Vox processing tips?

[Danny Wyatt]

What kind of processing would you consider adding to achieve this kind of vocals?
Besides EQ, of course, what type of reverb do you hear (and settings - ballpark), delay, and any other effect? Maybe chorus? 

Not being a very technical person when it comes to production (anxiety, I guess), I always struggled with knowing exactly what vocals need to sound professional when it comes to effects. I either struggle with picking the right reverb, or I add too much, but if I add too little it seems that it's not audible enough... oh well...

Even using side chained effects to duck the effect, sometimes it's not enough. Do you always use 2 reverbs (at least), one to put the vocals in a small space and then a bigger one for character? Do you always filter the reverb? Same for delay? Do you always add chorus or any other effects?

Any tips based on this example below?

 

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by Danny Wyatt

[Atlas007]

I’d venture the following:

• remove the "always" from within the paradigm
• having an intention first usually help to gauge
• the target audience is a good start reference

[David Nahmani]

I agree with Atlas, although some producers may have some kind of recipe they use and reuse every time, I'm don't belong to that school. 

First and foremost is the ubiquitous EQ and compression work to get the vocals thick and consistent. I hear some kind of distortion, there are tons of ways to get there, but using an exciter is the classic way that still works today and I feel like that's what I'm hearing here. 

I often filter reverbs because I don't like them crowding the low end frequency-space. I like them add a sheen and a tail to the vocals without muddying up the mix. Same thing in the high end, you may need to filter the reverb there to avoid too much harshness. 

Then there's all the ear candy stuff. For example a delay on the 1/4 note and the 1/2 note, probably both. Place those on Aux and automate the send to control exactly which words are going to get the echoes, often it's only the last word or couple of words from a sentence. Then automate the volume of the Aux itself to make the echoes heard only where they need to, and automate the pan to make the delay occupy the space in the stereo field without the predictability that a ping-pong delay would give you. 

The delays are also heavily filtered. That sounds a bit like a low-fi analog delay but that also once again achieves the goal of giving you the feel of a delay, occupying space both in time and width without ever competing with the lead vocals that remain the only ones to occupy the full space of the frequency spectrum. 

You can clearly hear the filtered 1/2 note delay @ 1:08. 

I hear an 1/8 note delay as well but I think it's produced with a sample (the intro sample), not a delay per se on the lead vocals. That 1/8 note feel adds energy to the groove. 

So that level of attention to a combination of 1) a solid, thick, excited base lead sound with 2) a game of automated filtered delays coming in and out in different locations at different times give the vocals both their solid foundation in the mix and their playful jumping around character. 

It would be cool if @Darude can chime in on this one, as he's obviously a master in this genre. 

[Darude]

I actually don't think I'm a very seasoned and great vocal producer and mixer and as much as I'd love to add something significant here, I don't think I have it to give, but quite standard stuff: Every track is different, depends on the instrumentation under/around the vocals both timing and frequency wise, and how in general you want the vocal to fit. Sometimes a very dry and in your face lead vocal is needed or wanted, sometimes a little smudgier/filtered/chorused/etc one blending in with the synths and guitars, almost like an instrument, is what you want.

 

Starting point for vocals in my tracks usually is similar, though, if I am in charge of the recording & production, or if I work with someone who I can ask specific things for: I often work based on a rougher stereo demo vocal, even with placeholder delays and verbs printed in, so I can have a taster and to develop my own side of things more around and with the vocal (also, if at this point I decide that I don't like the vocal enough, then the vocalist lost the least amount of time). When possibly some ideas come up in that process, then I'll ask the vocalist either to come over again, or if they recorded themselves, to send me comped dry takes, often/usually L,R,C of the best lead they have, octave doubles, various harmonies and ad libs with their possible doubles etc. If I liked the demo sound, I might ask them to do a bounce with all the effects on stereo bounce and both dry and wet versions of the separate channels, just so I have closer reference to go for similar effects. Sometimes I even ask for their chains, if we're running the same DAW & plugs. I don't necessarily need them to do all my work for me, but that way I'll get going very quickly, I don't have to start from scratch and I get to a similar sound with least time & effort since I liked it and obviously them, too as they put it on the demo.

 

I do clean-up EQ on the lead(s) and doubles and compress them some for both controlling the dynamics and also for wanted flavour and I often EQ and comp the collected stereo buses of bg vocals/doubles and harmonies and ad libs, not necessarily the individual channels of those. Sometimes I have delays and reverbs on the buses directly, sometimes I use send effects ie. will have a short and a longer reverb, a delay send and in any case I definitely control the wet signals by cutting low end off verbs to taste, could dim them a bit on top as well, the same with delays. Often for eg. S, K, T sounds on the lead of grid are ok, but if you have them delay an 8th or 4th off-grid it might be distracting or sound outright off-time, so cutting that range out of your delay might help, and similarly you might want to have an EQ prior to your bus reverb to take out sibilants, so that they don't ring forever on your long lush verb, if that verb doesn't have an EQ built in.

 

I use flanger, chorus, phaser to both colour the sound and to widen the sound. Often not on the main lead vocal that is dead center, but maybe the bused doubles or often harmonies and ad libs and on some vocals some saturation is just what the doctor ordered, to add grit or texture or even noticeable, but controlled distortion. If I don't have doubles, then I can use doublers or Melodyne to make doubles by offsetting the formant, say left on the + side a bit, right the opposite, then delay one channel some milliseconds and nd humanise the timing a bit as well, so it sounds more like natural doubling.

 

I usually bring all the vocal buses to one common vocal bus, which will potentially still get EQ, compression, in some cases limiter treatment, and I've even had sends to different verbs to add a bit to all the vocals in some cases. This also makes it easy to mute them all at once, bounce the full acapella and instrumental, fi need be.

 

...but... there's no magic bullet really. Some multi-FX processors like Waves CLA Vocal and Izotope Nectar do give you great starting points, but you still need to know what you're doing and why.

 

I'd say err on the less side of reverb, if you're unsure. I know sometimes the reverb *sound* is not audible, but I usually in those cases mute the reverb and then realise there's a clear difference between the dry sound and with reverb in, so it's not necessarily that you need to hear it, but to realise it's there and it'd not sound great totally without it.