How to Process Vocals for an Amazing Professional Sound
Tutorial Details
- Program: Logic Pro 8
- Difficulty: Beginner - Intermediate
- Completion Time: 1 hour
Persuading a problematic vocal recording to play nicely with the rest of your mix can seem like a futile task. Well-recorded vocals and poorly-recorded vocals both need to be correctly prepared, and the processes we’re going through today will help you turn your untreated vocal take into a polished and commercial sound.
Note: this tutorial contains embedded audio that will not display in a feed reader. Click back to the site to read the tutorial with audio or download the Play Pack at the end of the tut.
Before we get started, have a listen to our untreated vocal.
Unprocessed Vocal
1. Get Rid of Background Noise with Gating
The first thing you’ll probably notice about any vocal recording (good or bad) is the presence of background noise, ranging from subtle to annoying. This can be caused by anything; a computer in the studio, traffic, background conversation and, of course, headphone output bleeding onto the microphone.
Before the core of the vocal signal can be tackled and processed efficiently, as much of this background noise as possible must be removed. You have a few options here as there are plenty of techniques available, including manually editing the areas of noise or even using automation to lower the level of these regions. Although perfectly valid techniques, the most convenient tool for tackling the issue is a noise gate.
Noise gates are supplied in one form or another with pretty much every DAW (digital audio workstation). Products such as Cubase, Logic, Ableton and Digital Performer all include feature-rich gate plug-ins out of the box. I’m using Logic Pro 8 here, but the techniques are generic and can be used with any software and similar plug-ins.
Once you have selected your gate plug, it’s simply a case of setting the threshold so that the body of your vocal is heard but the areas of silence or noise are muted. Even with the most precise setting here, you may notice that your vocal sounds unnatural when coming in and out. This can be solved with some tweaking of the attack and release settings. Some gates will have extra controls such as hold time and gain reduction amount to get an even more natural sound.
Gated vocal
2. Dealing with Low Frequencies
Once your vocal is playing back without any noise it’s time to start thinking about a chain of processing that will compliment the vocal and bring out the best in the performance. The order that I have here is by no means set in stone and is simply one way you can work. Once you have a good understanding of each process you can mess with the order of the processors as you see fit.
It is important to filter out low frequencies and it is always a good idea to do it early in your chain as this will allow any plug-ins after this point to operate at optimal capacity since they won’t have to process large amounts of unwanted low frequency energy. Many problems due to vibration, further noise during the recording and so on can be eradicated with this simple process.
I have used an EQ plug-in with the high pass filter engaged. Watch the slope and frequency you use here, as these will need to be adjusted depending on the type of vocal you are working with. For instance, I was able to filter quite a lot of low end as I am working with a female vocal.
Filtered vocal
3. Controlling Dynamics with Compression
Of course, it’s likely that in any vocal performance the singer is louder at some points and quieter during others. This may be because the piece requires lots of dynamic variance, or just that they were too close or too far away from the mic at times. Whatever the cause, if your take contains these issues you are going to want to fix them and this is where dynamics processing comes in.
The use of compressors to control dynamics should be no secret to even a beginner in the field of production. Even the most simple production software will include some form of compression plug-in or limiter that is capable of evening the peaks and troughs in any audio signal. Vocals react especially well to compression and once the correct attack and release settings are applied, pretty large amounts of gain reduction can be used without introducing any negative side effects to your sound.
Again, if you are not sure how to set up a compressor, start with an initiated patch and try some subtle settings to begin with. You can resort to presets to get the ball rolling and tweak things as you go. Once you have a compressor working correctly on your vocal, you should be able to enjoy an even and more powerful overall sound. If you still feel there are some wayward dynamics leaping out of the vocal channel, some light limiting can be used to put a cap on things.
Compressed vocal
4. Take the Hiss Out with De-Essing
If “ssss” and “ch” sounds are causing spikes in your vocal recording, these need to be processed out. This unwanted artefact is called sibilance and is pretty hard to avoid during the recording process.
You can tackle mild cases of sibilance with a high pass EQ or low pass filter. You may even prefer reducing the gain of the problem areas manually in an audio editor, but again, the easiest route is to use a processor called a de-esser, an automated process designed especially for the job.
De-essers are pretty common plug-ins with a simple set of controls. Usually one would set the frequency of the problem area and then move onto the sensitivity or threshold setting to ensure the process only kicks in when needed. If you are in any doubt try using the plug-in presets as a guideline and starting point.
You can hear the de-esser working on the ‘its’ section of the vocal here. Be careful – over use of the process can effect the signal in undesirable ways and make words sound unrealistic and illegible.
De-essed vocal
5. EQ and enhancers
After using compression and de-essing, it is possible you may have lost some of the important higher frequencies in your vocal. Although dynamics processing has obvious bonuses, it can leave the signal sounding slightly dull. These frequencies can be dialled back in with the use of subtle shelving equalization or the use of an enhancer.
In this case I have used Logic’s own EQ to add some upper mids, just to claw back some of the ‘air’ lost in previous processing. Be careful here as you can end up re-introducing the sibilance you spent time removing in previous steps. ‘Less is more’ is the way forward here. Keep things subtle.
EQed vocal
6. Keep Organized with Grouping
Although there was no use for it in this example, as there is only one vocal track being used, setting up groups or busses can be extremely useful. It is not uncommon to have several similar vocals playing on numerous tracks in any one project. If this is the case, send them all through a master buss and apply your chain of vocal processors to it. Not only will this give you a more cohesive vocal sound but it can save CPU resources as you are only applying the plug-ins once.
Of course backing vocals and ad libs may need to be sent through their own buss to avoid confusion and masking. It can also be useful to apply different more subtle processes to these secondary vocals to create some contrast between them and your lead part.
7. Adding Reverb and Delay
Finally, to add space and an ethereal quality you can use some delay and reverb effects. These can be used as inserts, but become especially useful when used in a send/return configuration. This way any automation on your vocal track will not effect the processing and any tails will stay intact. Also the delay and reverb can be used on any channel in your mix. Try not to swamp the vocal with extra effects as it will lose presence and clarity.
Delay & Reverb
8. Pitch correction and other trouble shooting
There wasn’t a huge amount left to do to this vocal as everything was working nicely after all this processing was applied, but in some cases extra work may need to be done. For instance, if the singer was a little shaky (or tone deaf!) you might feel the need for some pitch correction. This process was made famous by the Antares Auto-Tune plug-in, but there are plenty of other options. Logic 8 has a great bundled pitch correction plug.
Another final alteration you may want to make is the use of automation to reduce the level of any remaining problem transients. If you aren’t happy with any sibilance or pops that have managed to find their way though the chain of processors, you can simply apply a small dip in the volume automation lane. This will really help to soften the area and eliminate the problem.
Final Product
So, after all that processing, what does our final product sound like? Have a listen for yourself:
Final vocal
Download the Play Pack for this tutorial (16.5MB)
Contents
- Logic Pro 8 Source Files
- AIFF example audio
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By Mo Volans
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Not a huge difference, but enough to make a difference! Great job!
I tend to just cut out dead space and pauses in not just vocal tracks, but all tracks. I don’t trust gates all that much. That’s just me. But they are good for the small breaks not worth the time to pick out of the region.
Thanks for the write-up, I was just looking for this exact process yesterday.
Now if there was only a plug-in to get rid of my smacking dry mouth. Grapes?
@ Russ , yep grapes could work but make sure they are chilled and washed ;)
Hi thanks for the break down ive searched the whole internet looking for something like this thanks alot do you think you can post a video to your instructions are direct and right on you’ll make a great teacher
what plug ins do you recommend
Nice tutorial with good audio examples. You can hear the differences before and after processing the vocals very well. Thanks!
Good article. Just a point, you could use an AUHighpass filter instead of the EQ to cut off the low end. This plug-in is more efficient than the EQ and the highpass filter slope is very high so it cuts off anything below a certain frequency. This plug-in is installed by default on MacOSX systems.
@ Kent… yeah any high pass filter should do the trick, saying that a really extreme slope can effect things in a negative way if you go above say 100hz…
if you plan to filter anything above this point and actually cut into the vocal signal (as opposed to just low frequency noise etc) it can pay off to have a plug with an alterable curve. You can then use something a little more subtle avoid coloration of you vocal.
“Now if there was only a plug-in to get rid of my smacking dry mouth. Grapes?”
Apple work well too – I know this from audio drama work.
It’s a great tutorial, but EQ’s need tweaking depending of one’s voice, where you are recording, and what genre you are recording. Anyway… great job !
@Andrici … yep of course, it goes without saying that EQ settings are totally program dependent in any area of mixing, there is never a blanket treatment that can be used and special care should always be taken to make sure settings are correct for each different case.
This is why pre-sets in the area of EQ (and dynamics) can be a pretty bad idea as their titles can be mislead a beginner and have them believe they are a one button fix for any situation.
Thanks for the succinct walk-through..! If anyone is looking for alternative (and free!) plugins to deal with these stages of the processing chain, a few options can be found here: http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/vocal-tips/
Awesome, I’ve been dealing with podcast issues for a while with vocals, and am just begining to learn how to fix things more in differnet audio apps.
Now I suck at editing my own articles out on my site but I see mistakes that others do which is true to form – so check out step 6, typo:
6. Keep Organized wiht Grouping
Thanks for the heads up on the typo, pylorns – my fault, not Mo’s!
Good examples of a vocal treatment, although using that much reverb and delay makes the vocalist sound very unnatural and should only be used on the right genre of music at the right time.
Hey, thought i’d add my 2 pence (or cents!).
Really cool tutorial, and very well laid out in clear defined steps, especially for the uninitiated.
Just a word about using gates on vocals….in my humble opinion – gating vocals just sounds way too, clipped and un-natural. I prefer using the ‘strip silence’ function in Logic 8 and go through manually to keep breaths with smooth fades, and X-fades. Headphone spill has been a problem in the past when working with in-experienced singers who like things too loud in the cans, but I’ve found using an exp/gate works better than just a normal gate.
Also, one word about Logic’s desser – it’s awful. The best desser and most natural sounding desser ever is waves desser, well worth the cost. But for cheapness you can buy AirWindows, which has a decent sounding one.
Keep it up dude!
dB
tuts websites are the shit. i dont need to know this, but ill thumbs up it anyways.
What the heck? This last comment is hilarious.
But to keep on topic… Really helpful tutorial for someone new like myself. Thanks!
- David
Excellent job, however I would have toned down on the ends of the echos/reverbs – I think it should have faded much more quickly at the end. It adds great body in the middle, but at the end, the “repeating” of words seems extremely unnatural to me.
Cheers,
Ben
hi all, the reverb and delay is simply an over exaggerated example of what could be done. Of course it is unlikely that you would use a signal this wet in the mix, it is simply to clearly demonstrate the fx in the final stage.
None of my tutorials are an example of exactly what should be done, they are simply guidelines intended to help people out in certain situations. ;)
thanks for a great tutorial. i really like the post vs. pre samples, which give real examples of what’s happening. i work with faculty who record their lectures at the university and this hits the mark. i use audacity (which might be shocking) which has the plugins needed for me to follow along.
Cool u all experience all these.Hope u don’t forget what processor,RAM,sound card,n how free is u’re hard drive where this same vocal will sound richer or poorer.U talk of vocal sounding unatural?there’s nothing like natural after proccessing this vocals and a little bit of artificial is good and don’t forget when mixed with other instruments it seems no more.I never limit my vocals after but give it the best settings in the first compression.when u get ‘sss’ never reduce the gain for u are just putting perfume on a dirty dress.i de-ess always at the end since all what u add on may still add this stuffs in.Understand eqs and u are learning how to tune any vocal u record and u’re getting mo’ pro n away from presets guys!Cadden even if u get no noise in voc,there’s always very little in n if u add other instruments this way u get mo n mo noise so setting the gate very low n then then silencing the voc free areas will give u a more clean voc.Adding fx on vocals depend on what u want but be very subtle in a proffessional release.understand what a reverb,delay,churus etc does n how it does it and apply regarding the recorded signal.Listen to recent releases of the type u’re editing n always try to do better n not like them for u will just be killing this art.satisfy ur artist and study what the public want.God bless
Hans B
Fact is very few people who start “Learning Piano” courses, last. You just have to love sound and stay w/ it and the same holds true w/ mixing. Essentially though these suggestions are correct. Stress please that the order in which effects are applied is critical and must not be messed with. As a general rule reverb and any kind of additive sonic excitation should be applied last eg after pitch correction. You might mention that in addition to removing low ends on mike trks it often helps to slightly vary the eq on harmony tracks.
Interestingly enough pros often have short hand names for things that take them years to master. For trp players it’s called tone. Gtr players and I suppose violin players appreciate tremelo. conductors appreciate relative dynamics, or volume.
And volume of course is a matter of masking which is a very real effect. In mixing multi trks the degree to which a slight variance in volume determines whether something is heard or not is amazing. Everything happens at the border
A little trick I use in vocal harmonies is to write out the parts and assign them to identical instruments. That way the bad harmonies jump out at you, like wolf tones and are not hidden due to variations of timbre. then when assigned to appropriate instruments the timbral variations add to the warmth of the collective harmony.
Hans B sounds obvious in saying be subtle but a sense of balance is something that does not exist in the verbal brain What comes out will reflect what is inside. Often business people will focus on what the market wants but whatever style you choose try to attain as ideal or perfect realization of the style as possible. Try not to settle for almost there, since the audience may not have the same sensitivity to what you are trying to do as you have
Everything we learn comes from making mistakes so keep rockin
What can you do about the plosives on “baby”? Seems as if your singer needed to step away from the mic, or you needed to put the pop filter further away from the mic.
Great job, i was looking for this for awhile! now that im making my own album i need help with vocals, everything else is turning out awesome.
nice tutorial. I would use an aux send to a seperate track for delay/reverb. try a gate on the delay that is keyed from the dry vocal track. this way the delay ducks out of the way when the vocalist is singing, and pops back up whenever shes not singing. it wont clutter your vocals as much this way.
Brilliant – just reading through this tutorial and got to step 7 thinking “she sounds familiar” before I realised it is my flatmate Susie singing on the clip. What a small world eh. Check her out on http://www.myspace.com/ledgeuk if you like the sound of her voice!
This is a great piece and of course great contributions from readers. I know some have mentioned the “over-use” of delay by Volans in the final vocal and he said it was for the purpose of this tutorial. I would love to get a free plug-in that can do that anyway. My main program which acts as a host for most of my plug-ins only supports Direct-X. Can anyone point me in the direction of such a plug-in for my system? And Dan Foley, thanks for the link to those plug-in dowloads…I especially love the reverb light plug-in…
Great tutorial. I really need this.
Kudos!
I thought your tips were very helpful, and I appreciate the time you took to post this whole thing- rock on!
While I appreciate anyone’s sincere efforts at spreading information, I’m afraid I thought the tools were somewhat misapplied in this example. The gate cut off the beginnings of several key words. The compression was misapplied and produced unpleasant distortion. Frankly, I cut to the end after that. Perhaps that reverb and echo would sound OK in the right context — but to my ears, it sounded over the top and dated.
Pitch correction
can some one tell me how use pitch correction please or use it as auto tune in
I think some of you need to get off the guys nuts about the reverb and delay, it is just an example.
Thanks Dangers ;)) It really was just a very quick example of some reverb and delay… in NO way was it meant to be a real world example of how to apply these effects… they are obviously overcooked but only so you can hear them applied.
I may do a tutorial on vocal effects processing at a later stage… and one on pitch correction is also a possibility.
Awesome tutorials here!
Curious, is there one that you have written on the actual “input” channel when recording vocals?
Coming up with a pretty standard method (or effect chain) for the “vocal to tape” has always been something i wasn’t 100% comfortable with. For example… do you put anything on the vocal as it’s being recorded, like a lite compression or limiter, so as to get a fuller “non-clipped” recording in logic?
Thanks! Love this site!
Eric
Thanks, I was looking how to reducre ess-es. Great job!
thankxxx ur y your tutorial is like a fine tuned bass kick
what vocal chain was used? mic, preamp, etc…
Wow. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks for taking the time out to post these tips… great examples and love the downloadable file definitely allowed for hands on learning…
Respect!
I still have the dilemma of having hard hissing and computer background sound. I also think that my room may not be fully insulated. But could it also be the microphone and the hardware I use? I’m attempting to make it better since I’m trying once again to send a demo in to a recording label.
Also, when working with metal screams and growls, i tend to boost some of the mids, add compression with a slightly high threshold and very low attack, de-esser, then a limiter on top of compression with a very VERY low threshold, but be careful not to get inhales and hiss sounds way too loud. just a suggestion.
This tutorial is a perfect example of the fact that if we use an ‘objective’ approach to music we are doomed to compromise tremendously in expressiveness (which by the way I think is the only ultimate purpose of music)
The tutorial goes though 8 steps and each time the part sounds more uninteresting and produced.
If you listen the last version (after step 8) and then you go back to listen the very first raw version you understand what I mean.
This is a provocation obviously. What I mean is that there is no such ‘you should do this, you should do that’. If you really what to achieve something in expressiveness you need to be loyal to the original take, and find your own way with gates effects eq and other stuff…
There is no such a absolute path or solution. Unless your goal is to create a PRODUCT more than a piece of ART.
In fact the very last chapter of the tutorial is in fact titled ‘final PRODUCT’.
Guido, it’s not a case of “you should do this, you should do that” – Mo clearly states that he’s showing various different techniques you can apply to vocals if they suit the song, and has said himself that he’d never put all of them on one vocals like he has done here for the purpose of education.
Ummm ihey im rapper and a amateur studio engineer at my home studio and im only 14 years old. i record with adobe audition 3 and mostly cool edit pro 2.1 can any body please help me on mixing vocals on adobe audition 3
or cool edit pro 2.1 like what effects to use and the settings please thank you very much!
Ummm ihey im rapper and a amateur studio engineer at my home studio and im only 14 years old. i record with adobe audition 3 can any body please help me on mixing vocals on adobe audition 3 like what effects to use and the settings please thank you very much!
Not to beat a dead horse . . . but back on the delay & reverb front. I find that when you solo a vocal track, echo & reverb are very noticeable. When you put it in the mix, echoes and reverb are much harder to notice. Sometimes less is more, yes, but you always have to make these decisions in context. In this case, more becomes less.
I agree with all of your steps, though I think a pop filter would have helped with the plosives in the raw track. My guess is that you let them through intentionally so you could demonstrate how nicely they disappear when the low frequencies are EQ’d out.
Thanks for your article.
Nice tutorial here! Like someone already wrote, Logic de-esser isn´t very good. I think Waves is ok, and I like Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser too.
Hello,
Just here to say my opinion about this article. One thing is for sure… Its great for beginners. It gives you an understanding of the whole process of treating a vocal. Understanding how to use these tools will get you very far in mixing vocals on your own.
Before & After…
Having an understanding of the tools, will obviously require great effort, rather than copy/pasting the settings on the screenshots.
Unfortunatelly the before and after didn’t cut it for my ears… The vocals, albeit having being cleaned off from all the problems (popping, low end, etc) were still muddy and lacking punch. The problem the way I see (or hear) it is the compressor, where it kills any sort of attack. There exist a myriad different ways to use a compressor, and one thing stands out…
Its not about numbers and ratios, its about knowing what to listen for and what knob to turn to fix it. More on another day perhaps… Back to work!
is that plugin or program? :)
i want that program or plugin… what is name of that program or plugin…?
Hi!
Great work you did! But I’ve got a question.. I’m a rapper from Switzerland and I’d like to know how to manage the mastering for rap-vocals?! The same way you told us here or is there another tutorial on this page (I didn’t found one)?
I work with Logic Pro 8 Studio.
Greetz
Sympho