How to get vocals through the mix in Ableton? (Sidechain, Second Master, routing)

Discussion in 'Live' started by Swatch, Dec 13, 2016.

  1. Swatch

    Swatch Kapellmeister

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    hey there.
    I saw a tutorial a few weeks ago, but didnt save :(

    The vocals dont go on the master. They have there own master track.
    So the vocals are not being effected my master plugins
    How can i do this?

    And how can i get my master (slightly) sidechained when the vocals are playing?

    i dont know how to route all this in ableton.
    But i think it´s easier to do this all in the project. You have total control :)

    Aaand should the vocals goung through the synth reverb, or should they have their own "room" ?

    I´ts a Exotic/Tropical House Track with ethnic vocals from Kontakt

    Thank you
     
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  3. Gnib

    Gnib Producer

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    You might mean
     
  4. dragonhill

    dragonhill Guest

    I've seen a few tutorials by Dave Pensado where he splits vocals, instruments, bass/drums and efx tracks into groups to process them separately.
    In Ableton use GROUPS - simply group all the tracks you want to process separately. So in your case a MASTER group (sans vocal) and a VOCAL group. Don't load any plugins on the Master channel.
    Once you load a compressor on your non vocal group, assign the Vocal group or a single vocal to the sidechain.

    You can also use the AUXes also but it's a little more involved.
     
  5. Swatch

    Swatch Kapellmeister

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    Hey thanks for your tips.
    i like the grouping function in live very much.
    In the video i´ve seen, the vocals just don´t go through the master. I will play around a little bit on the weekend.

    Thanks for the video Gnib. Seems to be a nice vocal chain. i will try it too.
    But it´s not a sidechain.
    There are some videos on YT with other daws. But no video with ableton
    Will try it this weekend :)

    Greets
     
  6. dbmuzik

    dbmuzik Platinum Record

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    If the vocals don't go through the master out you won't hear them. All your tracks will go through the master channel. The way you keep your vocals from being effected by the master channel is "don't put anything on the main/master out". If you put something on the main out it's a dead end trap. Add a bus/group channel (bus1) and move any plugins on your master onto it. Switch the output of every track channel to "bus1" instead of main/master. The output of the bus1 is set to main/master. Now.. when you want to isolate your vocal track/s for example.. if the output of a vocal channel is set to main/master it's not effected by your FX chain on bus1. You can do anything you want at this point to isolate or consolidate any FX you use in your project. For example, if the whole instrument mix sounds good through your chain on bus1 except you don't like what it's doing to one track you can now set the output of that track back to main out to exclude it from that FX chain. You need to familiarize yourself with using bus channels and you'll learn you can route things all over the place and never reach a dead end as long as you "don't put anything on the main/master out".
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2016
  7. Swatch

    Swatch Kapellmeister

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    Thank you very much.
    i´ll try the bus settings.
    Sounds logic for me
    Thank you very much :)
     
  8. Sylenth.Will.Fall

    Sylenth.Will.Fall Audiosexual

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    Try using Waves Vocal Rider on the Vocal Track, and EQ to taste.


     
  9. Cav Emp

    Cav Emp Audiosexual

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    Hi @Swatch ... just wanted to let you know that this...
    Is not necessarily true. It's mostly true. But if you really wanted to, you could send the vocals to their own bus that is routed to your audio outputs just like the master track is. Where it says "Audio To" change it to "Ext Out" and by default the Ext Out should be your outputs 1/2 on your interface. Then you can have a sort of parallel master out for your background music and your vocals.

    You might have to render the vocals and the background music separately though, and then re-render the two tracks together
     
  10. subGENRE

    subGENRE Audiosexual

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    You have to set up a premaster bus with everything going to it and dont send the vox to it.
    You can do this with returns too. You just set the tracks to send to sends only. You can even send to other returns from a return. I can visualize 3 different ways to route this in ableton. If you still need help figuring it out maybe I can whip up a flow chart
     
  11. subGENRE

    subGENRE Audiosexual

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    I always use vocal rider and some parallel saturation for sizzle. its a given for my vox workflow.
    Put vocal rider in front of your vocal comp and it will attenuate the volume so the compressor doesnt have to work so hard and you can use it more for flavor.
    Also try hipassed saturation on an aux but go light with it. I like to use decapitator for this task it has hi/lo pass filters in it, and sounds great too
    Just a couple more tricks to help vox cut through a mix.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2016
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  12. dbmuzik

    dbmuzik Platinum Record

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    The instructions I gave were from the perspective the default I/O config of an empty song in the DAW (such as in Studio One) has only the main out "output 1+2". Noting, the master out should not mistakingly be used as the master bus channel for FX purposes. The Master FX channel is simply a bus channel titled "Master". If not using a song template a master bus is added manually. The point is the master bus isn't the master out. You said the same thing I did just from the perspective a master bus is already present and independent of the main/master out.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2016
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