Mix Home Studio Vocals To Sound Pro In 3 Steps - RecordingRevolution.com

a friend Graham here from recording revolution comm today want to show you how to make your amateur or bedroom recording vocals sound more professional in three steps literally we're gonna do three moves three specific mix moves to take bedroom recorded vocals and take them up a notch because that's a scenario that most of us are in we're recording at home and I'm gonna assume I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that you're talented and that you are a great singer or you are working with talented vocalists on really good songs so that the vocal performance isn't an issue because if the vocal performance is bad no mixing in the world can make it's unprofessional okay I'd say that a lot but it needs to be made clear in case you've never watched any of my videos you gotta be good but many of you are I know you are I hear your music so if you've got a really well sung vocal and we've got one today but it was done at home and it just sort of needs a little bit of work to make it sound more professional here are three simple things you can do and you can do these all with stock plugins in fact this entire mix I've done with just stock Pro Tools plugins so take a listen to the vocal first and then what we're gonna do is break it down and show you the three steps to make your amateur home bedroom recorded vocal sound more professional [Music] [Applause] Vittoria not a home to cry my own beauty [Music] all right here's the vocal by itself I'm a so on my way back right total home studio vibe took an inventory of all I lack why do I say that okay it sounds really dry like super small like as recorded in a closet okay which is not bad at least there's no reflections but it's very small dry there's a low low end low mid build-up that happens and a lot of times in a small closet or small home studio took an inventory of all I lack very very like chest heavy in terms of the tone it's not that bright forward airy female vocal that we would expect okay very well sung not a home to call my own but a beauty in what I've been shown and it just is a little bit inconsistent so this is a good starting place I like the vocal I'm glad I was sent something really well performed but here are the three steps to take this type of typical dry small home studio sounding vocal and make it sound professional we start with EQ okay so I've got the stock EQ here in Pro Tools and what you're gonna try to do with the EQ typically is clean up that low mid build-up and low-end build-up to open up the best part of the vocal and then maybe take it up a notch with a little bit of a lift and I've done three moves here on the EQ high-pass filter and what that does is it lets the highest pass through that's what's called a high pass it rolls off the low end and I'm rolling off everything below a hundred and eighteen hundred and twenty that's gonna clean up a lot of the whoof eNOS the low-end sometimes the plosives and Herbie's on my way back if there's too much air it'll roll that off I also scooped out a little around 350 Hertz why 350 no real reason other then I know there's usually something in that 200 to 500 range that sounds really low-end like and it's it builds up it's the microphone picking up the sound coming from the chest of the voice and not just the mouth and sometimes that's what sounds unprofessional amateurs small closet studios or bedroom studios and so you want to notch some of that out and that made her voice sound better and then what I did was add a little bit of a shelf boost at 6k I did a 3 DB boost and it was a 3 DB cut by the way on the 350 so these are real gentle moves real conservative but you can take a listen to what this does I'm a so on my way back turn it on I'm a so on my way back took an inventory of all I lack in that line with it off took an inventory of all I lack back on took an inventory of all I lack she sounds a lot more clear and a lot more exciting in the way we're used to hearing pop vocals right it's not overly crispy it's just a little bit more open not a home to call my Oh take it off not a home to call my own yeah it just sounds dull with it off but turn it on not a home to call my oh she sounds more present up front in a controlled way so that might be subtle but that's step one that's why there's three steps step two is compression here we have a stock compressor why would you use a compressor on a vocal why do people reach for compression well I'm not gonna go into it in depth here check out my other videos but the reason why is the human voice is two all over the place loud quiet loud quiet not just from the performers point of view but just certain vowels or louder and certain vowels are quieter so it's just inconsistent it gets lost in a mix and then it gets too loud for a mix you need compression on a vocal to make it sound consistent and upfront so I'm just using simple compression here I started with a preset vocal leveler and then I tweaked it you always need to tweak a preset on a compressor on a compressor because you need to check the actual gain reduction and the attack and release to fit your vocal so I won't go into depth here but here my settings slow attack fast release and you can look at the game reduction here and a little bit of makeup game not a home to call my oh all right so let's take a listen to it with compression i'ma so on my way back take it off i'ma so on my way back put it on i'ma so on my way back what you're noticing is the word back is the same level as it was before but the word I'm that first note is now brought up louder than it was so it's bringing up the quiet part so she sounds just at the same level the whole way through especially on an area like this before not a home to call my own live it on not a home to call my own own she doesn't trail off and get lost oh stays up oh but a beauty in what I've been shown so now you've got a little more up front vocal right if we take off both EQ and compression you can hear the difference that's not the vocal here we go I'm a soul on my way back took an inventory of all I lack not a home to call my own but a beauty and what I've been shown you get that crisp up front consistent gain so yes some words are louder than they were that's the whole point of a compressor but the loudest words are the same level as they were so it's turning up just the quiet parts and it sounds way better already third and final step is when you've got a really dry vocal and this may not be your problem but a lot of times home studio vocals are dry and intimate which is not a bad thing but one way to make it sound professional is to put it in a space and I usually reach for delay not reverbs I'm not the biggest fan of reverbs as the number one choice because a lot of reverbs when done poorly just sound fake but I'm a big fan of slap delays which are really really short delays so I have a delay track here and I played with a plug-in that I've never used before they came with my little scarlet interface called tube delay from soft tube and it's just sort of mimicking even like a delay guitar pedal and so I'm just playing around with really short delay time and playing around the feedback and getting the mix all the way 100% wet so I'm using a send because I wanted to send a bunch of different stuff to this delay I'm already sending the guitars to it and so what I've done is I've taken a send on the lead vocal which basically creates a copy of really vocal gives you its own fader and you can send it wherever you want on a bus through the town to wherever you want in to where I want to send it is this tube delay so I can blend a little bit of the vocal in this delay so take a listen to what this sounds like I'm on my way back took an inventory of all I lack now that's very obvious and affected but it gives you that sense of professional space it's really cool take a listen to in context with a mix [Music] Vittoria not a home to cry my own but a beauty shoot take away all three steps [Music] and up and show and bring them back to time I [Music] there you go those are the three steps to take your home bedroom recorded vocal and make it more professional simple strategic EQ to clean it up and lift it a little bit strategic compression to bring the quieter parts up to be more consistent with the louder parts and push that cleaned up local a little more up front and then some short slap delay mixed in to taste as much as little as you want to take it out of the bedroom and put it in a bar or a club or a venue and give it a sense of its in a real space making real music it just tricks the listener into thinking oh this is professional and it's so simple to do these three I'm doing them all with free and stock plugins and you can do the same now I've got a cool announcement to make in a few weeks I'm gonna be launching my brand-new all-comprehensive mixing course called mixing University so this course is gonna go from the basics of mixing to advanced tactics and strategies I'm gonna break down and show you how to mix songs across multiple genres and I'm also gonna reveal all of my mixing tricks every mixing trick that I love for vocals guitar bass you name it like I haven't done a course like this in years and so if you'd like to discover how to go from amateur mixes to radio ready songs easily with your current da W your current gear you're gonna love this course now if you're interested in learning more about mixing University I've got a special free gift for you no strings attached it's my personal mixing checklist and it's a simple PDF it's a guide that you can download that shows you my personal eight step mixing process to go from the wrong mix to radio ready song and all you got to do to get it is click the link in the description below this video and you'll be taken to a page where you can download it or go directly to mixing checklist dot-com and you can grab it there so download the free mixing checklist when you do that I'm also going to give you a sneak peak from mixing University along with the access to the course when it launches in a few weeks on October 11th so go to mixing checklist com download your free mixing checklist now it's going to help you out a ton plus you're gonna get a sneak peek of the new course early access all that awesome stuff just grab it and enjoy it I think it'll really really help you and as always thanks for watching and subscribing to these videos means a lot I'll see you on another video real soon

Channel: recordingrevolution

Views: 167,150

Keywords: mix pro vocals, mixing pro vocals, how to mix vocals, home studio vocals, professional vocals, vocal EQ, vocal compression, vocal delay, stock plugins, avid pro tools, home studio, recordingrevolution, recording revolution

Id: o575_HiTW6I

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 21 2018