How to Mix Vocals

Step 1: Set the level before you touch anything else

Go to the loudest section of the song, usually the last chorus.

Bring the vocal up until it sits on top of the rhythm section.

Then push it slightly further than feels comfortable. If you're mixing your own voice, your brain is filling in gaps and making it sound louder than it actually is. Compensate for that.

Listen to three things: does the vocal feel present, does it feel like it's in the same room as the other instruments, and does it feel like it's leading the song?

If all three feel right, you have a good starting level.

Step 2: Deal with the performance before you deal with the sound

This is the step most people skip and it causes problems later.

Before any EQ or compression, go through the vocal and break the audio into regions. Normalise your audio clips (clip gain) so that each clip has roughly the same peak volume.

This means your plugins will get roughly the same volume of input throughout the song.

If you don’t know how to do this, you can add a volume or gain plugin first in your chain and automate it. Pull down the loudest phrases and boost the quietest.

Step 3: DO THINGS BACKWARDS

Place an EQ on your vocal and then place a compressor on it afterwards.

Here’s where we do things backwards. We will apply our compression and then adjust our EQ.

This means the compressor is reacting to what we do with the EQ and this is a good thing.

By doing it this way round we have great control over how the midrange and sibilance sounds and we can use the compressor to help control these areas.

Step 4: Compression

A compressor on a vocal does one job at this stage: control the dynamic range so the level stays consistent without you riding the fader constantly.

I personally like 1176 and FET style plugins for vocals closely followed by Tube or Vari Mu style compressors but you can use any, these setting depends on the vocalist and microphone more than anything.

Start with too much compression - pin the needle! Set the attack time as fast as possible and the release time as fast as possible - what happens? I bet it sounds exciting and over the top.

Back off the attack time until you start to get a nice shape on the start of words or phrases, like on plosives or esses.

Then slow the release down until the vocal start to move backwards into the mix or feel more distant - play with that and leave it where it feels good. Remember no setting is final!

Then play with ration control (if there is one) and see how the vocal feels different at 2:1 compared to 6:1.

Then back the compression off until the vocal starts to feel too dynamic again. Play with that in the mix - I love my vocal to sound pinned and upfront but not squashed.

Step 5: EQ into COMPRESSION

Now we can start to EQ the vocal. Does it sound too dark, too boomy, too harsh or too bright? Or all of the above of different phrases?

If it is too dark or too bright try using a shelf around 1khz to balance it against the music.

If you have lots of proximity effect you may need to shelve out or cut quite a lot of low end to allow the top end to open up.

If you have booms or room noises try adding a high pass filter. Bring it up slowly from 60hz up towards 120hz - try to avoid rounding off the lowest sung notes here.

Maybe you need to add some brightness, a high end shelf anywhere from 2khz up and open the vocal sound nicely.

If looking for poke in a mix I like to push 1.5k but lots of engineers go for 2 or 3k too.

You may notice some room tones or harsh build ups. Cut these with a notch but don’t go crazy - this will introduce comb filters and ringing and then stuff starts to sound really weird!

Step 6: SYMPATHETIC PROCESSING

Now adjust the EQ and compression settings together.

If you have too louder esses you can use a de esser or speed up the attack time or slow the release time down on the compressor

If your vocal sounds too brittle try a wide bell cut around 5khz

If the vocal lacks air try a boost at 12.5khz

Once you start dialling in both processors in together you’ll get really close to a finished vocal sound with just a few plugins.\

Step 7: Place it in the mix

Now might be the time to start adding reverb or delay to your vocal. These can really help a voice feel seated in a mix even when it’s sitting on top volume wise.

Unless you actually want to hear the effects a good rule of thumb is to bring them up until you notice them and then back them off a bit. This way after mastering you’ll still have a transparent sound.

I like short slap delays for verses, ping pong delays and plate reverbs for choruses and a heap of other random crap going on all the time!

If you find your vocal is over compressed in the verse and under compressed in the choruses then split the track and do different settings. Or add parallel compression!

"If your vocal still isn't sitting right after all of this, it's often the recording itself. Find out how I can help with my mixing service in Leeds - remotely or in the studio."

SUMMARY & NEXT STEPS

Most vocal problems come from one of these four things: the level isn't set confidently enough, the performance isn't right before compression goes on, EQ is boosting problems rather than cutting them, or the effects are covering something up rather than adding to it.

Work through each step in order. Don't reach for a plugin to solve a balance problem.

If the vocal still isn't sitting right after all of this, it's often the recording itself - the room, the mic, the positioning. As a mixing engineer based in Leeds I work with artists on exactly these problems every day, remotely and in the studio.

Either remotely or from my Leeds mixing studio we can get your song across the line.