Hey all,

coming from an instrumental making background with little knowledge about vocal recordings, Im starting to have a few questions where Im observing contradicting information.

Brain-storming my question:

• Im recording in mono with a mono mic. Regarding plugins for the vocal chain, should I stay strictly on mono plugins for best results (ex. Waves F7 mono)?
  
• Does it hurt the whole chain when Im adding a stereo plugin (ex. Waves Q6 stereo) at the end of the chain?
• Coming to the mixing stage of instr. + vocals: Since I have my instrumentals already ready in projects and mixed to fit the vocal, how to create a pre-master out of it? With the vocals already in it? Or exporting the instrumental and work with the two wave files (Vocs+Instr) for the final mix?
• Any db tips where the vocals should hover to create a fluid and "in the beat" feeling for vocals?

Im not a total beginner in music production but as mentioned, pure instrumentals were my main focus and getting a mix with enough headroom for post-production is stuff I already worked with, so you can use jargon to explain these vocal related questions.

Thank you very much in advance for any input.

 

• Waves Mono Plugins are for Mono Tracks. There are mono version available to reduce CPU useage. That's why waves have them. I find them really annoying because they clutter up the plugin folder but it's an option to save resources.
• You can throw Stereo Plugins at the end of a mono chain but not the the other way around. And you should do it if there's a stereo plugin before hat. like a doubler or stereo delay which creates an actual stereo signal. If you throw a Mono Plugin on a Stereo signal it sums the 2 channesl together and the signal doubles in Volume. So on stereo busses which bring together various mono channels with panning etc you must use stereo plugins to maintain the panorama
  
• Possible Mixing Strategy: Create one or More busses for your instrument Groups (Drums, Keys, Guitars, etc.) and one or more for Vocals (Main Vox , Chorus, etc) and route everything into them and then send those to the mix bus. makes it easier to balance everything against each other
  
• No dB Tips for Vocals: every mix is different. You have to decide where the vocal sits. But this is dependending on how the levels and frequencies of the music and vocals interact together. It's an interactive process of gain staging, frequency balance, compression and ambience. It takes years of practise to get it right.

 

What @5teezo said. You can think of the voice recording as a mono instrument recording. So if you record a guitar DI you put a noise gate, perhaps a first compressor in mono and then at the end "creative ones" like the stereo delay classic example. And with the vocals perhaps a mono de-esser, and stuff.
Well, probably you already know this.