How to Mix Vocals in Ableton

welcome to sage audio today we're covering how to mix vocals in ableton but first if you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us to receive a free mastered sample of it with the link in the description gating to reduce noise for this video let's create a complex vocal chain using only stock plugins also we'll do some demonstrations of the effects starting with more aggressive and then dialing it back to how i'd personally mix it for this vocal in particular and in a lot of home recordings there's going to be some noise picked up in the background or from the electronics that are used i'll use a gate with a low threshold quick attack moderate release some look ahead and a high pass internal side chain to attenuate it the noise in this track was so quiet that a demonstration really isn't needed so let's move on to the next insert eq8 to balance the vocal next i'll use seven bands in total to cut out all the frequencies below the fundamental with a high pass accent the fundamental and second ordered harmonic with bells dip some nasal tones boost vocal presence around 3.5 kilohertz and boost air but balance the siblings with a shelf and bell respectively let's listen and notice how the vocal is clearer and more present [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you're enjoying the video hit the like button it helps us bring you more videos compressor for vocal presence next i'll use a compressor with peak detection to bring the vocal forward significantly with a 5.5 to 1 ratio the quickest attack possible a release of 17.5 milliseconds a hard knee and one millisecond of look ahead the vocal is attenuated by about 3 db and makeup gain retains the original level as you'll hear in a moment by compressing the entirety of the vocal then bringing the signal back up the vocal greatly moves forward let's take a listen [Applause] there's no reason for you to pretend that you won't stay [Applause] [Music] glue compressor for cohesion now that the vocal is forward i'm gonna smooth out the dynamics a little more with the glue compressor i'll use a quicker attack four to one ratio an automatic release similar to an optical compressor then i'll attenuate by a few db and make up this change let's listen to how this compressor creates a full slightly soft sound that you won't say [Applause] [Music] there's no reason for you [Applause] [Music] only a small percentage of people that watch our videos are subscribed so if you're enjoying the video consider subscribing it's free and you can always change your mind dynamic tube saturation tube saturation is going to introduce harmonic distortion to fill the sound slightly emphasize the initial transient and add a little warmth by emphasizing the second ordered harmonic i'll increase the drive until i find what works best for this vocal then blend the effect in with the dry wet dial let's take a listen to the effect that you want to stay [Applause] [Music] there's no reason for you to pretend that you won't stay [Music] chorus ensemble for thickness the chorus ensemble plugin is going to duplicate the vocal and cause mild timing modulations to these duplicates i'll select the ensembl option ensure the lowest frequencies aren't included add a little warmth and then blend in the effect until i can no longer immediately tell that it's there let's take a listen and notice how it makes the vocal thicker when used at low settings [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] spectral resonator to fill vocal this is a unique plugin that'll create multiple vocals and then tune them to a specific note first i'll find a note that's in key with the vocal performance i'll adjust the number of voices and then i'll reduce the wet dry until like the chorus effect is just barely noticeable let's take a listen to understand what this plugin does and then how it sounds blended in [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you're enjoying the channel join the community with the link in the description short mid frequency reverb a short reverb is going to thicken and fill out the vocal this is especially true if those reflections are focused on the mids i reduce the room size reduce the decay time and then isolate the reflections to my mids and high mids while using high quality processing with a shorter pre-delay will capture a good amount of the vocal and the maxed out density is gonna help fill the vocal let's take a listen to the effects [Applause] [Music] [Applause] stylized convolution reverb next we'll use the hybrid reverb to create a longer more stylized effect on the vocals i used a hall impulse response 50 milliseconds of pre-delay to let the transients pass unaffected make the base frequencies mono and then blended in the effect to my preference in the eq section i cut out the lowest frequencies and boosted presence and air let's take a listen to it [Applause] [Music] that you won't stay [Applause] quick mid side echo a quick delay after our stylized reverb is going to duplicate the reflections making the reverb more realistic and impressive i'll set my reflection time to a short one isolate the reflections to the mids enable mid-side reflections and add some subtle modulation before blending in the effect let's take a listen and pay attention to what this plugin does to the last reverb's reflections [Applause] rms compression for reverb detail i'm going to use one more compressor but this time i'm gonna make it rms to capture quieter parts of the vocal mainly the temporal processing that we just introduced with the internal side chain i'll isolate the detection to the mids use a soft knee and achieve a few db of attenuation i'll again use auto makeup gain to return the signal to its original level let's listen and notice how this pushes the reverb and other temporal effects forward [Applause] [Music] [Applause] eq8 for final shaping last up i'm going to insert one more eq to finalize the frequency balance of my vocal i'll keep the eq simple and reduce the lows with some of the temporal processing added boost a little of the fundamental add a little presence and a little more error let's listen to how this eq finalizes the signal and then let's take a listen to the full a b of the vocal chains [Applause] there's no reason for you to pretend that you won't stay [Music] full a b of the vocal chain [Applause] there's no reason for you to [Applause] if you have a mix that you need mastered send it to us to receive a free mastered sample of it with the link in the description thank you so much for watching

Channel: Sage Audio

Views: 78,996

Keywords: Audio Engineering, Music Mastering, Music Mixing, Vocal Mixing, Music Production, Audio Mixing, Audio Mastering, Audio Recording, Audio Production

Id: z1YskTXhbnI

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 10 2022