Hello,

I'm making anthologies and need the vocal level for tracks from different albums matched. I'm currently using iZotope's Nextar 4 Auto level. While it does the job but also influence the overall sound design and not for the better. The tracks processed with it sound like vocals too far spread and echoing slightly. I played with width and and Pan controls but they don't appear to be doing anything.

Hence, looking to test some other plugs aimed at vocal level matching. Nothing much came on Google searches, would like to hear your suggestion if you have any.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Are you talking about volume levels or are you trying to match eq/compression and other additional effects?

 

Waves - Vocal Rider
Get consistent vocal levels—automatically and fast
www.waves.com/plugins/vocal-rider

Waves Vocal Rider Tutorial

 

Not EQ, Compression or loudness.....just vocals.

 

Thank you, exactly the thing I was looking for. How can I get it from sister site, without having to get anything rest from the company. I don't want any of their other stuff.

Your help is much appreciated.

 

Install Waves from Team V.R, there you can install only the plugins you need in the "Wave Central" on the desktop.
Waves Ultimate 15 v24.12.19 Incl V.R Patch WiN

 

I highly recommend MAutoVolume for vocal riding. Better than anything I have used. If you try it, make sure to check the tooltips (the ? bubbles) and also use one of the presets to start.

 

Well, loudness of vocals IS level for the purposes we are talking here, but to be clear, you are doing this from stems/raw tracks/or already bounced stereo masters?

As that obviously is going to make a huge difference, and the reason I ask, is that in your initial question and what you said you were experiencing in terms of stereo issues and echoes and whatnot, sounds like you are implementing some sort of either stem separation or applying over a 2 track globally , (as that would generally be the side effects of anything along those lines as the algo's aren't all the same, or even the best are gonna have some 'ghosts' as difficult to differentiate between the vocal fx possibly on the sides vs the mid with different instruments etc if that is the situation etc...).....

So if that's the case, or even if you are working with separated multitracks, vocal rider etc are great for things, and/or certainly passes on things...or matching different takes to each other and whatnot... but honestly, if it's separate tracks, or you are trying to match different songs in an "anthology" as you said, sure, give vocal rider or melda a shot, but if it's important, nothing is going to beat riding them by hand obviously... and if it's a 2 track and you are relying on some kind of stem seperation to attenuate volumes on the vocal, and then across multiple different songs... that is going to bring in it's own host of approaches or possible problems that hopefully can be overcome....

(as depending on how the vocals were processed across multiple albums. (assuming here you are working from 2 track masters), taking the egg out of the cake after it's baked isn't quite there 100% at all yet, although, hey, it's getting better... but it's success is going to vary on the source material)

 

Last edited: Dec 24, 2024

Thank you for the reply and the kind suggestion. I can't seem to understand the parameters. To my knowledge, I've set every thing correctly, yet the loudness varies when there is only music and when there is vocal.

Do you have any preset that help me get the same loudness for vocals irrespective of the source ? I can use it as a headstart and tweak it from there.

 

I only ever tried RX stem separation and it doesn't work very well. I may need suggestions for other tools that can do this better. For now I'm trying to do this on mastered stereo tracks. I understand I can do it better manually but there are too many tracks and I wanted something to automate this with. It doesn't have be knife edge precise, something with the rounding errors is also acceptable.

Thank you for taking interest in my topic and providing valuable suggestions.

 

Let me see if I understand it correctly: you're taking a finished track (a stereo track with music and voice) and you're trying to level the vocals from that track? Without doing anything else? Because if that's the case, it will never work. A leveler can't distinguish between voice and music.

In this case, maybe Acon Digital's Remix plugin can help you balance the track the way you want.

 

Okay. Do I have to seperate the audio with Remix first and process it with MeldaAudto or can I just set the desired output for vocals in Remix and and it will match it regardless of the input level ? Sorry for my ignorance, first time using Remix.

 

no worried, ok.. yeah, with mastered stereo tracks, other then trying to, as I said, in order to approach the issue of changing the amount of egg out of a cake after you baked it, ... other then eq's and other stuff we used to do back in the day (which were mostly a fools errand), stem separation stuff... (which as I described, is going to have issues in terms of perfection or things on the stereo field in the same range as other instruments and whatnot)...

I would find the best stem separator you can, and ride it from there... but I'm not sure what there is to automate without reinventing the wheel on the track so to speak... if you want the vocals UP, you can turn them up in that scenario... but yes, there is high potential for artifacts or other issues you didn't plan on with that.

The kind of source material would help, as this is wide ranging... but I think you are going to have to pull up your sleeves a little bit once you are done separating as best you can (or software/algo can) the vocals.

 

In this case, I believe you might have a good run by just using Remix and increasing the level of the vocals until you're satisfied. If you're dealing with a professionally mixed and mastered track, there's a good chance a vocal rider won't really help there. So, using Remix to rebalance the volume to your liking might be enough already.

 

SoundRadix POWAIR Leveler module, control the timing of it with the extended options slider on the bottom. Absolute banger.

 

Acon Remix is a good idea. All of these various tips, tricks, and techniques can work great; but on a song-by-song basis. You could probably find a more cookie cutter approach with AI tools like Sonible SmartEQ. Instead of Nectar, you might want to try Izotope Neutron, RX, or Ozone. Depending on the program material, you might be able to use a utility like Blue Cats MB-7 Multiband mixer. You can insert plugins onto each band you setup, which might get you back to using a vocal rider. You might even be able to ballpark everything with Fabfilter Pro-MB multi-band compressor.

 

@Radio @shinjiya @typical-love @clone

Many thanks for all the expert advise and tools suggestions. Separating vocals from the rest of tracks and then adjusting the levels seems to bring about good results. And it doesn't have that weird problem I had with Nectar so no need to switch either.

Your help is highly appreciated. All you guys are so awesome. This is solved and can be closed now.

 

I am QUITE HAPPY with the complete Nuro Audio vocal Suite: xTune (a simple real-time tuner that works pretty well), xRider (Best simple set-and-forget leveler plugin I've tried so far) and my beloved xVox Pro. Allows for order swapping of modules, pls the different modules also come in separate plugins if you want to add stuff. I generally use the tape emulation setting in the output FX module and then add an extra FX module for stereo widening.
I've tried EVERY vocal-processing-oriented plugin. I really tried to make Nectar works (like, really, hard), and was never satisfied with the results.

Another great option is Gamma Vocal Suite, but after Xvox came out, I'm not using anything else.

PS: It's also great for BV / All vocals bus processing. I love the 2 in 1 compressor settings they offer!!

I'm not affiliated nor sponsored by them, and I find most of their promos a little cringey , but I love their products WITH ALL MY HEART.
So yeah, bottom line; check out Nuro xRider.