How to Mix Pop Vocals with ONLY STOCK PLUGINS | Make Pop Music

[Music] what's up everybody its Austin here from make pop music in Austin whole audio and visual and today we are back with another tutorial and for today's video we wanted to do something a little different and a little special so we've done a lot of vocal mixing on the channel before we've done how to mix male vocals female vocals we've done vocal production we've done all these little tips and tricks however we've never actually gone in and done a vocal mix straight from stock plugins and that's what we're gonna do today we're gonna be using Cubase and we're going to be using all of the stock plugins that Cubase comes with if you're not in Cubase you can use whatever stock plugins are in your DAW they're probably going to mirror this pretty closely and if you're in a dog that doesn't have a ton of options for stock plugins you can actually download third-party free plug-ins that are going to be very very similar to all of these and you can kind of follow along not only are we going to be using stock plugins but I did go ahead and use a cheaper mic and preamp option on this so I used to share sm7b instead of my VMs one or one of my JZ mics and I went ahead and used the personas audio box instead of using my Apollo so this is basically what it sounds like to get a $300 mic coming through a $100 interface straight into stock plugins and nothing else so let's go ahead and hop into the session and let's start mixing this thing from scratch okay now we're in the dock let's go ahead and let's actually take a look at the vocal straight as it came in this has nothing on it let's go ahead and just listen to what it sounds like so the first thing I do is this was already done I just go ahead and pitch correction of vocals and vary audio and the reason that I like this I'll even do this when I'm using something like auto-tune it's just so I can get a really good handle on it you can make sure every note is where it needs to be you can straighten them up however much you want and honestly this is like having a really really nice graph mode and something like auto-tune or even melody and my you know actual page chain I would throw auto-tune on first and the mix even after this however since we don't have that today let's go ahead and just say forget it and let's go ahead and start listening to this in the context of the mix [Music] let me go ahead and let me send this over to my actual lead vocals bus so that's it with nothing on it let's go ahead and the first thing I'm going to want to do is I'm going to want to EQ it so this is studio EQ this is a really good kind of free alternative for something like fabfilter where you are going to want to go in and get some nitty gritty frequencies that you're not loving so much so let's go ahead and let's look I turn the spectrum on so I definitely want to take some of that low mid out and some of this kind of honky mid [Music] I am gonna go ahead and throw on a low-cut filter right now take it up to like a hundred Hertz or whatever just so we don't get any kind of AC rumbling unless he right now that's heightened it up quite a bit so we're just going to take out that low-end right there and leave that for now the first thing I'm going to want to do is add a compressor and I'm not going to use something that's got a lot of color just so I can go ahead and I can get an actual sound that I want so I'm going to turn this to kind of like for over one or around there we'll have a pretty fast attack let's go to like ten milliseconds and we'll just put the release right here in the middle for now and then let's drive this threshold down as we start listening so you can get some gain reduction [Music] [Music] so I kind of like that let me listen up to release a little bit and see what's happening so honestly we're already at a really really really good starting point everything is starting to already come together with just that one EQ and that one compressor I am gonna go ahead and des before I add any other stuff and for de-essing typically I'll just start with one of their presets and they end there's really low I like the DES up to like either 9 or 10 K just to kind of get some of that top-end [Music] [Music] cool now we're actually getting some D s like 4 to 5 DB when it's actually hitting really hard the next thing I want to do is I want to go ahead and add a compressor that's going to kind of give me some color and just squeeze that thing a little bit harder so this is where I'll use something like the vintage compressor because what we can do with this is we can actually go ahead and start emulating some things like an 1176 where we have like the attack here and the release here I don't know if that's specifically what this is modeled after however it will look familiar with all the controls so we'll leave the mix out 100 right now let's go ahead and turn this also on 4 to 1 we'll have a fast attack let's go ahead and keep this release right here and let's see what we've got going on so I'm going to go ahead and I'm gonna turn the output down so I can drive the input so we get some gain reduction [Music] got anyone start dancing I'm for it I can't say no come knocking on my door for money we had too much to drink without any morning so we're starting to sound really really good this green line right here that's gonna be where your actual channel strip is so I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna take a little bit of the 200 out that I'm hearing it's kind of nasty and Bumi let's go ahead and take a look at that you come knocking on my door fun morning and we had so much to drink without any warning you start dancing around mom you're closing I'm gonna go ahead and take a little bit of a nasally frequency out that's up here let's go ahead and take a listen I think without any warning you start dancing around mom your clothes on the floor and then I'm gonna go ahead and use the fourth band and I'll actually change this to parametric we're just gonna give me a bell and let's see I can't say no tighten up that Q a little bit and we had so much to drink without any warning you start dancing our mom your clothes on the floor it I can't see no there we go that should tighten it up quite a bit let's take a listen let me go ahead and give us some top end right here just because I'm not using this anyway I go ahead and boost like 7 K up C [Music] we know I think we're really cooking here let me go ahead and das one more time just to make sure we're not getting anything after we've boosted that top end and I'll go ahead and I'll use a little bit different one we used two sh t s instead of the SDS so there's with nothing here's with everything let's do a little bit more because we are getting some stuff that I don't well [Music] close on the forehead I can see no my foreign money we had too much to drink without anyone just a scoop a little bit more this kind of low-mid out maybe just widen it up actually a little bit in that that might do it now I'm ready to start adding stuff let's go ahead and let's add the first thing that we like to do and that's vocal parallel widening so normally you see me using Roland dimension B however in today's video actually before I add the chorus I'm gonna go ahead and add mono to stereo so we can get a stereo vocal on this actual send let's go ahead and add studio course let's see what we can do let's try this background vocal let's turn it to 100 and 100 knocking on my door for the morning and we had so much to drink without any warning you start dancing around mom your clothes on the floor it [Music] got me hooked because I never felt this important always told myself I wouldn't do it it's no Marvin wouldn't you know I'm breaking every rule love me can we take it all back before we made a complicated so that sounds pretty good let me go ahead and see if I can add let's see I'm just gonna boost the output with this you dancing around my on your clothes on the floor it I can't say no that'll work for now just to give us a little bit of width let's go ahead and had a short reverb so let's do I love room works from Q ASIS actually really fire a reverb that I haven't used in forever that I kind of miss and let's start with this vocal plate however since it is short we've got a reverb time of 1.6 let's take that down for more like 0.8 and turn the pre-delay down a little bit turn the mix up a nice boost this gain so since we're using it on a sin I'm gonna go ahead and boost that game that way it's actually returning back like we need it to and then let me select short right here and let's how to blend that into taste [Music] too much to drink without any wanted just a dance let's go ahead and take some of these highs out close on the floor I can't say no cool that's sounding pretty good let's go ahead and hear it in the context of the mix perfect let's go ahead and let's go add a slap back delay so for the slap delay I am gonna use ping pong actually instead of using ping pong let's go ahead and use stereo because ping pong doesn't give you the option to set each side how you want and when I'm doing slap back delay I'll like once and like a triplet or a dotted and one in just standard I think I'm gonna go dotted for this and let's turn that actually we can probably keep this high turn the mix up to a hundred and let's start messing around and we had so much to drink without any warning you start dancing on your clothes on the floor I've got some of those highs out cut some of those lows out for it I can't say no now I'm rapping on my door 4:00 in the morning and we had so much to drink without any warning dancing on the floor I can't say no we'll set that right there let's go ahead and let's start adding what everybody really wants and that is a longer reverb and for this I'm going to go ahead and use room works again and let's see what kind of plate settings they have let's go ahead and use something like this bright plate obviously turning the mix up to a hundred go ahead cut out some of the highs that way it's not super bright let's go ahead and turn this all the way up and let's start mixing that in and then we'll see what we need to do after that let's see I definitely want a bit bigger and what I'm going to want to do is filter out some of these highs and some of these lows so I'm going to go ahead and take this to like 3.5 K and take this to like 400 [Music] [Music] how do you want so we're starting to sound really good let's add our last thing and that's going to be a stereo delay so I'm just gonna add stereo delay and for this let's set one side to 1/4 and one side to like 1/4 dotted turn the mix up to 100 again cut out some of the highs cut out some of the lows and we do that just because I don't like the full range being on my actual delays or reverbs because then it just makes everything a bit muddy and I'm gonna go ahead and send this straight over to effects let's go ahead and send this to the long reverb as well and let's see what that is [Music] for the morning there we had so much to drink with let me turn down the reverb send on that delay think without any warning you start dancing around Mon your clothes on the floor it I can't say no again I'm gonna filter some of this out oh you come knocking on my door for the morning yeah we Hyundai halftime a half-time dotted knocking on my door four in the morning and we had so much to drink without any warning you start dancing on your clothes on the floor let's just boost all of these hands a little bit you come we had too much to drink without any warning start dancing arm on your clothes on the floor I can't say no I'm gonna go ahead and pull this down because I am getting a little bit of Tov in that I'm not loving let's see we had too much to drink without anyone dancing around your clothes on the floor I can't say no let's go two more to the top end because I'm getting a lot of that kind of s sibilance come on we had too much to drink without anyone start dancing on your clothes on the floor it I can't say no on my phone we had too much to drink without anyone dancing our mom your clothes on the floor it I think for this delay Singh I do want more low-end back in and I do want more high-end cutout so let's try that I can't say no so now we've done that now I think we've got a pretty solid vocal mix of everything that's kind of going by itself so we've got EQ compressed des compressed des and then we got a little bit more EQ before this DSO right here so let's go ahead and start adding in some extra flourishes so I'm going to go ahead and copy this channel over to this channel and this is going to be a 1/4 delay send and what I'm going to do with this is I'm going to go ahead and I'll move this down to the bottom because it's not going to be asked particular here let's go ahead and add stereo delay on this and since this is going to be just for an effect we're going to go ahead and turn up 100% what let's do I think we can probably do 1/4 and 1/4 and 1/2 dot it again however with this we're going to be adding some extra effects to get that kind of delay throw that we do a lot so we have on we have now let's add some Distortion [Music] let's see let's turn that feedback way down so for the morning we had so much to drink without any warning you start dancing at our four in the morning we had so much to drink without any warning you start dancing uh nice fun morning we had so much to drink without any warning you stood so I am still using a stereo delay however I just went ahead and turned sync off and turn that up like a hundred milliseconds ish so we are just getting a fourth delay and what that's going ahead and doing is actually spreading it just a little bit so let's go ahead and filter this out so fun morning we had so much to drink without any warning I'm gonna go ahead and add some EQ just because that one's not doing it all for me let's go ahead and cut the same thing over here go ahead and boost that turn the cue up let's see what we got now da fun morning yeah we have yeah that's pretty sick so now we've got a fourth delay you come down on my phone we had too much to drink without anyone clothes on the floor I can't say no money we had so much so it's a little dry on its own so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna also go ahead and add up can't add that that's paid let's go ahead and add some reverb I'll add room works again and honestly it might be fine just on this stock setting done the time up a little bit cool that sounded pretty sick so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and also copy this and show you guys one more thing that you can do so let's go ahead and paste that this is going to be a low delay throw and so I'm going to go ahead and add Cubase has a pitch correction now I don't actually ever use for pitch correction but what I will use it for is transposing and doing like those formats at vocals so I'm going to transpose it down turn the shift down a little bit turn the tolerance to zero and let's see you come knockin now let's go straight to it I can't say no me turn that to the right thing I can say no I want that a little bit drier so I am gonna go ahead and turn down the reverb on that and shorten it up and make it just bigger for it I can't say no no I'm so let's try that in the mix I can't say no [Music] let me bring the shift down just a little bit close on the floor I can't say no there we go I'm gonna add a little bit more of this bring it down in the mix a little bit I can't say no now we're gonna do the exact same thing so I'll copy and paste this and we're gonna actually instead of going down let's take it up so I'm going to go back into pitch correction and I'm going to go ahead and turn this to +12 and I'll put this to like plus 30 and I'll go ahead and I'm know I'm gonna want this little one a little bit longer so let's do that [Music] let me route it to my leads here we go I can't say no [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] alright now we've added everything let's go ahead and let's listen all together I [Music] guess they know we just make a couple last little minute changes to these I'm gonna go ahead and put the studio reverb after let's do that I think I do want this one a little bit bigger and again pull the EQ afterwards because it's not filtering out quite as much as I want in the top-end let's try that now [Music] sounds pretty good one last thing I'm gonna do is I want to tighten up these kind of low mids just a little bit and then we'll be good to go so let me go ahead and take off all of these because I don't want those messing with anything and I'll start this at like a hundred let's go up to like 400 just a little boxy areas turn the ratio of never felt it's important I always told myself I wouldn't do this no more in what do you know I'm breaking every rule on it can we take it all back before we made it complicated cuz we're way too attached but now I'm so it's oxic ated in the surface is scratched and I was fine before you came in now one maunder attack and I think I need some saving and do you feel the same no it's a little compressed but I brought it down so it's a little bit more consistent let's check you come [Music] start dancing around your clothes on the floor it I can't say no pull this up pull this down and voila I think we have a whole vocal mix completely inside of Cubase with stock plugins let's give it one last lesson now that I've made those tweaks [Music] [Applause] [Music] I think that's it and there you have it there's what it's like to make a complete vocal change from actual stock plugins we did the entire chain itself we set up all of our sins all of our effects tracks we did all of the production only using stock plugins even our tuning so hopefully this was an eye-opener to show you guys that you don't have to go by thousands and thousands of dollars worth of plugins however if you want to I think that there's always nice flavors to add and I think that just to work around and the actual workflow of some of the paid plugins are a little bit easier sometimes especially when you're trying to crank out mixes you know really really quickly for clients or you're doing a whole bunch of stuff at one time but with all of that said there is no excuse and not to be getting at least a solid vocal inside of your DAW with whatever you've got with whatever mic and interface you've got hopefully you enjoyed this video we'd love to know what you want to see next go ahead and comment down below what you're looking for on this channel and we'll go ahead and we'll make some videos for you other than that definitely head over to our website and check out all of our samples courses all of our free content we got blog posts and if you want to you can go ahead and like comment and subscribe it helps us out a ton other than that we hope you guys enjoy this video and we'll see you next time much love make pop music peace out I don't would you understand [Music]

Channel: Make Pop Music

Views: 21,548

Keywords: Make Pop Music, Make Pop Music Mixing Vocals, How to mix pop vocals, how to mix vocals, how to mix with stock plugins, mixing vocals with stock plugins, make pop music stock plugins, make pop music how to mix vocals with stock plugins, Austin Hull How to mix vocals, how to make pop music, Austin hull make pop music, make pop music taylor swift, make pop music ariana grande, how to produce pop music, mixing vocals

Id: Fabfcx67EB8

Length: 29min 21sec (1761 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 03 2020