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INTRODUCTION

Hey there this is Bunmi,  a veteran mix engineer and producer. Owner at  GSol production.

This article is going to cover a lot of ground as possible.

We will discuss:

How to make your vocal sound professional.

The type of effects you should put on vocals

Vocal Mixing Chains

Vocal Mixing Techniques

The vocal mixing techniques you will learn here today,

You will be able to use the mixing techniques learned here to mix vocals in genres such as Hip Hop, Rap, Pop,  R&B and EDM

I am going to start by showing you the before and after of a vocal I mixed. (In the Video Below)

We  will discuss the philosophy and mindset of mixing vocals.

I will walk you through my personal vocal mixing chain which you can download from the  link below.  I will be sharing my mindset on why I do what I do

[gsoltheproducer-blog]

HOW TO MIX VOCALS

How To Mix Vocals - In 7 Easy To Follow Steps

INTRODUCTION

Hey there this is Bunmi,  a veteran mix engineer and producer. Owner at  GSol production. 

This article is going to cover a lot of ground as possible.

We will discuss: 

How to make your vocal sound professional. 

The type of effects you should put on vocals

Vocal Mixing Chains

Vocal Mixing Techniques

The vocal mixing techniques you will learn here today,

You will be able to use the mixing techniques learned here to mix vocals in genres such as Hip Hop, Rap, Pop,  R&B and EDM

I am going to start by showing you the before and after of a vocal I mixed.

We  will discuss the philosophy and mindset of mixing vocals.

I will walk you through my personal vocal mixing chain which you can download from the  link below. I will be sharing my mindset on why I do what I do. 

By the way, all the vocal mixing chain steps can be replicated in any DAW  such as Logic Pro, FL Studio, Ableton Live and Pro Tools.

You will see and hear me toggle on and off  the vocal mixing chain to hear, with it and without it. 

In the vocal mixing chain, we have: 

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 

4. De-Esser - reduce and tame sibilance or harshness 

5. Tonal Density Compression - create a more compactness in sound quality

6. Volume - add gain and volume

7. Saturation - warm up the sound and increase pleasant harmonics

The first step to getting a good vocal sound begins with a  good vocal recording. Ensure you record with a good microphone in a good room.  You may have an acoustic treatment which is rather expensive, but if you can't afford it, just make sure you have  a room that is semi dead, not too reflective or echoey.  

The next thing to take note of is your gain staging. Record at decent gain level.  Don't record a too hot signal nor a too low signal. If you may record low but you want to be mindful of the room you are in. If you're not in a good room, you may run the risk of recording all surrounding noises too. 

After you've achieved a very good vocal recording, the next phase is editing.  In the editing phase, you want to listen to the entirety of the vocal recording.  

Listen for pops, clicks, clips  or any annoying frequency that may poke at you.   

Repair any damages, Use iZotope RX to repair clicks, clips, noise, and plosives too. 

If there are any room tones or annoying frequencies, use your EQ to notch them out.  

I'm sure you have read this in a many blogs out there but I just want to cover all the bases.

So after you’ve  got all the editing done on your vocal recording, then we can start prepping the vocal for the mix.

 Performance Editing

In the performance editing  phase, you should fix any pitch or timing errors in your vocal recording. (Try Melodyne) If this is a singing vocal, make sure you have a pitch correction done, and tune all the vocals,   the vocal melodies and harmonies in tune with all the key of the song.   

All right let's get to the vocal mixing section. 

HOW TO MAKE YOUR VOCAL SOUND PROFESSIONAL

The reason why a lot of amateur engineers can’t  get a really good vocal mixing sound is because a bunch of the stuff that we read online concerning mixing years ago, unfortunately, they do not work in this modern production era anymore. 

You have to understand that the modern production era requires a lot of processing for you to be able to compete with what is  going on out there. When you listen to your favorite songs on the radio, Spotify and iTunes, you realize that your mixes always never come close. 

Why?  Because 1.  the record labels hire the best of the best.   2. a seasoned engineer understands that he has to compete with a degraded mp3 version quality and his mixes are being played on crappy iPhone speakers and laptops.  He knows that even though all the recording and production were done with a lot of high-end equipment like a $10,000 Sony C-800 microphone, into  a $10,000 Neve preamp, into a  $3,000 Tube-tech Compressor, then mixed with an SSL 4000G,  $50,000 console mixing board (and you don't really need that anymore these days).  

He  understands that the end product is going to be converted to an MP3, and played out of the worst Android phone speakers.  Imagine from high pristine 192kHz / 96kHz quality audio convert down  to 44.1kHz then to 256Kbps degraded MP3 version.  

This is why you have to go the extra mile. You have to over process your audio.  You have to process more and use a lot of compression and a lot of saturation. 

Alright let's Dive In.  Here Comes The Gold.

Now the fun stuff:  

WHAT EQ  FREQUENCY IS VOCAL

Let’s discuss where on the human hearing frequency threshold are the human voices.

Male vocal fundamental  frequency 85Hz - 180Hz

Female vocal fundamental frequency  165Hz- 225Hz 

With both male and female  having their harmonics and overtones  extend up to 8kHz.

In both Step 1 and Step 3, you will see the exact frequencies I cut out to clean vocals, and the exact frequencies I boost to enhance it.  Notice how these frequencies fall within the range of 85Hz - 8kHz or a little higher. 

 VOCAL MIXING CHAINS

 VOCAL MIXING TECHNIQUES

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 leave. And around 1kHz - 4KHz 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. 

I would recommend: Be 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.

My Recommendations:

Remove plosives  and rumbles: Low Cut / HP Pass Filter 85Hz - 150Hz (depending on the gender) 

Reduce  woof-ness and boxiness : 200Hz - 400Hz 

Reduce Honk and Harshness 900Hz - 4kHz

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 too fast release.  Release settings are usually based on the speed of the audio signal and the tempo of the song. My recommendations is anything between 100ms - 300ms range. And like I said, depending on the tempo of the song.

My recommendations:

Ratio : 3: 1 / 4: 1

Threshold:  -20db - - 29db

Attack time: 3ms - 7ms

Release time:  100ms - 200ms (based on the song BPM)

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 midrange boost. Also anything between 3.5kHz to 10KHz is good for presence and air boost. 

My recommendations: 

1.5kHz - 2.5kHz for midrange and power 

3.5kHz - 7kHz for presence 

9kHz - 12kHz for air , sheen

Use your ears to find a sweet spot for your specific vocal.

STEP 4 - DE-ESSER

reduce and tame sibilance or harshness

 De-essing  it's a pretty simple process. 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. 

My recommendations:

For de-essing, I would check out frequencies in the range  between 3.5 K all the way to 7K, sometimes 10K. But all your culprit, there  are usually round 3.5 K to 7 k.  (try both split and wide-band mode)

STEP 5  TONAL DENSITY COMPRESSION

create a more compactness in sound quality

Tonal Density. The definition according to the Oxford Dictionary:

 is the quality of a sound associated with the perceived tightness or compactness of a tone, greater density. 

This is exactly what we 're trying to achieve in a vocal production. In order to achieve  this type of quality, we have to set up our compressor in a different way other than the last.  

My recommendations:   

Ratio: 2:1 ratio 

Attack time: medium slow attack around 20-40ms, 

Release time: medium  fast release around 50ms - 150ms (based on the tempo of the song like the last time).   

Threshold settings:  Pull the threshold all the way down. -30db  / -40db. (we need to grab all the nuances of the vocal)

STEP 6 -  VOLUME 

add gain and volume

This is simple.Turn up the volume with any gain or volume control you have. 

We added 8db of vocal in this example.

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 saturation whichever you have available is fine. 

Plugins recommendations: Waves Kramer tape, Waves J37 Tape, Decapitator, Fabfilter Saturn. iZotope Exciter, UAD Suder

BONUS STEP:

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

Double up on 1 or 2  of the steps above for more hyper processed sound, but use them in parallel to retain some dynamics.

Request a new vocal recording with a better performance.

Hire an expert Mix Engineer - CLICK HERE

DOWNLOAD THESE VOCAL MIXING CHAIN IN A PRETTY EASY TO FOLLOW LOOKING PDF:

DOWNLOAD HERE

WATCH ME USE THIS VOCAL MIXING CHAIN AND TECHNIQUES IN A VIDEO:

PS:

I JUST DID A VIDEO ON USING MODERN REVERBS ON VOCALS on my youtube channel. 

We will discuss using reverb next time. 

Happy Mixing. GSol Production Team

Bunmi

gsolproduction.com

[gsoltheproducer-blog]

Hope you all enjoy this video and learn something from it. It is my joy to see you guys succeed in your production and mixing endeavors. Join Our GSol Production University. A Secret Facebook Group with One-On-One Coaching https://gsolproduction.com/membership 

For mixing services, contact us https://gsolproduction.com/free-quote 

[gsoltheproducer-blog]

Hope you all enjoy this video and learn something from it. It is my joy to see you guys succeed in your production and mixing endeavors. Join Our GSol Production University. A Secret Facebook Group with One-On-One Coaching https://gsolproduction.com/membership 

 For mixing services, contact us https://gsolproduction.com/free-quote

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Sibilance - What is Sibilance

What is Sibilance

Recording your music, or other vocals, can be a very rewarding experience for most people. It's fun to do, and it's great way to show off your talent to family and friends. People love to listen to music, and are sure to pop in and ear phone and head your way.

But what if there is a terrible hissing noise in your recording? One that distracts you, and the listener from actually hearing your music. Worse, what if it makes the listener want to shut the music off?

This noise is what is referred to as sibilance, and with a few easy steps, it can be avoided.

What is Sibilance?

Simply put, sibilance is a hissing sound. Sibilance is actually a part of the phonetics of language. It's an acoustic characteristic of certain consonants and is created by the tongue directing a stream of air to the teeth. It's the hissing sound created when a person says words like this, sip, or chip. Or remember the saying "Sally sells seashells by the seashore?" That hissing is a perfect example of sibilance.

When speaking, the roof of your mouth projects sounds for the ear to hear. Sibilance is created when that sound is exaggerated. Space between a persons' front teeth, the shape of the tongue or palate, and sometimes a certain way of speaking can create this exaggeration and produce a pronounced sibilant delivery of a consonant.

The Frequency of Sibilance

The sibilant sounds are created by the "s", "t", "z" and sometimes the "c". These consonants are at centered at 5kHz to 8kHz, although the problem can occur at higher frequencies as well.

What is Sibilance Audio?

Sibilance is a very necessary part of our speech patterns, but at times, the over-pronounced consonants can create an irritation on a persons' ear - for example, when speaking, or singing into a microphone. Through the microphone, this can create a very harsh, distracting sound.

What effect does sibilance have on audio?

This distinct sound is often very pronounced in audio recordings. If these sounds are not taken care of before the release of an album, it can make the recordings very difficult, often painful to listen to. Not the effect the musician is hoping for when sharing their music.

There are some ways to tame this sound, and reduce it from your mixes, so there is hope for those that have pronounced sibilance in the microphone.

Controlling Vocal Sibilance at the Source

The easiest fix for this issue is to have the vocalist sing without creating any sibilance, but that is not a realistic expectation for any singer. There are; however, a few things the singer can do to minimize the sibilance from a recording.

Choose the right microphone

If your vocalist has a bright top end, look for a darker microphone. Look for a microphone that has a vintage sound condenser, or a microphone with a softer dynamic. The goal is to find a mic that has a smooth top end. There is no scientific approach to finding "the right mic" as each vocalist is different. Just play around with microphones until you find one that works well with the vocalist.

Hold the mic correctly

This sounds overly simple, but holding the microphone in the right spot, at the right angle, makes a huge difference in the vocals being picked up by the mic. Angling the microphone to side of the mouth will change the frequencies being gathered, as will holding it at a 45 degree angle. Keeping the microphone two fists away from the mouth can also help.

Grab the Gum

Try eliminating the use of the upper palate by placing a piece of gum there. Have the vocalist chew up a piece of gum and stick it to the roof of their mouth. This can dull the hissing sound.

Or a Pencil

This trick comes from Eyal Levi and has been shown to work rather well. Grab a wooden pencil and rubber band. Use the rubber band to attach the pencil to the microphone, at the grill, going straight up and down. You'll have to experiment with this a bit to get the best results for your vocalist. As an added plus, this trick also works to minimize plosives (the hard p and b sounds you get in the mic).

Some or all of the techniques may work for you. Experiment and mix and match to get the best results. Each vocalist will have a different sound, and different tricks that work, so don't discount something if it didn't work the first time.

If you can't get rid of the sibilance through the source, there are some other techniques to try when mixing the music.

Audio Processing

Now that the vocalist has done everything they can to minimize the sibilance being recorded, it's up to the mixer to finish getting rid of it in the track. There are two issues we need to consider when listening to the recording.

The first issue is the human ear - the way we hear makes our ears sensitive to higher tones, even when they are at a low volume. This means that even though the "s"s and other sounds are lower than other sounds, they still stand out. The second issue is with the speed of the sibilant sounds - they are fast, very fast.

So, how exactly do we erase these sounds then from a recording?

Use the fader

Listen to the recording while riding the fader. Every time you hear a sibilant sound, turn the fader down. This is an easy, simplistic approach that everyone can use, but it gets to be very time-consuming when you have a lot of music to process.

De-essing

This is exactly what it sounds like. De-essing is a process that get's 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.

Using a de-esser to reduce sibilance

Two of the more popular and simpler techniques are Frequency Selective and Wideband de-essing.

Frequency Selective or Split-Band

When this technique get triggered by silibance, it turns down the treble range in your vocals. It does leave the leading edge of the "s" in place and make your vocals sound a bit pitchy. Some other words get caught by the compressor and at times this can pull down the overall sound of the vocals, leaving them a bit dull.

Wideband

This approach only reacts to the frequency range and also leaves the leading edge of your word unchanged, and like the frequency selective, your vocals can become dull when the compressor grabs extra words in the frequency range. Both of these methods; however, are much faster than riding the fader.

Trigger the De-esser

A more advanced technique with cool results, this is fantastic for digital mixing. It’s a bit difficult to set up when analog mixing, but can be done. To trigger the de-esser, you first copy your vocal on a separate track, the set the vocal copy ahead of the main track. Put your de-esser on the main vocal and key it to copy.

Now, when an "s" comes through on the copy, it activates the de-esser on the main signal. By setting the copy for 50-100 ms earlier than the main, the de-esser will reach maximum reduction before the "s" appears on the main copy. This method won't leave any spikes on the leading edge of your words.

Over De-ess Your Track

Exactly what is sounds like, you use the de-esser to the extreme. This causes it to work on parts of the vocal that don't need to be fixed. After using the de-esser, you can feed the track into an EQ, boosting the high-end. This technique works best with a really good de-esser and a really good treble boost, so your high end stays smooth.

Be Aware Of

When recording, don't compress the signal in the channel path. This tends to exaggerate the sibilance. User your fader, instead, to level the vocals.

Apply these same rules when mixing. Use your fader to keep a consistent vocal.

Keep the music at a softer level when you mix. When focusing on sibilance issues, it's important that your music is not too loud. You are able to hear so much more detail in the music when it is at a softer level.

Conclusion

Sibilance is a natural form of any speech, and present in any person's vocals, but it doesn't have to hinder your vocal recordings and performances. It doesn't have to be present in your music. There are several options available to remove the sibilance from your recordings, vocal options for the singer, and mixing options behind the scene. You can try these techniques yourself, or reach to a professional to help with your task. Professional mixing studios, like GSol Productions are masters at putting together the best de-essing, and other mixing technique to make your music sound like gold. They go above and beyond to put your tracks in the best possible light, and make your music shine. They have tips and tricks used daily to make you sound your best all the time.

Dola-rent - GSol Production

More Resources:

Vocal Mixing Guide Why your Bass Sound Muddy Finding a Music Producer

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Every vocal is different and every song is different as well. But generally speaking, lead vocal should be moderately loud or the loudest element next to your drums in your mix. Vocal Mixing techniques * Solo with your lead vocal, mute all other channels * Set your lead vocal peak level at -6db * Set your Kick Drum peak level at -6db * Then Set your Snare Drum peak level at -9db * All other instruments peak levels may be set by taste

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Hip hop mixing engineer - GSol Production GSol Production - Los Angeles Music Producer, Mix Engineer 3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer. We consistently deliver top-notch quality results. https://gsolproduction.com

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3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer. We consistently deliver top-notch quality results.

[gsoltheproducer-blog]

Common Audio Mastering Mistakes

Common Audio Mastering Mistakes

Muddy Low End or Boomy Low End

A boomy low end is the most frequent mistake I hear all the time when I’m reviewing mixes from beginner mixers and amateur producers. Not properly representing the low frequency of your song is a vital mistake that could ruin your chances of making a good first impression with a potential client, fan, and A&R. 

This problem can be easily avoided by proper use of:

Frequency Analyzer

Having a moderately tuned room 

A pair of headphones with accurate LF response

Using Frequency Analyzer 

I habitually use an analyzer to check my octaves in the lower range frequency. This ensures there is enough information in each necessary octaves.

Having a Tuned Room

Not having an acoustically tuned room is the most common downfall in a project and home studio environment. Knowing your room is key. Comprehending how your room responds to low-frequency range from 30Hz - 200Hz is absolutely crucial to achieving an appropriate low end. If you can’t hear it right, you can’t mix it right. Hire a professional acoustics designer to help fix your issue.

Using a pair of headphones

Utilizing headphones is a cost-effective way of fixing your problematic room acoustics. I repeatedly use headphones to check the lower octaves. There are several headphones that I have used in my career and they come highly recommended by top mixing engineers in the business. My top 3 are Sennheiser HD650,  AKG K701,  Audio Technica ATH-M50x 

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Logo design dallas, graphic designer in dallas

GSol Production - 3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer.

https://gsolproduction.com

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GSol Production - 3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer.

https://gsolproduction.com

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mixing and mastering in Nigeria

GSol Production - 3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer.

https://gsolproduction.com

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Professional Mixing and Mastering Services in Nigeria

Need a Professional Mixing and Mastering Services in Nigeria?

Are you looking for top mixing and mastering engineers in Nigeria?

Do you need a professional mixing and mastering in Nigeria?

A US-Based Nigerian is offering mixing and mastering services for all Nigerians and Africans all over.

Contact "GSol the Producer" at GSOL PRODUCTION.

Genre specialties: Afro, Pop, Hip-hop, Trap, Christian, Gospel....and more

CALL US

or  

EMAIL

US

to ORDER  

https://mixingsub.weebly.com/

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How to Send US your files:

1. Create a folder with your song title and BPM

2. Export all audio files in mono or stereo format, 24bit, 44.1khz or 48khz into the created folder

3. Add a youtube link of a reference file(s) of what you want your song to sound like

4. Zip up/compress the folder

5. Use wetransfer.com to upload all files

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GSol Production - 3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer.

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GSol The Producer - Discography 

GSol Production - 3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer.

https://gsolproduction.com

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GSol Production - 3x Grammy-nominated Los Angeles music producer and mixing engineer.

https://gsolproduction.com