A year ago i found some interesting vocal chain ( plugin + Settings ) that was clearly described by a mixing engeneer in a magazine i think.......or maybe it was a chain of preset .......i dont clearly remember how and mostly WHERE i found it but recently......I LOST MY VOCAL CHAIN PRESET that was kept in my Studio One presets.

If i remember correctly, it was from NEVO or from PENSANDO.

It was composed of specific setting in these following plugins :

SSL Comp
RVox
Rdeesser
VEQ3


If someone could help me find it back again....by giving me a link to the article or magazine ....i would realy appreciate.

Thanks guys.

 

All right guys, topic close.

Seems like Studio One decided to change the path of my stored FX Chain and i managed to found my old vocal chain back in My Documents.

For your info ( maybe it can help you ) Here's the vocal chain with their respective preset:

Heres the Mono ( all plugin are mono ) but the stereo is the same ( with stereo version of the same plugin)

VEQ3:
EQ: ON
PHASE : OFF
ANALOG: ON

HP: 160hz
LP: +5.1db @ 220hz
MF: +2.0 @ 1.6khz
HF: +1.2 @ 12khz

OUTPUT: 0db

RDEesser :

FREQ: 3834
TYPE: LP
MODE: Split

RANGE: -25
TRESH: -24

RChannel :

LOOK AT THE PICTURE hahahaha....too much setting there.

SSL BUSS COMP:

PICTURE PLEASE

 

But what microphone do you use? A vocal chain can never be the same except if you use the same mike and the same singer all the time. Personally, this set up wouldn't work for me, but maybe it would if I used some different mic. So watch out for the presets... EQs and compressors cannot be used with presets, you always have to fine tune them for a particular mic, vocal, style of singing etc. by using your ears and experience.

 

this preset works for me.

Thats why i was looking for it.

I'm happy i havent lost it finaly hahah

 

But what would you do if you work with different vocalists recording on different microphones? Would you use these presets all the time?(which is totally unprofessional). Every vocal is different, microphones also have different freq. response, also the preamps sounds different, etc. which they won't be all compatible with your presets. When you create some presets, that presets are only suitable for that particular project/vocals/recording-chain. I didn't said it would sound worse on other project/vocals, but will not be that suitable and when you're a professional engineer, you should treat every sound material in particular. You can use only the same plugins, but the tweaks should be different, because when you treat a vocal, that particular vocal when you listen to it, it's like it would communicate with you asking you something like "Hello Mr. Engineer, i'm the vocal, i would need some of that and that and that and the other one" and if you feed it with fixed presets, the vocal won't get what it asked you for. Imagine the vocal being like a customer in a restaurant. If the first customer order something and you save in your mind his order, belive me that the next customer won't order the same things as the first customer and if you feed it with something that it doesn't asked for, then it will be unhappy.

 

I'm almost at the point where I'd like to record vocals, and experiment with finding my own chain(s). Can anyone recommend me some good resources to read up or watch on various techniques and aspects when it comes to Vocals?

TIA

 

A youtube search should yield plenty of useful results for getting started. Reading wise I'd recommend a look at perhaps Bobby Owinski's book 'The Mixing Engineer's Handbook' (3rd Edition released in 2013), If you use/have a license for Waves plugins then 'Cengage Waves Plug-Ins Workshop Mixing By The Bundle' is a good all around book along with projects and presets that you can freely experiment with. One of
the most useful I've bought personally of many would have to be Mike Senior's 'Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio', That is a superb resource to have handy and also includes links to many multi-tracked projects in many different genres/styles for one to practice upon.

PlugIn wise for a very tidy 'All-in-one' I would suggest iZotope's Nectar 2, It comes with plenty of presets to get you started and their demo period is decent, So when you can put aside the time to refine your skills starting vocal processing it won't hiss at you or similar annoyance every 2 minutes or whatnot Obviously the solutions are endless using individual processing and effect plugins which is a lot of fun but for starting out that is why I recommend iZotope's all-in-one solution...It has all the blocks you'll need to get to grips with vocal treatments

That is the key thing to remember throughout as has been mentioned already; Presets are but starting points to guide one in the direction they are aiming for and there simply is no single magic silver bullet which will even come remotely close to working every time...Unless perhaps you are only ever recording your own vocals via the same microphone in the same space, You might just get one chain together that works almost universally each time with a little tweaking

There are many good books and resources that I haven't covered since it can be overwhelming, Just fire up your DAW and plumb in your mic'd vocals and track away (keep multiple takes for comping later down the line) and then start the mixing process

That would be my very humble advice FWIW to get a good footing/started off

 

The most important part about mixing vocals, is to train/develop your hearing regarding singer's vocal timbre and the style/mood of the song/genre.
Also you have to know to adapt to any kind of vocal, because that way you could know by hearing to it what exactly you should tweak to it.
e.g. a male strong vocal, if it sounds too harsh through your mike, then you should notice that so you'll be carefull with the highs and also to do meticulous eq-ing searching for the bad freq' region which highlights the harsh characteristics and cut them (how much db to cut? use your ears! not the tips or advices because they're only particularry suitable for that particular material). (btw, Pro-EQ from Fabfilter is great and fast for soloing bands while searching for the bad spot)
Also make sure to clean all the vocal tracks/takes's waveforms in the arrangement window, by magnifying the waveforms so you can see easier if there's any unwanted noises from the recording chain or headphones clicking artifacts which leaked while it got moving accidentally on the singer's head. I know you can use a gate for that (my favourite is Pro-G from Fabfilter) but i think that my eyes and ears are more trustable than the gate plugins because i faced often some noises in some waveform's regions even if the gate was already tweaked and active specifically to that vocal.
Also make sure to search for muddy part of the vocals, arround 200-350hz, even arround 500-600hz if the vocal is somehow peaky in a ugly way there. Also don't forget about the high-pass filter.
After you make sure that you got rid of the bad characteristics of that vocal, you can also load up a deesser (like Pro-DS from Fabfilter) before compressing and boosting eq.
Then you can load up a compressor. When it comes about compression, there's alot of options like:
- Analog emulation algo plugins combination, complementing themselves, like the 2A and 76 compressors working together.
- Basic one band compressor working by itself.
- Multiband compressor (rarely used) to keep the vocal more natural, compressing only the peaky range of it.
If you feel the vocal is too weak or too smooth, then you can add some tube/tape saturation, or a little percentage of mixed amp distortion.
Then you can load up a boosting eq (Nebula impulses stuff are the greatest for boosting in my opinion even if it's a big cpu hog, but i don't care about that) and you can boost up a 10khz high-shelf region for some brilliance, a 5khz bell for some glass-like presence, 2-4khz bell for some normal presence, but you just have to focus your ears and find the right spot when it comes about boosting, because i can't tell you something common/general, because every vocal is different so you have to focus your hearing.
In the end of the chain you can load the deesser again if you feel the vocal still have a exagerated sibilance.
Now you can start playing with the effects plugins, like choruses, delays, reverbs, etc. but make sure you blend the right effects regarding your song's style/genre/mood.
Remember also to treat the other vocals tracks different ( i mean, the backing vocal tracks or vocal harmonies tracks) so that way you'll get a nice stereo image and placement for your mix's elements.

I forgot to mention the fact that you should really avoid processing the vocal in solo mode. Try to do all the tweaks while the vocal plays along the other elements in the mix, because that's the only way you can make it fit better in your mix.

 

I'm not a professional.

I only worked 3 years where music paid my rent and those years are gone.

Again, these presets work for me.

Also i usualy add some more stuff after or before depending on what i want to do with my voice.

 

Having some presets laying around can be really useful, you may wanna use them as a starting point. Since I'm always recording in the same room i tend to use the same plugins anyway. Besides, applying the same chain of effects you've used before to a different voice is not gonna make it sound rubbish. You just gotta do some tweaking.

 

That's what i meant about, he can keep the chain, but every vocal is different so he have to tweak them different according every particular vocal/genre/mood.