Mixing Vocals With Multi-Band Compression | SoundOracle.net

hey what's going on everybody it's your guy realistic here and I'm doing another tutorial for sound Oracle dotnet and in this tutorial what we're gonna be going over is how to use multiband compressor z' on your vocal chain and this one was actually the winner of the poll that we had last week on our youtube page so if you're not already be sure to subscribe that way you can vote on the tutorials that you want to see each week all right so let's check out what we are kind of dealing with today we're dealing with multiband compressor z' and why we should be using them on vocals and what they can help with so as you've been seeing a lot of my tutorials before what i like to do is the first thing i like to do is show you real quick if you just want to get in and get out with the information without having to sit through all the details i'm gonna show you that real quick and then for everybody else that wants to stick through i'll actually go through why we did this so basically what we're gonna do here is we're gonna search for something in the lower mid-range and we're gonna search for something in the higher mid-range here and we just want to compress some frequencies that are getting a little bit too much thumpy down here and a little too just too much of a residence in there and then up here what we want to do is we want to compress down things that have a little bit too much harshness and so those are the things that we want to get rid of and we want to do about a negative 3 DB range and we're gonna do a fairly tap fairly fast attack and fairly fast release and we only want to do a gain reduction by about 2 or 3 dB we don't want to do too much sometimes we might need to help out the DSR a little bit and so we might add a little bit up in this higher range to just to help some of the the s sounds that are getting a little too harsh but usually our de-esser can handle that but sometimes we might want to also have the multiband compressor help out a little bit alright so now if you do want to know how the details work on this process let's dive in and I'll show you that alright so like I said there's only two or three places that we really want to use the multiband compressor on with the vocals but I also want to tell you why we want to use a multiband compressor and the reasons are it allows you to just compress certain frequencies versus a regular compressor will compress the entire frequency spectrum of that vocal take this will just compress one thing the other thing is is it will only compress when we exceed that threshold versus if we were to EQ things out it's going to EQ it for the entire take of the track so the multiband compressor allows it that only when the the EQ or only when the frequency reaches this threshold it will push it down and so what that does is it basically in a way lets us EQ a voice without removing the characteristics in their voice for the whole song and yes I did say EQ not compress on purpose because multiband compressing is kind of in a way like a little form of EQ because we're just taking a certain frequency and we're gonna take that and we're gonna manipulate that and we're gonna press that down a little bit so those are the benefits of using a multiband compressor so now I'm gonna show you what areas that we want to target and why we want to target them so we got this vocal take care and it's something that I'm using this because this is a loop that we actually used on this song and it's from the XO loop pack so you can check that out if you want to watch the full video you can watch that right there alright so let's check this little track out and then I'll show you what we do [Music] things seem smarter in my head green head like a sprite kit home gods past with the bike yeah always got dirt on my wife then cuz I'm off track okay so vocals sounding pretty decent here I like it it's just there's a couple little things that we could do to make the mix even better and you'll also see where I have my multiband compressor in my chain I have it fairly at the end here because what I'm doing here is you know I got my auto-tune first that should always be first if you're using auto-tune and then I'm doing a little bit of cutting we can get rid of that and then I'm doing a little bit of compressing and then I'm gonna do my DSC next here I got two forms because there's two areas I like to des I knew a video on that too if you ever want to see why I use 2d aesir's alright and then I finally have my multiband compressor after that I have a little bit of boosting EQ and then I have a little bit of EQ just cutting all of this processing that's coming after that first cut so I I chose that because what I want to do is I want to let the EQ cut some stuff out and I also want the dealers to be able to handle some of the issues first and also the compressor itself right here the actual compressor not the multiband is going to create a tone and so I do want to compress some of that tone down a little bit and so that's why I have it in this chain there are no rules in this so if you want to put this somewhere else in your chain go for it but this is how I do my chain so if you like how I do my chain that's how I do it and you can copy that if you want alright so let me show you here what we're looking for so the first thing I like to do is I like to find this area down low here because there's a thump sometimes and there's a little go around in that area and I want to push that down a little bit so it doesn't become too muddy and I also find that when I do that the vocal clashes with the base or the 808 a lot less fret let me then but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first tab so this is an area where I like to solo the vocal because what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna solo the frequency so we can really search for what we're looking for so you kind of hear how that right there is a little muddy and it's got you know a little bit deeper stuff going on there there's like some resonating you know thump going on in there that's the area that I want to compress down a little bit here so let's check that out and I might actually increase this band a little bit right had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first tab think about you then I've run it twice back text then I sent it right back if you got bass then you know my slap and I'm track so I'm only reducing it by 3 DB here I got the ranger at 3 D because here's this thing I'll show you if I do too much it's gonna it's gonna really pump it and it's really gonna take some characteristics out of here that we don't want to be gone track had to let me there but I'm coming right back so that that might be a little too much because we lose some of that the body and richness of the vocal track had to let me vent but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first tab alright and then so as far as attack and release here what we're gonna do is we're going to set this to be a little bit faster of attack because we wanted to compress it down right away we don't want it to be pro long so we want to catch that right away and get rid of that so it's fighting with the bass a lot less instantly alright and now as far as release you kind of have to you know use your ears use your eyes a little bit and and kind of time it it takes a little bit of time but what I like to do is I try to set the release to the rhythm that his voice is going that way the the release isn't lasting too long because you know what we'll start to get these weird in-and-out fades or this pumping feeling and if it's too fast then we're not gonna get the full effect that we so let's kind of dial that in and see where we can go Pratt had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming West when I get my first tat think about you then I run it twice back text then I sent it right back if you got bass then you know my slap in them right had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming West when I get my first time think about you so you can hear when he says back and tat you know those are kind of that and an ending of his cadence is there that's when it's releasing up so we kind of timed it to where it can release on that and so it stays within rhythm of the song so the listener isn't getting thrown off or the listener can't even tell what's going on because we don't want them to be able to tell that there's this pumping compression going on so that's the first area now the other area I like to look for is this harsh area it's usually gonna be in the range of 2 to 3 K somewhere in there and that's again why I like this solo mode so let's check that out here and I tend to go a little bit more narrow on this one just because there's a really certain frequency that I'm looking for so let's solo that out and find it it's gonna be kind of a harsh sound that we're looking for so you can hear right there that we got a little bit of that buzzy mess there's a little harshness in there and so that's the area that we want to compress down a little bit so let's go ahead and unsolo this band here and we'll adjust this and will compress that down a little bit right had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first tab think about you then I run it twice back texif then I sent it right back if you got bass then you know my slap and I'm track had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first tab think about you then I run it twice back text ok and so we kind of did the same thing here is we we had a pretty close range there this one I wanna around for and then we have a fast attack and kind of a fast medium release here that we timed it with his cadence is doing here and then we're just kind of getting it so we're reducing usually only about you know 2 to 3 DB track had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with and what's really nice about this too is it's only gonna reduce by 3 DB when it's like really you know kind of resonating getting up there versus a lot of the times we're we're compressing by almost less than 1 DB for a lot of the tracks so it can go unnoticed for a lot of it and we can maintain that characteristic of of that 2 to 3 K cuz a lot of times there's a nice little bite in there especially for modern vocals so we don't want to just make that disappear track had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first tat think about your denim right and you can see - these are doing two different things and that's another reason why I like multiband compressor this one right here is getting a little bit more aggressive where it's pushing down a lot more and this one is a little bit more tame and a little bit more forgiving and so that's what I really like about that option and speaking of which something else that I might do for this is on a track like this for the higher part here where I want to maintain some of that I might do a little bit softer of a knee the knee is gonna just allow us to choose how forgiving the compressor is when it's a softer need the the compressor will bend a little bit right but when it's a harder knee that the compressor won't really give much it will just kind of push down a little bit so for this area and that's 2 to 3 K range I'm gonna give it a little bit softer of a knee so the compressor is a little bit more forgiving when it hits that initial threshold and then right here what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go with a little bit harder of a knee so it's kind of more solid and pushes that down right away when it exceeds the threshold right had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first test think alright and the last thing I might do is I might change the the ratio here I might change that on this one that's the - around the 2.6 k I might change that to 3 to 1 that way for every 3 DB DB that we got going in got one DB coming out and I'll keep this lower one here at four to one that way for every four DB that goes in one DB is coming out because again I do want this area to compress a little bit more and just be a little bit more aggressive with that compression because that debt tends to be the area that's gonna fight a lot with some of that low-end information and we really don't want to have that clashing especially for modern vocals track had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming all right and so on this track we might not need it but let's go ahead and show you what I'm talking about here so I do have two dealers here kind of going on but there might be some area in this top end that I might want to tame down I don't think I do but let's check it out but I want to show it to you because there may be some vocal tracks where you want to do that Pratt had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming west when I get my first tab think about you gonna run it twice back Texas then I sent it right back if you got bass then you know my slap in imrat had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first time think about you then I run it twice back text then I sent it right you know what I actually think that will keep that you can see right there the the Sullivans that we had on taxes right there it kind of pushed down but for the most part it just left a vocal untouched I was I was pretty conservative here you know that the range here was less than 2 dB the attack was fast the release was fast but we also had a really small ratio and the softest me that we could have so that way for the most part we're not losing that brightness of the vocal we're just kind of taming it down when the Sullivans gets a little too much so let's go ahead and check that out again track had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first tat think about you yep and so it just kind of gives us that a little bit so let's go ahead and I'll bypass this and I'll bring it back and then I'll show you what it sounds like in the track as well track had to let me there but I'm coming right back say you're coming with when I get my first time think about you done I've run it twice back text then I sent it right alright and let's go ahead and check this out a little bit with the mix of the song so you can hear what it sounds like in the mix cuz you heard it so low there you could easily tell there was an improvement as far as you know there's more clarity and stuff when we have the multiband compressor engage so let's check this out in the mix and again I'll bypass it so you can hear it but I'm coming right back say you coming with when I get my first tag think about you gonna run it twice back then I'll send it right back what's cool is we're compressing a lot of frequencies down we're not boosting too many places and you can hear as we go in and out of this things are actually starting to have more clarity and have more brightness and it's all because we're compressing down some frequencies that we don't want so again that's the whole little trick right there for how we use a multiband compressor on vocals I use this literally on every vocal mix that I do I think it's highly effective and I think this type of plug-in should be in your plug-in chain when it comes to vocals as well I think it will make a lot of difference and you'll you'll definitely see improvements so I'm hoping that you got a lot out of this tutorial today hopefully there's some information that was useful if you're getting a lot out of this but you want to see more please feel free to comment below let us know what kind of tutorials that you want to see in the future and Oracle and I can definitely make that happen we're always trying to find the content that you want to see if you're liking what you're hearing from me you can find me everywhere on social media at realistic productions you can find me at the web realistic productions net you can find my man sound Oracle everywhere at sound Oracle and if you're looking for the best date awaits the best kicks the best snares with the craziest loops and samples you can find on the internet right now go to sound Oracle net alright so next time you

Channel: SoundOracle

Views: 10,756

Rating: 4.9696202 out of 5

Keywords: Sound Design Tricks, Vocals, Radio Ready Vocals, SoundOracle, Realistic Productions, Beat Making, Mix, Mixing Issues, Mixing Tips, Mixing, Mixing & Mastering, Mastering, Mastering Engineer, Producer Tips, Producer Tutorial, Production Tutorial, Recording & Production, How to mix, How to master, mixing tips, mastering tips, Mixing vocals, Mixing vocals with multiband compressors, multiband compressor, multi-band compressor, multiband, multi-band, how to use a multiband compressor

Id: Y-NWmly7NBI

Length: 17min 16sec (1036 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 09 2020