Hello!
Do you know some vocalists (on Soundbetter or wherever) who deliver true, funky vibe with their singing manner? I mean the tight punchy vibe of funk vocals like in the tracks from Chic, Earth Wind Fire, the funky M. Jackson tracks, etc

Maybe the secret is to also compress the vocals in some specific way to make them sound so pleasantly 'punchy' ?

Btw. it's interesting that so much is going on in EWF 'Sempember' arrangement when you hear the isolated tracks:

 

Do you guys produce funky-driven genres?
Do you process the vocals in some special way for that tight/punchy funky feel of the funky vocals?

 

It's been a while since I've produced a funk vocal (miss those days), but I didn't really do anything special.

Whether for male or female vocals, I just got them to triple track their vocals - through and through (very little comping). The underlying approach is to make sure you've got a solid and confident vocalist that's played and rehearsed the material aplenty.

This gives them plenty of time to practice their mic technique for and with the song, and gives me the benefit of using very little compression (just enough). I experimented a lot with mics too - oftentimes I put two (upsidedown/straightup) and blended them.

As regards background vox, similar approach: I got the three (sometimes four when I joined them) singers to sing standing around a single mic or two (set to Omni pattern). Everyone is responsible for keeping the balance of their sound together, but once they did, I got some masking tape, and like a World Cup Referee, I put a white/beige line by their toes so they would find their place again between takes, bathroom breaks, etc. Dare I say I also used (though not always) dual mics as well to capture their performance and blended them.

The bigger challenge to me was the bass. You're right to point to EWF, that's the gold standard for a great sounding, sitting in the mix in exactly the right space electric bass. That's all Verdine (very little if any compression as well), and I didn't have a Verdine lying around, so I did my creative best to contain the bass frequencies where they were most effective (not unlike most headphone manufacturers I reckon).

Once I got the bass right (usually 5-6 attempts - I'm not a mixing engineer), and I always got it right, everything and everyone else fit very nicely in the mix - the arrangement is the mix really, you just have to get the bass out of the way without losing its impact.

One trick of mine, that I learned from Donald Fagen, was to double the bass: if the track called for a synth bass, I played it, but I called in an actual bass player to double the part - and conversely, if the song called for an electric bass groove, I doubled it on synth.

So in a way, this is the key for me: live singing, double miking, and double tracking (vocals and bass). Gives me options. I like options.

 

Could you tell more about it?
and also about mixing a funky slap bass? (some crucial frequency ranges?)

 

That would depend entirely on your kick - different kicks, different heads, different padding (techniques), different resonance and ringing, different mics and miking = different frequencies.

There is also the small matter of transients and transient conflagration, so to speak, meaning that typically the kick drum is played a little more on top of the beat, whereas the snare (aka backbeat) is played deeper in, or a hair or two behind the beat (depending on the player, era, and tempo of the tune of course - not talking about gospel drummers obviously).

There is also the lower matter of 4 string vs 5 string basses (and synth basses) - a good contrast and illustration of each would be Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry Bout A Thing" (4 string bass) vs Incognito's excellent and funky cover featuring a 5 string bass part.

Basically what you want is to carve out enough space for the bass frequencies to gel well with the kick without losing energy (impact) or sacrificing definition or musical articulation. It's balancing act (mixing is like cooking in that respect: a balance of all the ingredients), but the good news, imho, is that once you get it right, you've got the foundation upon which to build (layer the other instruments and vocals) the rest of your mix/house, each story serving or stocked with different frequency ranges.

As far as vocals, like strings and horns (EWF being a prime example of optimal utilization), it's all about the arrangement - by which I mean it's incumbent upon the arranger(s) to listen to the vocals (lead and bgs) and steer clear - which should make the mixing thereof a simple level/fader and pan pot balancing act (little to no EQ carving needed).

To be clear, all of the above is highly composition and production dependent - there are no presets. Live drummer, sampled drum loops and/or drum machine, 4 string (Chic or Bros Johnson or Marcus Miller) or 5 string or synth bass, tempo, instrumentation, and not least the quality of the lead and background vocals: all those ingredients or colors matter and contribute to the final picture.

This is where your ears and taste come into play. You mix it as you'd like to hear it (not to copy anyone else's sound: make it your own).

Hope this helps. Good luck (and please feel welcome to share your next productions)!

 

Thanks! and do you know some good male session singers capable of the funk style singing?