What plug in do you experienced vocal producers recommend for bringing the vocals forward in a mix?

 

well there is a lot of plugins, the easy way is Izotope Nectar (presets), but if you want to go deep you must to learn about compression, frecuency cut and armonic distorsion. If you have the last waves looking for the Greg Wells voice centric plugin, is magic.

 

Thats a trick question. Heres a few methods I use in combination.
Try some parallel saturation? Try using decapitator by sound toys on an aux. Use the filter in it to dirty up just the top end of your vox then blend it back in to taste.
Or you could paralel smash the hell out of your vox with a 1176 emu and blend just a bit back in.
You could also key a sidechain with the vox, Like on the lead or whatever else is competing for the same space minus the drums.
Also try using a plug like Nugen Stereoizer3 or Credland Audios Stereo Savage to put em in a space. I use stereoizer3 all over my mixes to make room.
Also some tight verb? Try messing with the Pro R on a return

 

Last edited: Feb 16, 2017

Easiest Way Is Too Boost Sibilance/Presence Around 2k To 5k By A Few Db's.
And Doing Opposite Cut In Other Elements In Mix

 

I was assuming you already tried just eqing. Ive heard your mixes before and you know what you're doing for sure.

 

Turn the vocal part up in volume? Honestly I wouldn't do much to the vocals and just use reverb with lots of diffusion, to send other instruments more into the background of the mix. Also eq away more of the bass and the body of instruments (excluding your bass and kicks of course) to make space for the vocals. Because in reality, sounds that we hear that are far away in distance have very little body and even less bass. That logic should be applied to music, in regards to space..imo

 

@subGENRE Agreed, always a fun method. PS: Try sending the high-mids of your 808 bass to an aux and distort, filter and Stereo seperate. 3D bass
@solo83 I second that, the best thing to do is not process before levelling. Try and Mix your drum levels, and then either bass or vocals.

It all depends what genre you're going for too, Hard rock allows epic distortion while Rnb and Hip-Hop needs clarity.

To answer you question though, I use SSL style Compressor (Or just C1 if the track is too clean) to level vocals then apply more EQ and boost with Vertigo VSM 2 (Weirdly clean and interesting character).

 

My chain for vocals in your face: Eq(hp), Desser, CLA76(medium attac/long release), multiband compresion/dynamic eq(C6 is my choice 80% time),another comp/lim (waves MV2 ever) and a any wide plug(in a buss) such as waves doubler or Eventide H3000(are my choice 80%)
The real thing here is the Cla76 trick(there are many tutorials in the net)

 

It is all about compression. There is no magic plugin that beats good old vocal editing and compression. Watch this video. A really simple explenation how to compress a vocal upfront. You ll get how it works.
Use compression with something like vocal rider or your own loudness automation. And you can put your vocals where ever you want in your mix.

Low octave trick + saturation + H3000 micro pitch etc, is just the icing on the cake. It is all about compression and loudness automation.

 

This could be a lazy reply, but for quick results, I use a chain of Waves CLA Vocals and Voice Centric. That usually works for me if the vocal track is good sounding and already happening, but lacking luster or presence in a mix.

 

@Nimbuss
I recently been abusing the saturations in the sly fi plugs to give my 808s some 3d analog love

I keep forgetting about the VSM3. Ive been meaning to mess with it on the last 2 tracks Ive made. Thanks for reminding me. I wanted to try it in my mastering chain too.

 

Last edited: Feb 16, 2017

If you're looking for a magic plugin that somehow makes your vocal takes sound much more expensive and makes them through the mix with a turn of a knob, then let me tell you something buddy... that plugin exist. It's called Vocal Enhancer. Yes, it really works. No, I haven't encountered any other plugin that does what it does.

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/noveltech_vocal_enhancer.html

 

Ive done this before with good results. Usually while the singer is standing there. I just use the comp, eq and sometimes the spreader modules of the cla vocals. And Voice Centric.

 

Last edited: Feb 16, 2017

I've found using an 1176 (Love the T-Racks, seems to have richer harmonics) in conjunction with either a LA-3A or SSL really seems to help push a vocal up front. I let the SSL or the LA-3A do the initial leveling, then put the 1176 afterwards to add some sweet harmonics. I don't really push the 1176 too hard. Also a 670 in there to add some of it's harmonics/tone if needed. I usually try to do the primary eq cuts prior to the initial leveling using a surgical EQ like Ozone 7, and boosts afterward if needed (air, etc.) using a more musical EQ like a Pultec emulation or an API. De-essing is usually needed if you have to compress hard to get it level. If this robs the track of dynamics, I'll add them back using fader automation. This is just a general approach, it all depends on the track/song of course. Oh, and another great thing for adding air is the d-361. Also using predelay of around 10-100ms on the vocal reverb seems to help push the vocal more upfront as well.

 

To answer your specific question, the first thing I try is waves Rvox.

 

Before messing around with the vocals, make sure to check out your other tracks for frequencies that might be obfuscating it, then cut them off...It will make your mix sound way more natural than simply boosting certain frequencies or adding distortion to your vocal track.

If this is not the case, slam it with an 1176 emulation in parallel and adjust to taste...

 

Hey Trevor...It is very good practice to use the right mic for the job, that is if you have a decent selection of mics. It is better to tailor the microphone to the need of the song and to the voice than having to use eq to do so afterwards. That is the reason that mics don't all sound the same from the same manufacturer, different mics for different jobs. And even if you do need to use eq after all is said and done you shouldn't have to carve huge troughs or add great peaks to puzzle everything together. To go a little further, when recording instruments mic placement will have a huge impact on frequency. Know your microphones and their off axis response. Too keep sizzle to a minimum on cymbals and other high frequency sources perhaps angle the capsule slightly off axis, etc. I know that was not specifically what you asked, but for those not knowing, perhaps good info. But I digress!

It all depends on the song and what other instruments are in the mix, whether it is busy or less so, etc. But as a rule of thumb what I like to do is to record going into the DAW at -18dB with peaks maybe up to --12. This saves your life later down the line as tracks add up and your master level creeps and creeps ever upward to overload horror. The preamp that I use has transformers on the inputs and outputs and I drive the front end to get some mellow distortion, not guitar like distortion but just a bit of color, and by doing so a subtle compression of the transients occurs as the first bit to getting the vocal to begin to come to the front, narrowing the dynamics in this early stage. Next in line I use an outboard 1176 compressor. To get it to distort a little for a busy mix I use both a short attack and decay with a ratio of 4-1. A less busy mix I use a longer attack and I adjust by ear for the tempo of the song. I compress perhaps 5-12 dBs. In the DAW I gave been using the Black Rooster optical compressor to just smooth off another 2-5 dBs. After this there is still a little dynamic movement to give the vocal some life but still can be loud relative to the other tracks that it is competing for space. In a less busy mix I need not compress as much or use as much harmonic distortion coming off of the transformer of the preamp.

 

I remember reading about this in a mixing handbook somewhere. It said basically rate the energy level of the mics you have between a 1 to a 10. I felt this meant the responsiveness, a ribbon would be less than say a large diaphragm condenser. Then when recording, rate the energy level of the source between 1-10. So if your source is say 6, you would want to record it with a mic that is say 4. It seemed to me an odd way to match things, because I'm usually listening for tonal things when matching mics. But also you don't want to put a super sensitive mic on a super loud source. So it makes sense in that regard. But if you can get the capture to not need hardly any eq at all, you're definitely ahead of the game mixing-wise.

And @superliquidsunshine, I always enjoy your posts where you are talking about settings and levels. Super helpful!

 

Hey DD...anything that I convey or that is read in a handbook is just to give someone a basic philosophy to relate back to until the person in front of the computer screen and monitors begins to find their own flow and what works for them on a day in day out basis. Settings for compressors and frequencies of eq are more personal choices than the hard ceiling of zero dB of our digital domain. Gain staging is super important so not to overburden our AD conversion, and thanks for mentioning the level thing that I harp on about, I try.

 

Any 1176 emulation will do, 4:1 and slap that needle so that it is working as long as it has input. use the fastest release timing

it will will raise your noise floor considerably, so if noise becomes a problem gate before the comp.

if it still isn't upfront enough lose some low-end