Vocal recording and mixing. Vocal processing

Recording studio "TopZvuk" is happy to help you implement vocal recording and mixing (eng. vocal recording and mixing) at the lowest price. We have been working in the audio industry for many years and know our business very well. By becoming our client, you will not have to worry about the quality of the material that we will make together with you.

Recording a voice part or an instrumental part in a studio environment has become accessible to everyone. All you need to do is just come and sing your material to a ready-made phonogram or record it in our studio. TopSound

If you are a performer of original songs, then you are interested in making them sound decent on the recording. If this is the case, then don't waste your time trying to create arrangements at home, as nothing good will come of it. They will be of poor quality, which means it will not be possible to advertise and promote them. In any case, you can immediately contact us and record the accumulated material in high quality.

Our studio employees have all the necessary equipment in their arsenal (including rack-mount processors) and software that may be required for recording vocal parts. Every year the number of our clients continues to grow rapidly, as we constantly reduce prices and purchase new equipment.

Often, musicians, especially not very experienced ones, are tempted to limit themselves to recording vocals at home, or in a budget recording studio with an inexpensive microphone and amateur equipment. But is it worth depriving yourself of the opportunity to get a truly high-quality track?

Mixing (before and after)

Example 1.
Group "Tetris" - Song "Hide" - NOTICE

Example 1.
group “Tetris” - Song “Hide” - AFTER THE MINDING

Example 2.
Group “Runes” - Song “Lanterns” - NOTICE

Example 2.
Group “Runes” - Song “Lanterns” - AFTER MIXING

It is precisely because of the constant replenishment of our client base that we have been able to significantly reduce the prices for our services. Now an hour of recording costs only 750 rubles. Payment for information is also hourly. As you can see, recording and mixing vocals or recording an instrumental part in a studio environment has become accessible to everyone. All you need to do is just come and sing your material to a ready-made phonogram or record it in our studio. Our sound engineers will do all the rest of the work for you. There is no reason to worry about the sound quality of the material that will be recorded in our studio. Many people have already tested the level of our professionalism in practice. To make sure of it in advance, listen to the tracks that were previously recorded by us.

Advantages of cooperation with us

• – Favorable prices for the entire range of recording services;
• – Availability of modern equipment (including top tube microphones and preamps), which is constantly updated;
• – Experienced sound engineers,

  The development of the Internet today has led to rather interesting consequences: there is so much high-quality recorded music on the Internet that in the minds of most listeners the quality bar has risen to a very high level. And no matter how good your music is in terms of composition, no matter how original the text, no one will even listen to your composition if it is not professionally recorded. These are the signs of the times. Is it worth wasting time on creativity that will be unclaimed? In our opinion, no. Contact our professional recording studio and you will receive perfectly recorded and mixed vocals at an affordable price! Recording and mixing vocals should no longer worry you, since you can always entrust this work to the TopZvuk studio. Contact us and we will discuss all the details of further cooperation. Don't miss the opportunity to record your musical material. Call us now!

Making vocals perfect is difficult, but there are plugins that can help you achieve a more transparent and balanced sound.
We have selected the 5 best for vocal cleansing and correction.

1. iZotope Nectar 2

Nectar 2 is a vocal processing station with built-in presets and a convenient audio interface. In addition to the classic tools such as de-essing, gate, compressor and EQ that form the main vocal processing, it can also mix in reverb, saturation, delay and much more.

2. Revoice Pro

Revoice Pro is used by virtually all top producers to quickly and accurately adjust the pitch, duration, and balance of voices and instruments.

This plugin includes many features that are simply indispensable for mixing both solo parts and backing vocals.

Celemony was one of the first to create a flexible track editing program that works well for both vocals and live instruments. It is perhaps the most comprehensive editing tool ever created. Naturally, this program does not perform miracles, and it is still important for vocalists to sing as well as possible in order to fix this painlessly.

This is not a plugin, but a bundle that Waves often provides at a discount.

This kit includes cool plugins for vocal processing, such as: DeBreath, Doubler, Renaissance Axx, Renaissance Channel, Renaissance DeEsser and Waves Tune. There is everything here to edit the pitch of notes, remove whistles and saturate properly.

If you want to process vocals professionally, this package of plugins will meet all your expectations.

Another plugin from Izotope that needs to be highlighted. This time it's a highly specialized audio editor for cleaning and improving recordings. Using graphical tools, you can identify the problem area and fix it as harmlessly as possible. This could be an explosive sound, a car honking in the background, or anything else that is difficult to remove using standard methods. Here you can suppress "internal" sounds and unpleasant artifacts. This plugin is suitable for those who process recorded materials, such as seminars, video reviews and TV shows.

If I had to pick a question that I get asked most often, it would most likely be, “How do you mix rap vocals?” Well, or variations of this question. I get asked about mixing rap vocals at least once a week.

I mix rap vocals 4 or 5 times a week. And if you consider that several voices can be heard in one song, then even more. I have already formed a certain approach to rap mixing. Everyone knows that no two songs, vocalists, recordings or instrumentals are the same. Therefore, there are a huge number of approaches to mixing, and my method of mixing rap vocals is only one of many.

Concept

It all starts with a concept. I have always said this and will say it again. Before you start mixing, you should have an idea of ​​the final picture. There needs to be some understanding of how the vocals will sit in the mix before you start mixing them. This idea, quite possibly, will change in the process, but you still need to start with some kind of developed direction of movement.

The main problem people have when mixing rap vocals is that they focus on the word “vocals” rather than the word “rap.” In general, the word “rap” is also very general: there is a huge difference between rap from New York in 1994 and rap from Los Angeles in 2010.

Even within the same school of rap, there are differences. For example, let's compare two tracks:

1. A Tribe Called Quest – “1nce Again”
2. LL Cool J – "Loungin'"

Both songs can be classified as calm, light rap, but the principles of mixing these two tracks are radically different.

The track “Loungin’” is the quintessential Bad Boys style. It was mixed by Rich Travali - you can hear some similarities with tracks from the likes of 112, Total, Mariah Carey and the late Biggie.

The track “1nce Again” is an example of mixing by Bob Power. This sound largely dominated the early New York rap market.

I'm linking to these tracks because I hope you're able to hear the difference in the mix. Notice how on “Loungin’” the vocals are elevated above the rest of the mix. They are at the same volume as the snare, have a sunny sound with soft highs, and sound very clear and detailed in the mids.

Meanwhile, on “1nce again,” the vocals are significantly lower in volume than the snare, with the mids pushing very aggressively forward, the highs being grainier, and the lows being cut by the high-pass filter. The shape of the vocals in these two tracks is also different - the compression is very weak in “Loungin’”, and in “1nce again”, on the contrary, it is very aggressive (especially Fifa’s voice).

Let's look at another modern track, say, Nicki Minaj - "Massive Attack".

Here in the vocals we have very clear highs and high mids. The vocals rise above the entire mix and don't have as low a mid-range as they do on "Loungin'."

Each of the three tracks has something specific:

1. On “1nce again” the vocals sound sharp and aggressive, in keeping with the New York school of rap.
2. “Loungin’” sounds very gentle and smooth, the way vocals are mixed mostly in R&B music.
3. On “Massive Attack,” the vocals sound crystal clear, but leave room in the low end for the drums, which will work well in clubs.

The bottom line is that you must decide in advance how you will mix rap vocals. Who is the artist's audience, what style does the artist work in, where will the song be played, and how can you, as an engineer, bring it all together?

Let's say you've decided what you want to achieve... but how exactly to achieve it?

Cleaning

Before mixing rap vocals, in most cases they need to be cleaned up. The main reason for this is that vocals are often recorded in less-than-ideal environments, such as a closet (I experience this regularly) or a bathroom. I know this might sound strange, but there is a myth that recording rap vocals in the toilet or bathroom is a good idea. Actually this is not true. The second reason is that vocals are often recorded too loudly. Again, there is a myth that the louder you shout into the microphone, the better. This is categorically false, especially in the era of 24-bit audio encoding.

Sometimes rough vocal cleaning is enough because your options are limited. If the vocals were recorded too loudly, that is, with clips, distortion removal programs, for example, iZotope Rx De-Clipper, are ideal. In addition, distortion is usually concentrated at a certain frequency, so even an equalizer can cope with it.

For vocals that were recorded in a room with a lot of reverberation, treat them with a light gate, and careful use of EQ can also suppress the sound of the room, or you can try using programs like SPL De-Verb. Another way is to mix the track in such a way that the natural reverb of the vocals is appropriate and seems intentional.

The problem with vocals recorded in a closet or in the corner of a room is the comb filter. There is one trick that weakens comb filtration. If the vocal is recorded as a take, raise or lower the pitch of the take slightly. This will change the frequency bands that were filtered out, so that when the take is mixed down with the lead vocal, those frequencies will not be missing from the spectrum. The comb filtering will still be present in the vocals, but will be less obvious to the ear.

Treatment

Now you have clean vocals (or perhaps they came to you already clean). It's time to decide what to do with them. I can't tell you exactly how you should or shouldn't process vocals, but I can give you insight into some things to focus on.

Balance

It is extremely important to determine the relationship between vocals and other instruments in the same frequency range. Hip-hop is characterized by the relationship between vocals and drums, and first of all, the snare drum. If you can figure out how to fit both the vocals and the snare into the mix without them interfering with each other, the rest of the instruments will fall into place much faster and easier.

On "1nce Again" you'll notice that the snare is a little louder than the vocals, and is concentrated in the brighter part of the frequency spectrum, while the vocals are a little lower in level and concentrated more in the midrange. This was a conscious decision made by the engineer during the mix. But on “Loungin’,” the vocals are heard at the same volume as the snare. And in “Massive Attack” the vocals sound higher, although there is not a snare drum, but a percussion instrument playing on beats 2 and 4, and it sounds mainly in the low mids.

"Air"

When mixing rap vocals, almost no reverbs are used. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Rap vocals are much more dynamic and have a much more important rhythmic component than sung vocals, and reverberation can blur rhythm and articulation.
2. The idea of ​​hip-hop is for the voice to dominate the backing track and "in your face", and reverb tends to immerse the vocals in the stereo mix.
3. All the other engineers mix rap without reverb. Not a very serious reason, but it still exists.

However, vocals could use a little more space, or “air.” The idea is that the space around the voice makes it more alive and vibrant. And for this you can use a very short, wide, quiet reverb. It's also a good idea to add a delay (echo) to the vocals, but to make the delay sound in the background, it's worth cutting off most of the high-frequency range. This will create a sense of deep three-dimensional space that will contrast with the main vocal, bringing the vocal to the forefront even more. Finally, if you're lucky enough to have the room sound recorded separately along with the vocals, adding a natural reverb track can give you very dry vocals with a sense of "air" around them. Compression with a very fast attack and relatively fast release time, and boosting the treble can also add air to the voice.

Compression

A little compression has never hurt any vocals, just to sit them better in the mix. But the main mistake people make when mixing hip-hop vocals is over-compression. A high level of compression only makes sense in mixes where many instruments are competing for sound space. When you read about rappers whose vocals have been processed with 4 compressors, it is most likely because the minus sounds very dense and strong compression of the vocal is simply necessary to cut through such a mix. Or is it a stylistic choice by the engineer to make the vocals “crunchy.”

Filtration

It's critical to decide which frequencies in the mix to filter out to help the vocals cut through the mix. For example, most audio engineers apply a high-pass filter to all tracks except the kick drum and bass itself. This clears space for low-frequency instruments. However, the importance of low-pass filtering is often overlooked. Synthesizers, even if they synthesize the bassline, can carry a lot of high-frequency components that are simply necessary for the mix to sound full and have a sense of space around the vocals. So it can't hurt to apply some low-pass filters to your rap vocals.

Also, going back to the high-pass filtering, unless you're doing something heavy in the Bob Power style, you don't need to apply hard high-pass filtering around 120Hz. The human voice, male and female, resonates down to 80 Hz (and sometimes even lower). Try some neat high-pass filtering at 70 – 80 Hz for vocals. Or maybe you don't need to apply a high-pass filter to your vocals at all...

Presence effect

Determining the frequency range for vocals is extremely important. Vocals that only sound midrange, like a telephone receiver, sometimes sound great in the mix. "Warm" vocals, focused on the low mids, can also be found. Usually, when achieving a natural sounding vocal with an effect of presence, get rid of the "throat" tones, which are in the range from 250 to 600 Hz (but do not mix based on numbers, listen, listen, and listen again). This method primarily emphasizes chest sounds. Sounds produced in the front of the mouth, tongue and teeth are somewhere in the region of 2 – 5 kHz.

Panasonic and the Russian Railways Museum

Vladimir Dunkovich: Stage mechanics control systems.

Synchronization. New level of show. OSC for the show

Maxim Korotkov about the realities with MAX\MAX Productions

Konstantin Gerasimov: design is technology

Alexey Belov: The main one in our club is a musician

Robert Boym: I am grateful to Moscow and Russia - my work is listened to and understood here

pdf "Showmasters" No. 3 2018 (94)

Four concerts from one console at the Munich Philharmonic Gasteig

20 years of Universal Acoustics: a story with continuation

Astera wireless solutions on the Russian market

OKNO-AUDIO and seven stadiums

Ilya Lukashev about sound engineering

Simple Way Ground Safety - safety on stage

Alexander Fadeev: the path of a beginning lighting artist

What is a rider and how to compose it

Stupid way to process a barrel

pdf "Showmasters" No. 2 2018

Panasonic at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center

Concerts "BI-2" with orchestra: traveling gothic

Dmitry Kudinov: a happy professional

Sound engineers Vladislav Cherednichenko and Lev Rebrin

Lights on Ivan Dorn's "OTD" tour

Ani Lorak’s show “Diva”: Ilya Piotrovsky, Alexander Manzenko, Roman Vakulyuk,

Andrey Shilov. Rental as a business

The Matrex social and business center in Skolkovo will rightfully become one of the new symbols of Moscow, not only in the architectural, but also in the technical aspect. The latest multimedia systems and solutions that are ahead of their time make Matrex unique.

The Matrex social and business center in Skolkovo will rightfully become one of the new symbols of Moscow, not only in the architectural, but also in the technical aspect. The latest multimedia systems and solutions that are ahead of their time make Matrex unique.

Everything I know I learned on my own. I read, observed, tried, experimented, made mistakes, remade again. Nobody taught me. At that time in Lithuania there were no special educational institutions that would teach how to work with lighting equipment. In general, I believe that this cannot be learned. To become a lighting designer, you need to have something like that “inside” from the very beginning. You can learn to work with the remote control, programming, you can learn all the technical characteristics, but you cannot learn to create.

The Matrex social and business center in Skolkovo will rightfully become one of the new symbols of Moscow, not only in the architectural, but also in the technical aspect. The latest multimedia systems and solutions that are ahead of their time make Matrex unique.

The new design possibilities for active spaces should not be confused with the 'assisted reverberation' that has been used since the 1950s at the Royal Festival Hall and later at Limehouse Studios. These were systems that used tunable resonators and multi-channel amplifiers to distribute natural resonances to the desired part of the room.

their results are below. Participants of the “Show Technology Rentals Club” actively discussed this topic.
We offered to answer several questions to specialists who have been in our business for many years,
and their opinion will certainly be interesting to our readers.

Andrey Shilov: “Speaking at the 12th winter conference of rental companies in Samara, in my report I shared with the audience a problem that has been greatly troubling me for the last 3-4 years. My empirical research into the rental market led to disappointing conclusions about a catastrophic drop in labor productivity in this industry ". And in my report, I drew the attention of company owners to this problem as the most important threat to their business. My theses raised a large number of questions and a long discussion on forums on social networks."

Vocal processing. Mid frequency range.

There are very few vocalists who can control the dynamics of their singing and therefore do not need compression. Even though compression was applied during recording, it is quite possible that you will need to apply it again during mixing. Make sure that excessive compression does not increase tape noise. It is best to use a gate or compressor with a built-in expander gate. Set the gate attack time fast enough so that the beginnings of words are not “swallowed.” The release time should be long enough so that words or phrases that sound quieter toward the end are not cut off prematurely. It is possible that sometimes the gate will turn on in response to the sounds of inhalation or to the phonogram that was fed into the vocalist’s headphones. But in nine cases out of ten, this does not require additional correction, since it will not be noticeable in the overall picture. It’s better to let a few unwanted sounds pass through than to constantly “swallow” the beginnings or ends of words.

This reason is one of the main reasons why a gate is used more often in mixing than in recording.

If you set the gate parameters incorrectly when recording, you can completely ruin a good performance. Using a gate when mixing rather than recording gives you the flexibility you need, as well as the ability to cut out any tape noise that may be present.

The use of compression not only makes it possible to make singing intelligible and in harmony with other instruments, but also creates the effect of close-up, intimacy. If you have sing-alongs on several tracks that you want to compress, mix them into a stereo subgroup on the console and turn on the compressor at the subgroup insert. You won't be able to control the compression of each backing voice, but you will be able to change the average level of the backing vocals.

Vocals are usually recorded dry, so to create the impression of space, some amount of reverb must be added during mixing. However, unless there is a special reason, you should not do too much reverb: it will remove the vocals and the words will become unintelligible. Reflections fill the space, as do individual instruments. Music requires not only sounds, but also space.

The lead vocal is usually placed close to the center of the panorama (however, nothing prevents you from experimenting here). The backing tracks are separated and sent to the right and left channels to show the stereo width. If the lead vocal doesn't sound strong enough, you can ask the vocalist to sing again and record the voice on another track, which can then be added to the first. This is called "double tracking" and sounds good if the singer is able to sing exactly the same way the second time as the first time. If it is difficult for him to do this, advise him to skip the consonants at the end of words when singing again. Then it will not be noticeable that the words do not end at the same time.

If the vocalist is unable to duplicate their singing, then you will need to create an artificial double track (ADT) using a very short delay (30-60ms) and slow, shallow modulation. Using a double track (artificial or real) is also a good way to tighten up your sing-alongs. Having the processed and unprocessed sounds spaced apart creates a depth effect and allows you to add reverb to the delayed signals (a subtle difference from what you get when you add it to the original voices).

If, despite everything, the voices still sound unclear (due to the density of the rest of the soundtrack), you can do the following: group the guitars and synths into a stereo subgroup, and turn on the compressor in the gap of the subgroup. If you control the compressor using an external signal (directly from the microphone output or through the insert point), you can work with the compressor in "ducker" mode: this will allow you to automatically control the signal level depending on the vocal level. The attack time must be very fast; The release time is adjusted by ear to achieve the best recovery of instrument volume at the end of vocal phrases. The signal should only be reduced by a few decibels for the contrast between the vocals and the accompaniment to be normal.

WARNING: You should never control the volume of the bass guitar or drums in this way! This will already be considered a technical shortcoming of the phonogram: the levels change all the time. No matter what happens, the core of the song must remain the same.

There is a fairly obvious way to increase the gap between instruments that sound merging in sound: use the panning knob to separate them into opposite parts of the picture. However, this is not a universal solution to the problem, as you should always evaluate how the soundtrack will sound in mono mode. It's best to first make sure that the songs listen well in mono, and then apply dilution in stereo to further improve the effect. Remember also that the more reverb you apply, the less obvious the stereo effect will be: it doesn't matter where a particular instrument is placed in the panorama, since the reflections will come from the right and left channels (unless you specifically (from musical considerations) place it in only one channel).

When recording vocals, determine if the vocalist has problems with sibilant consonants. If such a problem exists, then for recording you should use, instead of an expensive condenser microphone that covers the entire range, a good dynamic microphone with limited sensitivity to the upper edge of frequencies. Then you won't have to use a di-esser. It is also possible to minimize the problem by slightly changing the position of the microphone relative to the vocalist's mouth (a little higher, lower, to the right or left).

It is important that there is a screen between the microphone and the vocalist. It will help to cope with another common problem - “spitting”, that is, the percussive sounding sounds “b” and “p”. It is better to use an improvised screen rather than a foam screen, which is usually included with the microphone, since the latter, as a rule, is not suitable for this purpose.

Mid range

Vocals occupy the low mid-range, but harmonics, which affect word intelligibility, reach 3 kHz. However, you should not make a gap between 200 Hz and 3 kHz for this purpose. Listen to the arrangement and make sure that nothing happens when the vocal part is present in the soundtrack that could greatly distract the listener from singing. This is why acoustic guitars and electric guitars with single carbon pickups (Strats) are still popular: they produce a bright, defined sound without filling the lower midrange of the audio spectrum with noise.

For the same reason, keyboard pads, especially polyphonic strings, must be kept low enough in the mix for their impact to remain almost subconscious. If they sound obvious, they're probably not doing their job, they're just being used as musical filler, and they're absorbing gaps that you should be using to create contrast.

Of course, you already understand that a huge number of mistakes can be made only at the arrangement stage. Therefore, before you start recording, you need to evaluate everything well. Changing the sound of an instrument in time or changing a part (part) to leave room for others can all make a huge difference to the final result. Sometimes it is enough to change one chord inversion to another, and the sound becomes correct. If you act this way, then at the mixing stage your work will be truly creative, and not just “saving the drowning.”

Remember that if you have two distorted guitars playing at the same time, the rhythm guitarist should hit the chords clearly and not jump from one to the other. This simple technique transforms garbage into a performance full of liveliness.

If you're mixing in an environment where you can't control what's on tape (such as a remix), then use an equalizer to tune the signals so that there is minimal frequency overlap. For example, you can cut the high end of a distorted guitar to make it sound less shrill, or cut the low end of a muddy-sounding guitar or keyboard part to stop them competing with the vocals or bass. You can work with the compressor in "ducker" mode. But it’s better if you have the opportunity to immediately correctly remove sound from the source. In my opinion, the value of using an equalizer is too exaggerated; it should only be used in cases where it is required that the signal does not sound natural. Use EQ to make good signals even better, not to try to save bad ones.

If the signals recorded on tape sound lifeless (as often happens when a lead guitar or rhythm machine is played directly), and adding reverb does not give them any liveliness, try this: play the recording of this track through a amp “live” room, pick up the signal from the amplifier using a microphone. If you do not have free tracks to record the received signal, do this operation right during mixing. Depending on the position of the microphone and the characteristics of the room, you will get a lot of new sounds, some of which may not seem applicable at first glance. I know of producers who have been able to record a real snare drum from the original snare sound of a regular rhythm machine in this way. Experimentation is the key to success. The cost is only time, and if you work in your home studio, you can afford this luxury.