Why Your Vocal Mixes Always Sound Like Crap (easy fix!)
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- Опубліковано 10 січ 2024
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Do you know what separates a pro vocal mix from an amateur one? The proper use of compression.
In this straightforward Frightbox tutorial, I share my favorite technique for
compressing home-recorded vocal tracks.
Understanding and implementing this technique will instantly take your vocal mixes to the next level (no fancy plugins required!).
Featured Artist: Raising Arizona ( / raisingarizonanj )
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All music in video mixed and mastered @ www.frightboxrecording.com
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gr8
Absolutely correct man! I speak for myself. I used to use the cla 1078 and compress up to 15db of reduction with super fast relase to control the peaks, and then another compressor like cla 2a but only 3db o gain reduction. It didnt sound like i wanted until I discovered that it was more important to squeeze a little bit more the "slow release compressor" up to 12db as you do, and maybe a little bit less the "fast release compressor".
Thank you for this video for making the thing more clear to me!!
Damn that vocal sits locked in 🤛
Listening to your videos over the last 2 years has helped me so much, especially regarding compression! I was scared of overdoing it, absolutely, and yet I was vastly underdoing it, especially with vocals and lead guitar. Thanks so much for your excellent content!
I'm more afraid to get on the mic LOL
Yes, been doing this for years. I thought my answer was 'better kit' of some form - mics, preamps, audio interfaces - or EQ. Nope. I just needed to learn to sing a little more consistently and then compress properly. Some folk out there even go to -30 or -40db on some vocals! Guess it depends on the application... but if it sounds good, it is good...
Funny, because I looked at my chain recently and my stock, start with vocal chain, has two compressors and I am squashing the F out of the vocals. To the point I thought maybe I wasn't doing it right. Thanks for the affirmation that this is the right approach
Making this mistake for sure but I have been working on my vocal technique to also help and that's had a good effect on my singing :D DEFINITELY need to try this
yes. yes i am. i do have 2 questions regarding this and some other vids i've seen of yours.
1. why on your limiters do you always have ceiling the same as threshold? would you not just want the ceiling to keep from it peaking on the way out?
2. why do you keep your track volumes sooooo low in contrast to other mixers i've seen? is -10 to -6 normal and this is just your workflow or is there another reason? i tend to have this problem of learning to just not clip the tracks plugins in reaper and send to mixbus to adjust volume being sent to master. and i have to take volume down considerably before hitting master chain. im sure this is a terrible practice looking at your meters. i respect your opinion and answers on these as ive learn a ton of different methods to do things from you and im sure i speak for many with home studios and interest when i tell you your more appreciated than you may think.
1) The ceiling and threshold completely depends on the signal being fed into it. 2) None of that matters as long as you're not clipping anywhere.
thank you sir@@FrightboxRecording
I just got the El Juan compressor from Korneff. It was free and still might be....
Since I basically learned mixing from your channel, I never had this problem. 😅
May I however ask a question about mixing live performances in this context (as in, the audio engineer at our last gig was nice enough to send us the individual tracks that ran into his mixer and I want to turn them into a nice live recording)?
Because I compress the vocal track so hard, as soon as there's an instrumental section, all the ambient noise that bleeds into the vocal mic is amplified and brought up to the point where it ruins the entire mix. Is there a more elegant solution to this than going through the entire 60 or 90 minutes of recorded vocals with automation and manually muting the track whenever the vocalist shuts up for more than one second? Do I need to be more careful with the threshold level of the compressor stages? Or is there an equivalent to BSA's Silencer for vocal tracks instead of drums? A regular gate won't fix it, because sometimes the ambient bleed peaks higher in the raw track than some of the actual vocals. It's possible that the track was already compressed when it was sent to us.
thats a pretty good song btw, sort of sonic youthy in the 90s
I‘m still not sure if it is enough. But I first let Vocal Rider do it‘s trick, export this to a new track and then use an fast release 1176 and an LA-2A to finally fit the vocals within the mix. Some Automation here and there and I think I‘m good to go.
I think about „abusing“ Melodyne for the dynamics and replace Vocal Rider with it, because on long vowels Vocal Rider is almost doing a crescendo.
I am using the pro l 2 and gain reduction. Should I be adding a third?
How come you don't use the same compressor twice? Is there a difference between the 2 in the vid?
The problem I've been having is that "Th" sounds end up as a hard "T" sound. I think it's due to my attack times, would that be correct?" It seems to happen using Nectar at the end of the chain too. I really need to experiment for myself, but a push in the right direction wouldn't hurt. 😁
I've been shy with compression on some of my projects because it brought out unflattering characteristics in the vocal performance. I've started to lean more and more heavily on gain-rider style processing whenever possible and try to keep it under six dbs of compression when the vocalist isn't that strong or doesn't sing very loud. It seems to help a lot with those high, "rattle-ey" breath sounds from quieter singers that are nearly impossible to EQ out. Anybody else know what I'm talking about?
That "unflattering characteristics" u said, it is something to do with vocal producing? Such as attitude,vibe,key of the song and stuff?
Not sure if you mentioned be on the look out for compression and or limiting artifacts such as momentary distortion, highlighted alisiasing.. Very important to listen for. If its happening either use a different plug-ins and or adjust settings. Artifacts can be really amplified with this signal chain. Clean audio 1st is paramount
How do you keep your track levels so low?
Vocals fighting with your tracks? I use Sonible Smart EQ 4.
I wish he would’ve just turned it up (fader) before adding the compressor. Just so I could see how that would’ve worked
Don't be shy or obsessed with numbers... If the song need it, just do it, use your ears. 🤟
what's MH Character adding?
Subtle analog saturation.
Me with upwards of 18db of gain reduction on a single compressor
This guitar tone is great, but it's definitely competing with the vocals sonically.
*Opens project*
Ooooooooooohhhhhhh…
Anyone else sick of UA-cam grifters with “another course” to sell 🙄
Sounds like this "..." ... No it's worse 😭
Great Video but you audio is out of sync with your mouth
It might be on your end. It's synced for me.
@codexnecro weird I watched again and it's fine
Sometimes fresh videos do that. You were too early! :D
@MaximusAdonicus I think that was the issue, I get alerts and clicked it immediately 😅