Vocal Production

I'd still love an in depth tutorial on getting vocals to sit nicely in a mix. Ja Funk's vocal production masterclass was very good, but it only really covered the vocals themselves, rather than "sitting" them in an actual mix - which is the bit I find the most challenging. Any help in this area would be much appreciated

Knowing your music Tone, part of the problem is that you often have noisy sounds that lie in the same range as your vocals. The reason Jafunk has less problems mixing vocals is down first and foremost to the other sounds in the mix and the way that everything is arranged. If you have noisy synths with a lot of mid frequencies going on at the same time as your vocals, it's always going to end up being more of a challenge. You can get far with good use of EQ and automated filtering (as shown on the Beginners Guide to Arranging and Art of Filtering courses), but everything becomes a lot easier when other parts are simply moved out of the way, or selected more carefully so not to overlap and so mask or bury the vocals.

Did you check Ellie's course actually - Alt Pop Production? She's obviously a highly succesful producer of Vocal Pop and you can learn a lot from the way she composes/arranges music and then layers up vocals around it.

Another way to approach this by the way is to send us a track you're struggling with so we can give specific feedback and pointers... feel free to link to a track or send stems.

That's great, thanks. It sounds as though thinking in advance regarding my sound/instrument selection (during the composition phase) will make my life a lot easier when it comes to mixing

I'll definitely check out Ellie's course. Thanks again.

Nice one Tone! Good luck with it and feel free to send stems if and when you need... I'll maybe look at some vocal processing tips for one of the bonus tutorial series in the next month or so too, as I can think of a few different techniques that have been covered in various courses but not compiled anywhere.

This isn't the most technical tip but I find that if I mix my vocals slightly quieter than seems normal, when I come back to it next time, they sit great - something to do with ear fatigue and balance across a track. If that works do let me know!

Thanks Samuel, I'll give that a try

Hey Tone, just to further clarify the points above, HERE's a video for you about the importance of other sounds in the track and frequency handling when mixing vocals, along with a nice tip for layering too.

Hi Rob,
Your vocal mixing tutorial is fab, thank you - I've taken lots of notes! I was amazed at how much difference the mid/side eq made - that's definitely a technique I'll be looking to integrate moving forwards
I recently finished watching Ellies "Alt Pop" course, and can highly recommend it to anyone that hasn't seen it yet. I was particularly impressed with how she uses stock Logic plugins throughout. The part where she added a synth pluck sound to the bass guitar track was also very interesting - it gave it the feel of a double bass, while keeping it unique at the same time.
Thanks again for all your advice, and especially for putting the vocal video tutorial together, much appreciated.
All the best,
Tone

Nice one Tone!

That bonus tutorial is super useful. Really made me realise that I hadn't really ever known what I was doing before when mixing vocals. Mid side has always baffled me but I finally understand it - and had no idea how useful it was lol. Classic! Thanks again

Just did both the bonus vocal tutorial and Ellie Dixon alt pop course. Very informative and useful.

I have to say Ellie is an amazing artist and presenter. Yes Rob, she's better than you! :D Wish she had more courses! Very inspirational how she gets totally great sound with just a few stock presets and plugins, and a little tweaking, and how effortlessly she recorded additional percussion sounds and vocals and fit it all in perfectly. Pretty clear I've been overcomplicating things.

Honestly had to look her up on Spotify to listen to some of her tracks too