Vocal layering/production tutorial megathread

Re: Vocal layering/production tutorial megathread

Vocals, in both my opinion and experience are the MOST DIFFICULT of all instruments to properly mix in a track. It's so easy to have them either lost behind the backing music or completely overwhelm the track.

There's a few basic places I can recommend to start, however by no means be-all/end-all.

1. Stack your vocals. I personally make 2-4 solid takes and combine them together. This helps your voice sound bigger/fuller than it will on its own. The exception is if you have an amazingly strong voice and are singing in several ranges or changing notes very rapidly, then it's very possible you will make it sound really sloppy. So...

2. Double up! Once you have your voice nice and full, double the track into two separate channels. Pan one to the left and another to the right. This will widen the stereo and help you get that nice sweet spot so your voice isn't thin and trapped between the rest of your instruments. If you are unsure if your vocals aren't wide enough, try playing it in your car. Usually I'll find if the mixing is poor that the vocals will be sort of hard to hear and way too centered (which is made even more obvious since you'll usually be on either the left or right side of the car).

3. CHORUS. This kind of goes with the former two points but it's worth trying out... take either your left or right channel vox and shift it off tempo by a few milliseconds, increasing or decreasing to your liking. This will help create the illusion of multiple voices that can really make your vocals big. It's actually how a lot of bands get that crazy wall of sound going.

4. Pitch/time correct. For me these are very option and depends on the style of music you're going for. I'll go ahead and take my favorite route: get Melodyne. Seriously one of THE BEST if not MY MOST BELOVED/TRUSTED audio tools in my arsenal. Not limited to just VOX but daaaaaaaaaamn if you're looking to sound ultra pro and avoid autotune's sloppy pitch slides, try it out.

If I think of anything else... I'll just edit this.

Re: Vocal layering/production tutorial megathread

Not so much the hardest to mix imo but the most dependent on a good/trained ear