Hi, fellas. You got your nice vocal comp going. Countless hours are into mic placement, warming up the place to grow the mood, pampering the singer with their favorite goodies, silenced the cat and all. You got your vocal track.

Time to mix it.

What is a good vocal chain for you? Do you have a go-to setup? Is it a cocktail of plugins or a preset on a channel-strip plugin? Do you bus the vocals? Do you prefer clean sounds or in-yo-face, hard driven vocals? How do you create space and contrast from harmonies and/or backing vocals?

It's a lot of questions, but it might turn highly educational.

 

Vocal (edited, and little volume automation on pops, and useless bass thumps etc.) -> EQ (bass cut at around 120 hz) -> Deesser -> Comp -> (maybe little distortion/tube stuff) -> Vocals bus -> Master
+ Verb 1,2, 3 send
+ Delay send?

 

EQ (Lowcut, highcut, body, nasality, air, balance), Comp, EQ, 2nd comp, Parallel comp send (EQ on return), reverb send (EQ on return), delay send (EQ on return). If condenser was used, also a de-esser on there if needed.
That's the basic/template setup.

 

Thanks for your replies. Here's my own setup:

- Waverider (volume automation)
- Acon Equalize (lowcut, mostly cuts, not boosts)
- UAD LA2A compressor for smooth leveling (or UAD Fairchild 660, or LA3A, UAD UREI 1176 depending on the vocals and the need for not so smooth leveling)
- Manic compressor for character
- Send to Acon Verberate (the one I'm enjoying these days)
- Send to a slapback delay, dotted 1/8 delay, and 1/4 delay (The 1/4 delay is automated to fire off only when echoes are required before long vocal silences)

I have to admit I don't use deessers a lot. I should.