Hey, I was wondering how can I achieve in mixing stage with well recorded vocal lead to sound clean like in the first 30seconds of this song :

Do you have any tips on eq or compression ?

 

AFAIK, if it's recorded in a good room with the proper acoustic treatment, good mic/pre, you shouldn't have to do much in the mixing stage. not really possible to tell exactly what you would have to do since no one here knows what the vocal you recorded sounds like.

i've seen people ask this question here many times. best thing to do would be to post your recording & let some folks chime in on what they think. there are several people here with golden ears that i've seen give great advice on these things.

 

Have a great mic + preamp and a lot of time to record the lines and comp the vocals. The better the takes are the less the vocal processing will be. Light eq and compression, maybe a desser, and maybe some external fx such as delay or reverb.

 

Is the pre amp making such a huge difference ? I have a M-audio basic 192 4 with no particular pre-amp, how is it compared to what a uad Apollo pre-amp simulation can offer ?

 

omit all of the dirty words.

 

It does make a huge difference, even the most expensive mics will sound like crap if not driven with a great matching quality preamp. I'm talking dedicated preamp hardware tho, not audio interface amps (tho I haven't tested many audio interfaces). Something like a classic 1073, or maybe a SSL Alpha VHD.

 

Don't know how I feel about Pre amp "simulators", it seems to me the better route would be to just make sure you have good acoustics in the room you're recording in, less reflective surfaces is better, use a pop filter on your mic for sure, make sure your levels are good and not clipping, do all of your compression and EQ in post, it's better to start with a dry vocal and add to it, use a VU meter to set your clip gain before you start adding effects though, with a little time and practice, you can get a great sounding vocal, give your ears a rest from time to time as well, to avoid ear fatigue......good luck with it

 

You can't achieve this in mixing stage. When speaking of clean vocals, in mixing stage you can only mess up what you've achieved in the recording. It doesn't get cleaner than your source material.
Well maybe you can filter out the low mud, put a noisegate, manually reduce sibilances and cut all the clicks, maybe gently fix the tonal mistakes with Melodyne, but that's it.
Pull up the highs a little bit with a clean EQ and compress with the most transparent compressor you have, ideally Pro-C 2. In any scenario, you should strive towards clean recording that requires minimum processing if you want clean vocals.

Night and day. It's not just preamps, it's also AD converters. And then microphone, room acoustics, actual vocal performance. But with 192|4 you can pretty much forget about vocals that clean. Especially if your mic is also within the same price category.
Doesn't mean you can't have decent results, but they will always be slightly more muddied and saturated.

 

Have to disagree on this one, I have an Audient ID14 and the preamps sound great on it, supposedly the same ones they use on their console units, given dedicated mic pre's have their advantages, they're not necessary to achieve a great sounding vocal....

 

I have a TLM 103 mic, What affordable mic preamp can achieve this kind of professional result ? What makes a good pre amp ?

 

Wow, why such a cheap audio interface then? It's like putting a RTX 3090 into a monochrome CRT.
Good preamp is clean. That's what makes it good. I've no experience with dedicated hardware preamps, but I have some with interfaces. RME interfaces are very good.
UAD are no worse either. However crap "their" software might be, the hardware is solid. Speaking of solid, I've also heard good things about SSL, but haven't had hands-on experience.
Also, as I've said, even more crucial is AD/DA converter. Luckily, RME got you covered there as well. More or less. Certainly more than that plug you have now.
I'm unaware of any affordable hardware that can give you truly clean results.

Spoiler

But also, honestly, I don't think you really need it too clean for today's music. Coldplay aren't that clean either. If you can't achieve a satisfactory result, I'd try looking into cables, connectors, room acoustics and vocal performance first before upgrading the hardware. Also make sure your production computer and the whole recording chain is grounded.

 

Well, the advantage of dedicated pre amps is that there are multiple preamps to choose from that have their own color, characters which are pretty iconic such as Neve preamps are known to be very “warm” and sound great on certain things. Other brands will hail their “clarity” and “punch.”

 

Agreed, pre-amps are more than just volume boosters. The less work you have to do post tracking, the cleaner the result will be. UA however makes very good plugin emulations, if not best in class.

 

man, if you've got a tlm 103 and you can't get clean sounding vocals, it may just be the performance and/or the room you're in

mixing wise, just use a clean compressor, eq the vocals bright and use a desser to control the sibilance

 

Buzzwords. Basically amounts to bumps at 170 Hz and 4 kHz.

You just spent lots of money on them. That's the sole reason they are "very good".

 

Wrong, I don't even own a UAD card anymore, did however test some of them at a studio with actual gear like 5 years ago that they emulated and it came very close (of course not every analog gear sounds the same). You can however see the test online and many people praise them till this day for a reason. Some of them did go the software only route however such as the Shadow Hills one (made by Brainworx) and the Chandler stuff (by Softube), but most are made by them that are still some of the best if not the best (1176, Pultec etc)

 

thx for you reply ! I'm upgrading piece by piece that's why I use this mic and this audio interface for the moment, but I was looking into the uad Apollo twin, I've heard they offer hardware/software pre amp simulation

I'm getting like 90% of the result and I was wondering how to get the 5-10 last % to get it just better, it already sound very good to me, but I always look for improvement and you're totally right the most important is a good performance thx for your reply

 

A clean processing chain, using FabFilter plugins. Provided you have clean recording:
First, Pro-Q 3. Low cut slightly below the lowest fundamental, 24 dB/oct. Optionally high shelf at 5-ish kHz, 2-4 dB, Q around 0.3. Don't overdo it.

Second, Pro-G. Set up sidechain filters (they are in the "Expert" tab) first so it listens to the most audible vocal frequencies. That is, around 3 kHz to 5 kHz. Then set the threshold so it passes the softest parts of your vocals through unobstructed. Use either "Clean" or "Vocals" algorithm. Set the knee to around 6 dB, then set the attack and release so it feels natural to you. This way, it'll dampen breathing a little. Though you better dampen it with your hands, along with sibilances. You also might want to activate lookahead and set it to maximum value if you feel that transients became unpleasantly shallow.

Third, Pro-C 2. Use the "Vocals" algorithm, set threshold slightly above the softest parts of the vocals. Higher if you want vocals to be more dynamic. Set attack to 1.3 ms (the fastest time it's still absolutely clean with this algo) and release to Auto and 40-45%. Turn the lookahead on and set it to 3 ms. Now the interesting part comes.
Open the "Side Chain" tab and deactivate Auto on the middle filter. Then switch it to high shelf and boost everything above 6 kHz by 10-15 dB
Alternatively, you can use a bell filter around 9 kHz with the same boost .What it does is, because our sibilances consist mostly of high frequencies, it makes the compressor hear all the sibilances like they are 10-15 dB louder, while leaving the rest of the signal proportionally the same. So the compressor will work as a de-esser as well. Pro-C is particularily good at this.

After that you can gently saturate and do whatever else you want with it. If you put a quiet delay before the compressor, it'll work as a ducking delay with a very natural release. Just don't do it with a slapback, cause you won't hear it. Slapback should go after the compressor.
You can also put another EQ after the saturation, to shape the final tone. Just don't overdo it.

This chain allows for extreme vocal steadiness and consistency without any loss of original character.

 

You have a good mic, you need a good mic pre amp too tho. UAD Apollo is used mainly as a DSP machine in tops of the audio interface (not saying the audio interface is bad however). Don't think a preamp emulation will be as good as a real thing, you could try like other plugins if that's your main purpose of buying the Apollo.

If you want a good preamp thats not like 5k you can look into Rupert Neve 511, maybe a Focusrite ISA One

 

Usually is down to experience of the recording engineer, artist and producer. A simple, clean sound IS a simple clean sound, but all the basics are executed to absolute perfection. If you have to ask how to do it, then you lack experience and no one can teach you that.