If you are unexperienced with recording vocals, I suggest you brush up the basics first. A good place for this is using DZK's vocal editing process, findable at the warlab. Click here for that. This goes into a much more advanced mixing technique.
I'll be using Cool Edit, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Paint and Celemony Melodyne for some "tools".
Start from scratch
The biggest part of a good mix, is a good foundation. I know DZ and a whole lot of other people said that you should have a pop-filter and a compressor and stuff all hooked up. Truth is, they're all extra's, that all effect the end-result of what happens when you record.
The bad side of this, is that if you have the perfect vocal take it can get fucked up by the wrong compression settings. If you apply compression later, you can re-insert the source file. It increases the chance of a perfect end result by having a crystal clear, unedited source file.
But as you know, plosives.. or the p, b, k, q and such sounds add a lot of more aire to your vocals. To avoid these, there are 5 guidelines which can help your vocal performance a lot.
1 Set up your mic and then walk backwards. Just untill you can stretch your arms and almost reach the microphone with your fingertips. Mark this area as you'll stand there while you record. Then walk towards your microphone and stand in front of it. Make sure that the microphone is at eye-level. Then aim it down towards the area between your nose and your upper lip. If you record now, standing where you've just marked, the plosives will be filtered away already because of the distance and because of the microphone placement, your voice will sound directed towards the person.
2 Now, click record and stand at your position. Keep talking as loud as you normally do while rapping. But make sure that the program that you record in, registers this as -6 Decibel. This will give your voice chance to raise when you record, for example if you throw emotion in it and amplify the sound of some words. This will mostly prevent it from clipping on it's own and allow you enough recording space.
3 When you record have a mirror or a picture of somebody who you like or a fan or somebody up for you to see. Because you want to impress those people, you can imagine rapping it towards them. This will result in you trying to impress them and thus get the most out of your performance.
4 Record one verse at a time. Never record the entire song in one take. I know some people can do this, but it will save your throat and help you clear your mind if you record one part of the song at a time. Plus, you'll have a better idea which parts are done and they all will sound better on their own.
5 Record every part of the song 3 to 4 times. If you really want a proffesional sounding mix, that is. Because you do this, the mixer can evaluate the different takes and cut out parts that aren't so good with parts that are better. For example, if you messed up the sound of a word, the mixer can replace this with the word from another take. Or replace syllables with the ones that sound better from another take.
These are guidelines, they are not rules. Meaning that they can help your vocals be all that they can be. But they are not mandatory rules. Music is an artform, and art is always 60% creativity/instinct and 40% technique.
A clear sound
You all know how important it is to have a clear sound. Background noises and all that are never good in a mix. To achieve a clear sound can be done by everybody.. just use a noise reduction and done, right? It works, but it can be done better.
The first part is what you hear in your ear and what is registered at your mind. When you start mixing after you've recorded, you're always biased towards how it sounds. You can still be influenced by the momentum in your voice, by it's feeling or whatever. So the best thing is to get a clear mind first. So relax. Sleep, fuck your girl, go to work/school, play Halo, whatever.
Then, load the vocal takes into Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition. Search for a quiet fragment of anywhere in between 2 and 4 seconds long. Highlight this part and go into Noise Reduction. Make a profile out of this section and set it to 95%. Click "close" and select the entire take. Then open up Noise Reduction and clear the noise.
The next step is to go into the "Parametric Equalizer", found under Filters. Select the pre-set "Hum and Hiss Removal" and click "preview". And adjust the "Low Shell Cutoff" and "High Shell Cutoff" untill it sounds as best as possible for now. Then click "ok".
Now, go into the "Parametric Equalizer" again but this time select the "Highs Softener" preset. Upon loading this, you see the "1", "2" and "3" at the upper right corner. These tell the program which parts of the voice frequencies it needs to adjust. So click "preview" and adjust each of these three untill it sounds good to you. Then click "ok".
Go into the Filter menu again and open up the "Notch Filter". Select the "Sibilance Softener" and once again click on "preview". You can edit the Attentuation for the 4 frequencies it adjust. So do this and let your ears decide when it's on a good level. Once you're at that, click "ok".
Now, load all the vocal tracks in the window. Listen to each one and if you don't like how a certain syllable sounds, zoom in on that and listen to the alternative choices you have with that syllable. You have the syllable in the take you just listened to and from 2 other takes. Cut out the syllable you don't like and delete it. Then select the syllable you do like and cut it out and paste it in the main take.
Now, save the end-result as a Wave (.wav) file.
Pitch and Time
Rap, just like singing interacts with an instrumental. And to do this, both need to compliment each other. The instrumental should compliment the voice and the voice should compliment the instrumental.
So load up the acapella you saved.
Two of the factors that decide this are pitch and time. Time is rhythm basically. Listen over your track and hear if you're completely following the drum pattern. If you sound a little bit off, pauze the track. Then zoom in on that area and use Cool Edit/Adobe's cutting tool to cut out that segment and move it so that it does sound on beat.
Once you're done with all that, save the vocals as well. Load up the instrumental you used and solo it. Search for a piece where there is no drum present. Just zoom in on that area and make set the markers around it. Extract that piece and save it as a .wav-file as well.
Now, close Cool Edit/Adobe and load up Celemoney Melodyne or a simulair program. Load up your acapella and that segment of the instrumental you had. This program lets you change the pitch, or better known as the notes you use.
The thing with changing vocal notes is that it can make it sound unnatural. You can remove this robotized effect you'll get by editing the vibrato and stuff, but that takes an awefull lot of time. To do it quicker, keep in mind that you can stretch the note with 2 full notes. So from a C to a C# is a half. But a C to a D is 1. So if you have a C3 you can make it go to E3 or A2.
Take a look at the instrumental segment and see what note it has. That is your new root-note. From this you have a scale. If you don't know what a scale is, it's a set of notes that sound good with that one. You a major scale, a minor scale and a whole lot of other scales. Then make the vocal segments go to notes in that scale, but make sure that they don't get out of the 2 full note reach.
If you did this all listen to it. If you don't like how it sounds, change the vocal segments again untill you do like how it sounds and that is still sounding natural.
By the way, this is the way they make 50 Cent and bad-singers sing. The good thing about it is that it gives a much better studio take. The bad thing is, if you sing like shit, you still hear that at live perfomances.
But anyway, save it again as a wave-file and close Celemoney Melodyne.
Frequencies
For this you need to open up Windows Media Player and Mircosoft Paint. In Windows Media Player open up the acapella file you saved after editing the time and pitch. Make sure that your screen is set to see 20+ bars going ape-shit. The ones with blue tops.
When you're going into the verses, make a screenshot at every 1st bar of a 4 bar section. Paste this screenshot into Microsoft Paint and save it. Do this with every verse and every hook. This is part of your vocal profile. It shows how your voice behaves.
At normal speach there are bass-levels and everything added to it. These are not required in a musical piece. Why not? Because the bass is done by the song itselfs. If your bass in your voice is too bad, it muddens up the total song. Which is bad, believe me.
Here's an overview of what frequencies do..
50-100 khz are the lowest. On the bassdrum it adds the bottom to it. Or better known as that punch that you see the subwoofers do in the club. At the snare it gives it the power. You shouldn't have it up to high, because it then will mudd the bassdrum. With the hi-hat and cymbals it just adds pointless stuff. For the bass it always adds the bottom.
For the voice, it adds the bottom end, power-end. But, at the same time fucks up the bass and bassdrum in the song. Yet, you shouldn't remove it completely, because females are very audible. And somehow bass-sounds and the lowest notes give them a slight sexual punch. Why else do you think they believe Sean Connery and them all have a sexy voice and shit. And face it, sex sells, so you're bashing in your own windows if you don't use this to your advantage.
100 Hz, increases the hardness to a bass or any other frequency instrument. In other words give it an attitude. Again, don't use it on multiple instruments, because you will get a muddy effect. It adds fullness to guitars and the snare. It also adds warmth to piano's and horns. It also adds a boom to your guitars and makes it sound muffed. So moderate this use as well.
For the voice, if you boost this it makes the voice sound more upfront. Rap songs always have the vocalist sounding close to it for dominance. Plus, if you sound like your distant your song will sound worse.
200 Hz adds fullness to the snare and guitar. This frequencie is a pretty important one and you should really pay attention to this. If you reduce it, you decrease the gong-sound of the hi-hat and cymbals. But you also decrease the muddiness from the mid-range instruments.
For the voice, increasing the frequency will make your voice sound fuller, but more muddy. If you decrease it, the voice will become less muddy. So be very carefull with how you apply this.
400 Hz is used to increase clarity to the bassline by increasing this frequency, the bad thing is, that you have to decrease the frequency to decrease ambience on the hi-hat and to avoid the bass-drum sounding like a cardboard.
It gives the same effect to the voice as the 200 Hz region does.
800 Hz increases the clarity and punch of the basslines and bassdrum. But it also muddens up your vocals, like the 400 hz and 200 hz regions. Decreasing this frequency will also result in making the guitar sound more profesional and less like you got in a box of cereal.
1,5 Khz is a very nice frequency. Increasing it makes your bassline sound more clear and gives it more the sound as you get from plucking it. However, you have to decrease this to make your guitars sound more interesting, rather than dull.
For the voice, this frequency, or more or less the 1,6 Khz frequency, adds a lot of pressence in your vocals. However, if you bring it up too much together with the other mid-range frequency's it will sound as if you're on the phone when lowering the bass and treble levels.
If you increase the 3 Khz, you will increase the attack factor of your guitars, the low piano parts and the bass. Reducing it will disguise off-pitch vocals and guitars. Handy if you're not the best singer. Also will it stimulate the breathing sounds and the volume of the background people.
5 Khz. If you increase this frequency you will increase the finger sound on the bass and thus making it sound more real. It will also boost the attack of the piano, acoustic guitar and brightness on guitars.
For the voice, this will encrease your vocal pressence and make any background sound sound more distant.
7 Khz will make your low-frequencies sound more metallic. But it also boosts the attack on the percussive instruments, drum included. It makes the rock guitars, synthesizers, piano and the electric guitar sound more sharp if you encrease this.
For the vocal vibrato, it also gets boost if you encrease the 7 Khz. Thus will make you sound less dull.
10 Khz needs to be decreased to decrease sibilance. But if you increase it, you will make your voice sound more brighter, the cymbals more harder. The piano and acoustic guitar will also sound more brighter by this.
15 Khz is the final frequency. Increasing this will make your breath sounds more dominant. It also brightens the cymbals, string instruments and flutes. It also is the key to make your synthesizer samples sound more real.
Anything below 20 hz and higher than 20 Khz is not heard by humans, so you're better off rounding these away.
Now EQ your voice and stuff using the information above. When using an equalizer, always lower the values, never encrease. This because your mix always needs some breathing sound and if you encrease frequencies other than decreasing others will tip off the instrumental's balance and effect the breathing space.
After you've done this, open up the "Parametric Equalizer" of Adobe/Cool Edit and select the pre-set "Added Dimension". Edit the Low and High Shell Cutoffs during the preview and apply this on your vocal take. You're now done with the main frequencies.
Echo's, Reverb, Flanger, etc
The first thing to do is remove the natural acoustics to a certain extend. This make the end result sound more like it was recorded in a profesional sound-proof booth rather than your bedroom.
To do this, go to the delay effects in Cool Edit/Adobe and open up "Echo Chamber". Click on the "Wooden Coffin" pre-set and click on preview. Then change to "Expand Small Room" pre-set and listen to it. Decide which of these two sounds better on your vocals.
Adjust the Intensity/Echoes settings and Damping Factors untill your voice sounds as echo-less as possible.
Now, go back to the multitrack view and save your vocals again. Load up 2 duplicates below this.
Make sure each one is read as an unique copy. To do this, rightclick a track and click on the copy "Convert to Unique Copy".
Open up the first and go into Delay Effects and open up the Flanger. In it there is a pre-set called "Wow". Select this and press "Preview'. Play with the settings untill you think that it sounds perfect.
Now open up the second and go into the Delay Effects again, but this time select the Full Reverb. Select the "FurnishedLivingRoom" preset and then go to the colorisation tab. In it you see three bars next to the graph. Adjust these to your liking and press "preview" after every change untill you are satisfied with it and then press ok.
Go back to the multitrack editing and set each volume of the vocal tracks down by 5 to 6 DB. Just to avoid your ears from exploding. Then edit each volume untill your vocals sound clear with a good depth and nicely upfront. This by mixing the 2 delay effects you just did and the original.
Once you're satisfied, mix the total down to 1 mixdown file. This by clicking "edit" - "mix down to empty track".
Mute all tracks except for your newly added one. Save it again to make sure you won't have to re-do all this if it goes wrong now.
Filling up the soundscape
As you see now, there are a few dynamic peaks, but there are still silent area's. We're going to fill up the soundscape quite nicely now. So first off, set up your headphones on your head.
Go into "Delay Effects" and choose for the "Delay" and select the "Vocal Pressence 2" pre-set. Click preview and adjust the meters untill they sound perfect to you.
Now, go into "Delay Effects" and choose for the Multitap delay. Choose the "Interesting Effect" pre-set and click on preview. You can adjust the volume of the different parts of this effect by the "Feedback" meter. So go into each of the 5 delays and set that feedback untill you really like it. Then apply the changes.
Smooth Intro
Go the start of each verse and select the first syllable in multi-track view. Cut this out and make it an unique copy again. Go into the editing window and delete everything except that syllable.
Reverse the syllable now. Then go into the "Delay" effects and choose the reverb again. Choose for the preset "Large Occupied Hall" and adjust the settings untill it sounds like it's fading out while echoed. Then click "ok" and reverse it again.
This gives a very smooth intro for your verse and is an improved version of the fading in. This will sound better and make your listeners focus emmediantly. Do this for every hook and verse. Then save the acapella again.
Mixing with the instrumental
Narrow the window down on 1 drum kick. Make sure the volume of that will be -3 DB. Then find a clear spot of the melody, without the snare or drum. See how loud that is.
Then select that vocal level to it as well. Now listen to how it sounds. You're almost done now.
Just open up the acapella again and go into "Amplitude" and select "Channel Mixer". Click on the "Full Mix" preset and change every 100 into 80 and press ok.
Fix the vocal volume again and you have just made a fully mixed, clear and polished mono acapella for your song and at the right volume.
So you're done now.
-------
When you're looking from the outside, it's so easy to judge...
That's why so many people think they know you
413 users online 
157971 members 
You have 1 new message.
Patron
Out of nothing but pure curiosity, why is it that you don't put this onto a music site, or a recording FAQ instead of a basic public forum and debate site? 
