How To Get Your Vocal to Sit Well in The Mix - Revealed Secrets.

Everyone wants and loves that in your face vocal and I will tell you that it isn’t hard to get. There are just some creative and technical decisions you must make in order to that in your face vocal, and I will show them to you without beating around the bush. Before we move on, think of your vocal as an instrument and an instrument that must be heard in the mix regardless of what is going on around it. Let that be the way you approach every mix onward.

So, here are the 3 crucial steps you can follow that will give you a great vocal sound.

1. Use EQ to bring your vocal Forward:

One thing you should know about an EQ is that you can use it to bring your vocal forward to where it is audible or push it back in the mix to where it isn’t very audible. So, if you want your vocals to be upfront, even before grabbing a compressor make sure that they are properly eq’ed. Proper EQ means that you can add clarity and presence in the 2kHz to 5kHz and a little bell or high shelf boost between 7kHz to 9kHz range.

This EQ moves will in turn push your vocal forward and helps it stand out in the mix without messing anything up.

You must be careful when boosting in the 2kHz to 5kHz range as it can bring up some harsh frequencies that you don’t want.

Another thing to also consider is cutting out unwanted frequencies in the low-mid area and roll off excess low end using a high pass filter. All this will make your vocal stand out and clear even in a busy mix.

2. Create Space in the middle

You can quickly create a space for your vocal to live by using panning and subtractive eq’ing.

Panning: Instead of leaving that guitar or bell track in the center where the vocal lives, you can slightly or heavily pan them to the left or right, doing this will make room for your vocal and it helps it appear clearer and even louder.

Using subtractive EQ - by using subtractive EQ you can carve out frequencies on other centered instruments that is clashing with the vocal.

For example: let’s say you have a stereo piano track that you’ve worked on eq’ed and compressed, and it sounded very good by its self, but you notice that when you added your vocal, the vocal seems lost in the mix. The initial thing to do might be to turn up the volume of your vocal track, but that will in turn lead to getting an unbalanced mix and everything can begin to go wrong from that point onward. Because now, you must also turn up the synth because you can no longer hear it, before you know it your mix buss is clipping.

What you should do is to find what frequency or frequencies in the piano track is clashing with the vocal and then cut it out, since you want to give priority to the vocal. Most of this frequency will be in the high mid-range (2kHz – 5kHz) because this is the area where we add clarity and presence to vocals and it helps bring them forward in the mix.

Using Mid-Side EQ: You can create space for your vocal by using a mid-side EQ. This tool and technique help you affect frequencies in the middle (center) and sides independently.

For example: You can easily cut out the frequency on a stereo synth bass that is clashing with the vocal in the center, and this will help create room for your vocal.

3. Automation:

Automation is when you manually adjust the level of each syllables or phrases or a sound source to get a desire result. Use automation to pull up the silent phrases in your vocal track and reduce any sudden peaks accordingly.

The purpose of automating is to maintain consistency.

Automating your vocals before any other processing makes it easier for mixing, which can lead to using less compression.

Automation before compression is your golden technique, by doing this you can reduce all your breaths to where they won’t be over bearing and loud when they are later compressed.

Use automation to control your vowel sounds (a, e, I, o, u and sometimes y), which can get so annoying by being attacky (that’s not a word but you get the gist) when later compressed.

4. Compression:

Amongst other things a compressor can do, its primary purpose is to control dynamics. You want to make sure that your vocal dynamics (volume) are controlled all the way through, but not to the point where there are no dynamics left as this will sound unnatural.

The compressor settings or compressor type to use will vary depending on different factors such as how fast or slow the song is, the genre and what mojo you are trying to get. It is imperative to understand what you are trying to achieve with compression before grabbing one.

However, since this is about getting that in your face vocal sound that we are so used to in modern pop, R&B or electronic music, I tend to use a 1176 plugin (CLA 76 specifically - by Waves). I set it to a slow to medium attack and a fast release. The 1176 is known for its fast release which means it doesn’t hold onto the vocal signal for a long time before it returns to its original state, which means it let go quickly.

Using a slow attack and fast release time will give you a punchy and aggressive in your face vocal sound that will cut through the mix. I use a 4:1 ratio and compress about 3db – 5db on a vocal track.

I use multiple compressors in series to get a desire compression on vocals, so I’m not over-using one plugin. A properly compressed vocal will push your vocal forward and it will sit well in the mix.

Parallel Compression:

The last but not the least technique you must try is Parallel Compression. Parallel compression can be used even if it’s just a piano and a vocal track. This helps you blend a highly compressed signal with the original vocal which automatically helps your vocals sit well and stay upfront in the mix. Use parallel compression on your vocals for any size of mix, simple or complex. It just works.

How to set up a Parallel Compression

1. Create a new aux track, choose a input bus and name it” Vocal PC” and send the output of the track to your mix buss

2. Put a compressor on the new aux track and set your compressor to a slow or medium attack and fast release time. (I normally use the CLA 76 for this as well)

3. Send your lead vocal to “Vocal PC” using a send output on your lead vocal channel and adjust the sent levels using the fader.

4. Adjust the threshold on the compressor to where you are getting a gain reduction of about 6db to 8db.

5. Then adjust the fader volume of the aux track to blend it with the original.

Feel free to adjust the threshold, attack and release time to satisfy the need of the vocal track.

In Conclusion

So, this is all I have for you for now, if you can put all these techniques in practice you shouldn’t have any difficulty in making your vocals sit well in the mix. In summary we talked about

Using EQ to bring your vocal forward by adding some high-mid frequencies between 2kHz and 5kHz and sheen between 7kHz and 10kHz.

Creating space for your vocal in the center using panning, subtractive EQ and mid-side EQ

Automation and Compression to maintain consistency and control dynamics with using a slow to medium attack and a fast release to get that in your face vocal.