how to process vocals for an amazing professional sound

8/2/2019 How to Process Vocals for an Amazing Professional Sound

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to Process Vocals for an

Amazing Professional SoundMo Volans on Sep 8th 2008 with 79 commentsTutorial DetailsProgram: Logic Pro 8

Difficulty: Beginner - Intermediate

Completion Time: 1 hour

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This entry is part 4 of 17 in the Recording Vocals Session - Show All

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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 were 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

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Before we get started, have a listen to our untreated vocal.

Unprocessed Vocal

1. Get Rid of Background Noisewith Gating

The first thing youll 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


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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. Im 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, its 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 LowFrequencies


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Once your vocal is playing back without any noise its 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 wont 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.


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Filtered vocal

3. Controlling Dynamics withCompression

Of course, its 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


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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
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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.


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De-essed vocal

5. EQ andenhancers

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 ofan enhancer.

In this case I have used Logics 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.


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EQed vocal

6. Keep Organized with GroupingAlthough 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 andDelay


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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 othertroubleshooting


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There wasnt 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 arent happy with any sibilance or

pops that have managed to find their way though the chain of processors, you can


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simply apply a small dip in the volume automation lane. This will really help to soften

the area and eliminate the problem.

how to process vocals for an amazing professional sound

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