RAP or Housemusic. Try to do one with skilled music, pop music like for example Pet Shop Boys or other 80s music. I have for example in my projects like 30-80 tracks of chorus and many many layers with vocal tracks. And THAT IS A CHALLENGE. I cant just put on a sidechange, on which track in that case . But keep up the good work , i like it ♥️🇸🇪🌷🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
My sessions have like 40 or 50 tracks. I agree. A lot is going on. It's not as easy when a lot is going on
Brooo this is amazing. You dont know how much it helps. Amazing technique. Bravo 👏
Streaky, this whole video is what we need, on point, love your dial in! ❤️
Haven't watched your channel for a while Streaky, but so glad I tuned in again!! Great tip on Pro Q. I have a lot of videos to catch up on.
Vocals are harder than people think to mix sometimes. Nice one!! 👍
Especially live mixing, that's really kicking my butt right now.
@@loveaboveall2382 Once you do live mixing, you gain skills for every part of engineering
Hola!
It also works very well when instead of choosing it to work over the stereo, we choose it to work only on the CENTER channel, which is where the vocals are usually placed in many mixes. Greetings!
Q: How do professional mixing engineers make the vocals sit so perfectly with the backing track.
A: They don't!
For decades, there has been been a tendency to mix the vocals louder and louder (driven by unmusical excecutives). This has made the vocals become disconnected with the instruments. Just compare mixes from the 50's, 60's 70's and 80's, with "modern" mixes. The vocals were part of the track. Today, they are a separate entity from the instruments.
Yes, it's correct to use EQ to make room for the vocal. But before you do anything, lower the vocal a with bout 3dB and you will find that the vocal "gels" much better with the instruments. (I have done tests with separating vocals, for several tracks, and lowering the vocals by aproximately 3dB "improves" the track a lot by making the vocal connect with the instruments.).
This has been driven by corporate excecutives, that has no knowlege about music. There are lots of mixing engineers that intentionally misslabel the "normal" level mix as "vocal up", in order to trick the excecutives. I saw an interview with a mixing engineer (I don't recall the name), who said that he always sent three mixes to the labels named; vocal down, normal, vocal up. Nobody used the "vocal down" mix. A few used the "normal" mix. But the majority used the "vocal up" mix. The thing is that the "normal" and the "vocal up" mixes were identical!
Just the fact that the mix was labeled "vocal up" convinced the executives that it was "better"!
What can we learn about this? Before you do anything, make sure that the vocal sits at a LEVEL that makes it feel like part of the mix. Not something that is disconnected and soars far above the music. THEN you can use EQ (and compression) to improve the legibility of the vocal.
That's the differece between songs and musically backed poetry recitals.
Christ you like typing
@@Streaky_com I don't know about that, but I do appreciate good mixes.
Closed my eyes, couldn’t here the difference. Listening through QC35s. I challenge you to close your eyes and signal to a second person when the effect is in/out
Also, good sir: If you are working on an "organic beat" like a full band instrumental behind the Vox, would you bounce the various backing instruments into a "beat" track so that all the drums, guitars, bass etc can be dealt with in a similar fashion to this example, and the ducking side chain effect can be more easily applied across the various instruments? thank you again!
There's also Wavesfactory Trackspacer, but using Pro-Q3 would certainly give you a lot more control over each band.
Trackspacer responds very slowly. Okay for some use cases, but Sonible's Smart:Comp does it a lot better.
@@joechapman8208 soothe
@@joechapman8208 really? You know you can adjust the attack and release? With insanely fast attack and release I find there's no obvious and audible pumping
@@BrofUJu i think he's trolling. It has like 1ms attack time or something, and it sounds absolutely good for exactly these purposes 👍
@@machineagevoodoo2106 lol, right? Maybe they didn't realize that little dot has some added attack and release options
I also use Soothe 2 in a similar way. Clears up the vocals nicely. Thanks for sharing.
Isn’t this attenuating each band according to amplitude instead of frequency? Would there be a way for it to act more like a side-chained Soothe, or IZ Unmask / Trackspacer, where it ducks the track only at the fundamentals that peak out instead of flatly ducking all the masking frequencies by the same amount? Asking for a friend
its an eq bud
thank you so much, patcher's multiband sidechain preset on fl studio wasn't cutting it anymore 😭😭
actual legend this has made my mix so much clearer
Visual placebo is amazing I love it. The difference to me is unnoticeable if I'm not looking, I don't know when it's bypassed. Also willing to bet everything that literally nobody is doing this :)))) But hey it might actually be useful at some point, as with all your tips n tricks. :)
Keep it in the tool bag might help you at some point and maybe not!
Top mixing engineers DO do this to some extent (although they might prefer other tools and plugins to reduce frequency masking) but it's only really for final polish on major label stuff where it's "important". The average listener can't tell a 1dB drop in volume on an entire track, let alone in very narrow frequency ranges. I think this is the sort of thing that separates Grammy winners from nominees, but it's mostly irrelevant for bedroom producers with 38 subscribers. (Albeit there's some fun to be had just from learning the tools and techniques of top producers, even if you don't create songs as good as theirs).
@@AutPen38 spot on, but also, people think these kinds of crazy techniques is what makes a song sound great. If the song is good, good vocals, good vibe, great hook and everything just really inspired, the rest doesnt really matter. As the saying goes, cant polish a turd. :) and it just so happens that great songs also receive top-end mixing and mastering but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be there without the extra polish. Just my view.
@@GabrielSuceaOfficial Yeah, I love watching production and mixing tutorials as much as the next person, and I can lose hours in my home studio doing little tweaks as I try to sprinkle magic dust on my tracks using the various tricks I've learned, but it's kind of pointless spending so much time working on the "final 1%" if the song is no good in the first place. It's fun to learn those technical processes though.
@@AutPen38 No top mixing engineers never do this because they have the multi track. Did you even watch the video?
One of the best videos that I've seen in about 15 years of doing music.
Streaky I know your a good teacher - But i've never heard your mixes or productions. Time to show us, so I can actually trust your guidance based off proof.
Google him lol. It aint that hard dude. He's WELL established for over 20 years, and has mastered and mixed some top records.
@@tyerac Sure which songs?
@@ShloimyZaltzmanyou keep typing the same questions on UA-cam but won’t open Google and look for yourself?? Sheesh
@@matttanner1062 And you write long answers back but refuse to tell me one single record he's produced... time for introspection honey.
You claim he's a prominent mixer and producer - prove it. I don't have to google your claims.
Streaky, спасибо большое за это обучение. Это то что я долго искал и наконец нашел! Благодарю тебя!
It’s not bad without. And it’s debatable that it’s “better” with it. I for one don’t want strangely dynamically ducked pop song. The beat is critically important. I want the full range power of the instrumental-unmolested. If the vocals are static on top, fader automation/surgical cuts on the instrumental and or parallel processing is the better route.
Lastly, in a hybrid pitch-catch setup this technique becomes wildly complex and not worth the trouble.
Garbage opinion.
Great technique. Does it work with any of the Logic stock EQs, or with the Waves dynamic EQs?
Are you god ?
He is the Gordon Ramsey of music
🤣🤣🤣🤣 can’t believe you said that 😂😂😂
God isn’t real…so, no.
What if you don’t have Fabfilter?
@@officialWWM he’s real
THIS IS INSANELY USEFUL
Why bother with all this if the music we have today are dynamically compressed? When you compress the final result, it doesn't matter. Today audio engineers need to learn a lot from the old ones.
This is an interaction between the vocal and the music. Your comment makes no sense.
It’s like saying ‘why carve dovetails in these wooden panels when later on I’m gonna paint everything’
@@olibarahosasa1137 "This is an interaction between the vocal and the music. Your comment makes no sense."
Explain.
I've never seen a trackspacer hack like this before with ProQ! Amazing job! Love the result.
You read my mind. Thank you for your divine timing and sharing this insight! Haven’t seen a video of yours in months, and when I had a specific question I wanted to research, you “randomly “ appeared on my YT feed with the answer. Thank you! Looking forward to trying this out. ❤🎉
I've been using FF to sidechain vocals on the inst track but this is Sidechain 2.0. Such valuable knowledge. Thank you for the gems!
This is the greatest vocal vid on yt
Just wanted to say this is a game changer.🔥🔥 Thank you!!!
Hi. I use the Cubase 13 DAW. I don’t have any Fabliter Pro plug-ins. My main question to you is this can I use the EQ’s that come with Cubase 13 and use the same ratios of those db’s and sidechan information you keep talking about in your various video. Will the same information apply using stock plug-ins on my vocals, in my DAW? I am just a beginner who just wanted to learn how to do some basic recordings but, some of the things I have watched you do in some of your videos, you make the vocals sound so professional and clear and clean. I wish you continued success with all of your future videos and other musical endeavors. I also wish you continued success financially as well. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us beginners and I hope to some day make my vocals sound as professional as I have seen some of you examples turn out to be. Thank you again and have a wonderful day
Man, i just want to thank you very much to share this!!
Wowww!! Big difference!! Thanks so much Streaky!!!
Really cool tip! I wasn't using this one. Going to try it. Thanks
One of the best music producer here on UA-cam. 1️⃣🔝💯🎶🔥🔥
I have been fighting with this type of thing forever. Trying that on some mixes this weekend. Thanks Streaky.
Is there an effective way to do this without the fabfilter pro EQ, only using logic’s stock EQ? Just to analyse the main frequencies in the vocal without it essentially?
Thanks for sharing Streaky! Much appreciated. ❤
Sidechain ducking the relevant spectrum of the vocals in the instrumental is a good way to integrate the vocals. But this is not a musical approach. The bands are very narrow and since most vocals are changing in pitch the cuts are often in the wrong position. The human voice is much broader so using a Multiband compressor like Pro MB gives me quick and good results much faster.
BIG Difference, Fanstic track holy crap to me it brings out the vocals in a way more pleasing way!
I love when you do these tutorial, so much knowledge in there. Thank you so much for sharing you skill and experience. This is worth so much to me.
I mostly just do vocals so this was a huge help wow thanks so much for the post 🙏
Hey Sneaky, I have another content suggestion!:
Since waves just released its subscription plan, you should make a video about the most essentia plug-ins you need, instead of needing a whole fleet of plug-ins you’ll never use.
exactly the question i had been trying to answer-- many thanx, streaky!👍
this is the best vocal technique video on youtube on God!!!!!!!!!!... Thank you, sir!!!!
0:05 first off, I don't have the same impression. They use the right compressor type, the right amount of compression and "more 2k than the rest" to punch their voices into your face. But taking a look at how many people are involved in "getting a mix" not even mastered I'm quite sure the last in line just uses track spacer to wash out all the "creative decisions" his predecessors made.