I'm mixing three tracks for different clients currently. Hilarious part is I've been mixing for years even at studios but for the first time I'm working with female vocalists.

With this track I'm finishing this week I know not a whole bunch is different but basically I have ample compression (sonimus 1073 with 1176. EQ in the chain Took off autotune as it created phase issues and used melodyne for pitch correction instead. Added some saturation and reverb to taste plus some slap delay).

The vocals for this client sound great but the issue is with every mix I do I cant get the professional sound down. I saw online some great suggestions like 1) MV2 by waves to push the vocals forward then mix around them. 2) Something I need to do better but volume automation of the vocals throughout the entire track to give it life and 3) Notch out or boost frequencies in the music to make space for the vocals during different sections of the song.

Treating it like a painting theres only so much you can fit in the frame and you don't want to color over parts that are already there. But does anyone here have any suggestions on getting that pop sound (as I do pop and rnb) where the vocals sound great comped up front and seem to be a part of the music rather than sitting on top of it? I feel like maybe just turning the music down as its overwhelming the vocals at parts but it feels like a constant tug of war.

 

try adjusting the vocal audio file in the DAW with manual gain or reduction of the wav file.. i usually cut the vocals and adjust parts until it sounds right

 

Most of my mixes are actually for female vocals and I actually understand what you're going through.

Since we can't hear it, it's hard to give the right advice, but here are some things I usually have in every mix I do:

- Very broad cuts in the low mids. Been using Pulsar Audio Poseidon a lot recently because the bells are huge. Somewhere around 300hz or 400hz, pulling everything around it down. Then a slight boost in 2khz keeps the vocals bright and right in your face.
- I tried to fight it a lot, but some limiting really makes the difference in most vocals. I usually go for 1 to 3db limiting with PSP Twin-L. Instead of sounding limited, it makes the vocals a lot more constant.
- Get the dynamics down first with levelling. First thing in all my tracks is APU Loudness Compressor for downwards and upwards compression, but any leveller/rider will work. I use a three step dynamics processing: levelling at the start to keep it super consistent, then compression to add character in the middle and lastly in the chain, a gain plugin automated to give the vocals some movement.

Lastly, one thing I noticed in my own mixes is that usually tracks with more bass do worse in keeping vocals right in your face. Somewhere around 150hz all the way up to 500hz usually mask the vocals even if the vocals was already carved a lot around that region. I haven't found a great solution for that yet other than sidechaining something like trackspacer to duck down those frequencies, after that the vocals instantly clear up.

 

Have you tried Wavesfactory Trackspacer or Neutron Unmask?

 

1. Hyper focus on edits. Im not kidding. Zoom in and remove clicks and pops, manually adjust sibilance, plosives, and breaths at a clip level. Don't be afraid to go hard with it, just duplicate the track or take lane before hand, so you can fly stuff back in if you went too hard. Female vocals can really trigger delay and reverb, and you want any of that noise out of there before you hit them.

2. While you're doing the above, volume automate at clip level. Depending on the song, artist, etc i will often times do this syllable by syllable. This means your compressor is doing less, and you can push it more before it starts to sound unnatural.

3. Low cut or steep low shelf up to 120hz or so. While it can sometimes help to be heavy handed in the 3-500hz region as pointed out by shinjiya, this can also mess things up, taking away body and impact, which actually ties into their last point about bass heavy songs masking the vocal. Be careful here.

4. Experiment with cutting as laid out in #3, but i find it better to use a MB comp here, or dynamic EQ. Pro Q is probably the easiest, as you can focus in on this frequency range, as well as adding a couple more bands doing similar. Create a few bands, all in dynamic mode, and have them all doing 3-5db GR, fast-ish attack, medium-fast release. In the mud range, have it doing a couple more db of reduction compared to the other bands. Amount of GR, A/R times of course dependent on the song.

5. Parallel busses. Heavy compression in one, to give a compressed body underneath the lead without over-compressing the lead itself. Moderate-heavy saturation in another, with an eq to shape it after the saturator, removing excess mud or harshness. Basically, find the core frequency range of the vocal, and cut around that. Bring the returns to zero, and then slowly bring them back up until you can barely hear them. It shouldn't be obvious, its more of a feeling thing, helping to make the vocal more full and present.

6. Gentle compression in stages. One doing fast attack and release, another doing medium-slow. Another MB comp to smooth things out, and lastly a limiter.

7. As others have pointed out. Using something like soothe, trackspacer, unmask, etc can really be magic here. Create a melodics group / buss, with essentially everything but the drums, sidechain the vocal to one of these plugins, and be amazed! Depending on genre / song, you can go heavier than you would think with this. Sometimes even 2-3 db is all you need, but don't be afraid to experiment and push it. Play with attack / release to make it more natural.

 

Besides unmasking techniques, parallel and serial compression (also think of the Scheps trick here): Try to upmix the vocals to ms stereo and play with some micro delay only affecting the mid signal. You can manipulate the perception of depth this way. All of that also on a send or a doubled track if necessary (your ears will tell you).