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In these Reason Tips videos, Mattias gives you some valuable pointers on mixing vocals. Since vocals are often what carries the track, it’s important to get them sitting right in the mix! Learn what frequencies to pay attention to, how to make a de-esser in Reason’s mixer, about doubling, compression, and parallel processing, to make sure your vocals sound great!

In Part 2, Mattias moves past EQ and de-essing to cover techniques for making vocals stand out once a good balance alone isn’t enough. He walks through vocal doubling for a thicker sound, how to approach vocal compression for more consistent dynamics, and how to build a parallel channel using heavy distortion and EQ to add character without losing clarity.

Transcript

Part 1

Intro

Hey, this is Mattias with Propellerhead Software, and in this video I’ll talk about some useful tips for mixing vocals.

Before you mix: recording matters

Before you get into mixing vocals, though, they likely need to be recorded. This is important, since it’s very hard to fix something in the mix if the recording wasn’t very good to begin with. Since recording is a topic in itself, I’ll refer you to a great article by Gary Bromham on vocal recording — just follow the link in the description and read up. Okay then, let’s get started.

Why vocals need to be heard

Vocals are often the center of attention in a mix, especially in pop music, where the lyrics many times carry the song. Therefore, one of the most important things when mixing vocals is to make sure they’re heard. So what do you do if you feel the vocals are a bit too quiet and not cutting through enough?

Balancing levels before using effects

The number one thing to try is to turn some other tracks down to let the vocals through. This way, you can achieve a good overall balance and not make your track a race to be the loudest, even before using any kinds of effects or mixing tools.

Getting vocals into the mix early

I recommend getting the vocals into your track as soon as possible. When you have vocals, you can hear it occupy its own space while you work, making it less likely that you add tons of cool instruments that might actually completely overpower the vocals.

EQ: the vocal presence range (2–4 kHz)

When it comes to mixing, the EQ is your very best friend. You could say mixing is like laying a puzzle, making sure all pieces fit together and create a complete picture. This often means different sounds should occupy slightly different frequencies, so they don’t step on each other too much. For vocals, the frequency that’s most crucial — the presence — is often at around two to four kilohertz. Leaving some space here, or boosting these frequencies, will make your vocals come through a lot clearer.

The “air” frequency range (10 kHz and up)

Another frequency range to keep in mind is what’s often called the “air” of the vocals. Ten kilohertz and over is where you can really open up a vocal track. To get familiar with your EQ, I recommend trying to boost and cut the different frequencies and hear for yourself — it can make a lot of difference.

De-essing: taming sharp S, P, and T sounds

Another thing you might want to do is what’s known as “de-essing.” You do this to make the sharp “s,” “p,” and “t” sounds less pronounced, so they don’t stick out too much, like they do here. A de-esser is basically a compressor that only reacts to sounds of a certain frequency. In our case, we want that to be somewhere around four and nine kilohertz, where the sharp consonants kind of sit.

Building a de-esser with Reason’s mixer

This is actually easy to do with Reason’s big mixer. First, we’ll use the two filters to isolate the sibilance. There it is. Now, if we click the “Filters to Dynamic Sidechain” button, this will actually send this filtered signal to the compressor on the channel, telling it to only react to what you just isolated.

Understanding the compressor threshold and Peak mode

The threshold of a compressor is basically the level where the compression occurs. Signal below this threshold will not be compressed. This way, we can make sure that only the loud S’s get compressed. It’s probably also a good idea to set the compressor to “Peak” mode, which results in an instant attack time — that’s much more suitable for sounds like these S’s that have a really fast attack.

Dialing in ratio and release

Then just experiment with the ratio and the release until you’ve evened out the vocals a bit. You can see the compressor reacting to the S’s here, and you can hear it’s working too.

Automating vocal level as an alternative

If you feel that compression and de-essing is a bit too complicated, and you don’t mind a bit of manual labor, you can simply automate the level of your vocal track. This way, you can just move the fader down a bit when you get a sharp “ess” sound. This is also great for adding some emphasis to a word or two.

Wrap-up

That’s it for this video. Hopefully, you got some tips to help you on your way to better vocals. Until next time.

Part 2

Intro: welcome back for Part 2

Hey, this is Mattias with Propellerhead Software, and I’m back with part two of our video on how to mix vocals. In the first video I covered some basic EQ tips and de-essing, so let’s continue where we left off.

When balance isn’t enough

Sometimes getting a good balance isn’t really enough to make your vocals pop out of the mix. Then it might be time to do some more drastic things.

Doubling vocals for thickness

One technique to try is doubling. Basically, this means recording the same vocal take again, and it requires the singer to be able to do two takes that are very close to each other. Now, why would you want two tracks with almost the same vocals? Well, doubling a vocal can help make the vocal sound a bit thicker and make it stand out more. The same thing is often done with guitar, for the same reason.

Treating the doubled track differently in the EQ

Once you’ve recorded the double, it’s a good idea to treat them quite differently with your mixing tools. For example, don’t make the same frequency stand out on both vocal tracks.

Balancing the double in the mix

This will keep the two tracks from clashing too much, and allows you to shape the sounds much further. It might actually be a good idea to keep the double a bit more quiet in the mix, and just let it add a bit of character to your vocals.

Compressing vocals for consistency

Another thing you might want to do with your vocals is compress them. A compressor evens out the dynamics, making the difference between the quietest and the loudest parts a bit less. This can really help make sure that your vocals don’t suddenly disappear in the mix, or suddenly get so loud that they overpower everything.

There’s really no catch-all setting on a compressor for vocals — it really depends on how it’s performed. I recommend trying different combinations of the compressor settings and listening for where it sounds more even, but still natural.

Using a parallel channel for character

A final tip for making your vocals really pop out of your mix is using a parallel channel. A parallel is basically an exact copy of a track, but with different processing. So, for example, first copy this vocal track here, then on the copy add some heavy distortion and compression — say, with the Pulveriser.

Then use the Channel EQ to do something really drastic, just to change the character.

Blending the parallel signal back in

Now, by adding just a little bit of this signal together with the original track, you can add a bit of the character we just created into the mix, giving your vocals a different sound while still keeping the clarity.

Wrap-up

So that’s all for this video, and I hope you got some useful tips out of it. Until next time.