Ableton Forum

Anyone know the proper settings and effects to put in a male vocal track and make it sit in the mix?

It realllly depends on a lot of factors.
The room, the singer, the singers voice and articulation, which mic, which preamp etc etc etc

No such thing as proper settings and we're lucky it ain't that easy.

milfhuntr wrote:Anyone know the proper settings and effects to put in a male vocal track and make it sit in the mix?

A decent mic should be all you need, maybe some compression.

set the compressor to pi.

There's no such thing as an easy button.

Get a good mic and preamp. Mic it up correctly, making sure your levels are reasonable without clipping.

Then apply any effects as required. One good tool for cheap is Voxengo's Voxformer vocal strip plugin with 2 compressors, (one can be set to de-ess) gating, saturation etc and it has some good presets which you can further tweak to suit. Otherwise, typically EQ, compression, and usually some kind of reverb/delay and/or light modulation effect.

A good investment is Bobby Owsinski's 'The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (2nd edition)' which gives very accessible descriptions on arrangement, elements of a mix (width, depth, etc), frequency tips, delay charts, and a description of common FX, what they do and a pointer on how they can be used, and other information such as dynamics, headroom, audio file formats, mixing for surround sound etc. With lots of interviews from famous mixers such as Andy Johns, Allen Sides,Kevin Killen, Ed Stasium, John X, Joe Chicarelli, Bruce Swedien etc.

I smell a troll tbh, his posts so far add up a little bit too far towards abes forum baiting. Am I wrong? Telll me I'm wrong. i want to BE wrong.


But I dont think I am.



or am I.

Like said above, there's no easy-button. But one thing I did realize when I started make more music with vocals was that when I mixed the music to sound good and THEN added vocals, I almost needed to rethink my mix. Vocals usually need space in the middle and if you don't have the vocal track when mixing the instruments, it's hard to tell if you're leaving enough place. Leaving room in the middle can mean that you mix stuff to sides and it can also mean you need to EQ some stuff in the middle that fight with the vocals.

Just to make a really stupid conclusion, I'll say the following: if you want the vocals to sit in the mix, they need a chair.

UKRuss wrote:I smell a troll tbh, his posts so far add up a little bit too far towards abes forum baiting. Am I wrong? Telll me I'm wrong. i want to BE wrong.


But I dont think I am.



or am I.

I just think Mr. Huntr likes to bypass any interweb-accepted niceties, like introducing himself, giving us some insight into his background, views, specifics on what he's trying to acheive, etc...and just prefers to get right down to it.

Maybe that's how he hunts his milfs?

Maybe they like it?

To the OP: You might get more pointed responses by posting a sample of the music and then asking a similiar question.

Or, even better yet, why not ask one of the talented folk here in the forum to mix the tune for you. Cough up a some bucks and have them provide you with the entire project once complete. There are some folk here who definitely know their shit and might be willing to assist you.

Now you don't have to go that route if you don't want to. But it's a hell of a shortcut. After you get the results back take it apart like a forensic scientist and try to figure out what they did; how they did it; and most importantly, WHY they did it. Keep in mind, you might be amazed at what individual tracks in a mix sound like when solo'ed after an expereinced enigineer finishes the mix.

I've said it before and it bears repeating, for all the money I see people spend on systems and software I'm always surprised at how little is spent on learning how to use these tools properly. As always, ymmv...

I have an SPL Channel one Tube Mic amp... its great and easy to use/program, good results.

the girl next door wrote:I have an SPL Channel one Tube Mic amp... its great and easy to use/program, good results.

Don't forget its amazing 'levitate' function. Always comes in handy

UncleAge wrote:To the OP: You might get more pointed responses by posting a sample of the music and then asking a similiar question.

Or, even better yet, why not ask one of the talented folk here in the forum to mix the tune for you. Cough up a some bucks and have them provide you with the entire project once complete. There are some folk here who definitely know their shit and might be willing to assist you.

Now you don't have to go that route if you don't want to. But it's a hell of a shortcut. After you get the results back take it apart like a forensic scientist and try to figure out what they did; how they did it; and most importantly, WHY they did it. Keep in mind, you might be amazed at what individual tracks in a mix sound like when solo'ed after an expereinced enigineer finishes the mix.

I've said it before and it bears repeating, for all the money I see people spend on systems and software I'm always surprised at how little is spent on learning how to use these tools properly. As always, ymmv...

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