If you’re recording vocals in your home studio, you’re going to need some decent equipment and more importantly some some solid recording technique (see part 1 and 2 of this blog, respectively).  But everybody knows that at the end of the day, you’ve got some mixing to do.  Especially if you want this song to sound professional.

I find that in vocal mixing (and mixing in general) less is more.  It is vital that you have recorded the best possible performance from your singer--and if you haven’t done that by now, go back to part 2 and start over.  No amount of editing can make up for a  crappy performance, poor mic placement, or unwanted room reverb.

The first thing you need to do is create a “comp” or composite take made up of the best parts of every one of your three to five really perfect takes.  Yeah, that’s right, they weren’t quite as perfect as you thought they were when you were recording, huh?  There are a number of ways to do this depending on how you recorded your takes and what DAW you’re using, but however you do it make sure your track sounds consistent all the way through in terms of tone, confidence, and energy.  Create small crossfades in between your cuts to make sure there aren’t any pops or clicks in your final comp track.

Try to avoid using pitch correction software unless it’s absolutely necessary.  Plugins like autotune have a tendency to take the life and realism out of your music and make your singer sound like a robot--unless, of course, you’re producing T-Pain; in that case load it on!  I like to (sparingly) use Melodyne to make small corrections in pitch if needed, because it’s one of the most natural sounding and robust pitch and time editors available.

You may hear the need to adjust the EQ slightly.  I’d start by adding a high pass filter just below the fundamental pitch of the vocal to cut out the low end rumbles that can muddy up the mix.  In most pop recordings, the vocal is all high-end.  Other than that, try to stick to cutting frequencies more than boosting them.  If you do boost, use less than 4dB at any one frequency.

Compression on the vocal track is very important.  A compressor’s job is to limit the range of dynamics in a track, much like having someone turn down a fader each time the vocalist gets too loud.  You’ll need compression to bring the lead singer out in your mix and allow her to sit comfortably on top of all the other instruments.  Start with your compressor’s ratio between 2:1 and 3:1 and adjust the threshold so you end up with between 6 and 12 dB of reduction on the meter.  Tweak these two controls together while listening very carefully.  Make your singer strong without sounding choked!  You can raise the gain control for a louder signal.  Raising the attack value will cause the compressor to react more slowly, reducing the volume a longer amount of time after each transient.  Adjusting the release changes the amount of time that the volume reduction remains in effect.

After compressing the vocal, some additional automation is usually needed to keep the singer sounding strong and in focus throughout the entire track.  This is known as riding the vocal.  Listen to the song while constantly automating the volume fader to keep the lead vocal at an appropriate level on top of the frenzied wall of distorted guitars.

Many novice mixers will insist on adding a ton of reverb, but I beg you to use just a touch.  If you listen carefully to popular music today, you’ll notice that it’s all very dry, unlike the sound of symphonic music and ‘80s new wave!

Contrary to what you may think, we’re not going to add the reverb plugin to the list of inserts on your vocal track.  To save on your computer’s CPU resources and to create a unified sound of one space for your entire mix, we’re going to create a reverb aux track.  Create a new aux (or auxiliary) track in your project.  Name it “Reverb”.  Add your favorite reverb plugin to this track--I personally like the Waves Renaissance Reverberator or RVerb.  Set it to a preset that you like, such as a medium sized room with a moderate decay time.  Crank the wet to 100% and the dry to 0%.  Now you’re going to use a bus to connect your vocal track (and all your other instrument tracks, for that matter) to this new reverb aux.  Just set Send 1 in your vocal track to Bus 1 and set the input for the reverb aux to Bus 1 as well (If you’re using ProTools or Digital Performer, you may need to unhide your sends).  Imagine that this bus is a patch cable connecting a piece of rack-mounted gear to a hardware mixer.  Turn up the Send 1 level on your vocal track and listen to the amount of reverb change.  To the right is kind of what it might look like in Logic.

If you do this to all of the tracks in your mix, you can create a sense that all of the instruments are playing in the same room because the reverb unit will be consistent amongst all of them.  To make something sound far away in the room, turn up the reverb a bit.  To make it sound right up in your face, bring the reverb way down.  Again, remember not to use a lot of reverb so your mix doesn’t become muddy.

If you have background vocals, use a different amount of reverb for them and pan them off to the sides for a cool stereo effect.  It doesn’t hurt to add some light chorus, too, for thickening and to really isolate them from the vocals.

As always, the most important thing to do is listen.  Mixing is like playing an instrument; the more your practice, the better your mixing chops will get.  The best thing to do is to frequently reference a song that was produced in a similar style to what you’re shooting to create and compare it to your current mix.  It’s very easy when mixing to lose track of what things really sound like when you’re listening to your own project on repeat.

This concludes my three-part blog about recording vocals.  While some of this information may seem obvious to you and some of it may seem over your head, I’m confident that many people can at least take away a few new ideas and some fresh insight.  Everyone does it differently, and I encourage you to experiment and find your own way.  This is simply the best procedure I can compile from my own years of experimentation topped off with some Berklee tips and tricks.  Hopefully you’ve learned to keep your ears wide open and now you have a polished product to use on your next demo or independent release!