Professional Analog Mastering.
Professional Analog Mastering.
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Before we get into our chain, let’s quickly talk about what we’re trying to achieve. A smooth sounding vocal has a present but balanced low-mid to mid range. So it sounds warm and full, without becoming muddy or clustered.
In the highs, the vocal’s clarity is still there, but it’s not at the forefront. The sibilance is controlled and smoothed, but still amplified after any de-essing.
Lastly, the highest range of the vocal is amplified - exciters and eq will help, but an equalized reverb will add a needed ethereal quality.
Let’s listen to a before an after of the vocal in the context of a full mix so that we can hear the changes we’ll be incrementally working towards in the upcoming chapters.
Watch the video to learn more >
Before we begin to add any additive processing or anything that amplifies the signal, I want to clean up the vocal a little. I’ll use this Kirchoff EQ, but use a stock EQ or your EQ of choice.
I’ll start with a high pass filter to remove any rumble or unwanted non-musical aspects from the low end.
I can set the center frequency for this filter to right up before the fundamental. Then around the fundamental, I’m going to use a bell filter and very subtly amplify the octave around the fundamental.
This will typically range between the lows and low mids, so you’ll need to tailor this to your particular performance.
Now, I know what you’re thinking - this chapter is supposed to be about subtractive EQ, why am I amplifying?
In short, amplifying this low to low-mid band is going to attenuate the clarifying range of the vocal - primarily around 2.5-5kHz. Since this low range masks or covers up the clarifying frequency range, by amplifying it, we can increase the warmth and power of the vocal, while making it slightly less present or bright.
In the mids, around 500Hz, I’m going to attenuate slightly - this range often gives a vocal a boxy sound. Although we can attenuate it by a couple of dB, avoid attenuating it more than that. The range also holds a lot of vowel articulation, so if it’s cut too heavily, it becomes harder to discern lyrics.
Sometimes vocals sound a little too nasally, so attenuating between 900 and 1.3kHz. will remedy this - you may not need this filter, so just be sure to listen closely before deciding.
As I was saying earlier, 2.5-5kHz is responsible for the vocal’s clarity - the low frequency bell we created may be enough to tame this area, but if the microphone really emphasized this region as some do, you may need to attenuate it by about 1dB.
This will smooth the vocal, but don’t attenuate too much - otherwise the vocal will get buried.
Lastly, I’m going to find the primarily sibilance frequencies, and attenuate them with a narrow band filter.
A de-esser will do a better job than an EQ, but I still like to prepare the vocal for de-essing by giving the de-essing a little less to attenuate.
Let’s take a listen, and notice how the vocal is already sounding smoother and more balanced. So far, we haven’t included anything to create an airy sound, so keep that in mind.
Watch the video to learn more >
Next up, I want to do something a little unorthodox, and emphasize in-key frequencies before saturation.
The idea being, if I can use an equalizer to increase the amplitude of in-key frequencies, then a saturator will use those emphasized frequencies to generate harmonics. Any harmonics formed from in-key frequencies will also be in-key.
This is going to create a full sound and increase the balance between musical to non-musical frequencies - giving the vocal a distinctive smooth sound. I’m going to use some paid-for plugins, but substitute what I’m using here with any plugins you have.
So to do this the right way, we definitely need to know the key of the song. This way we know which notes we need to amplify. You can use Tunebat and drag and drop a rough mix into the window to find the BPM and key.
Sometimes this works, and sometimes it’s not completely accurate. So I prefer to observe which notes are being sung, or follow the melody with a keyboard to ensure I have the exact notes.
Then, I’ll manually amplify the in-key frequencies. If I want the effect to be subtle, I’ll amply these bands only a little. But I prefer to do this more aggressively, and then follow the saturator with another EQ that attenuates the frequencies I emphasized earlier. This is a called and emphasis-de-emphasis technique in which frequencies are emphasized into a processor, then balanced out afterward with an equal and opposite EQ.
If you’re working on a song with a key change and want to do this technique, you can use 2 instances of the EQ, one set to one key and the other to the 2nd key, then use automation to bypass one and enable the other, and switch the bypass when the key changes.
Let’s take a listen to these techniques being used on the vocal and notice how the vocal sounds fuller, more impressive, and smoother sound.
Watch the video to learn more >
If you don’t have this plugin, don’t worry about this step, but I’ve found it helpful if I want a smooth vocal.
I’ll use this Soothe 2 plugin and set the emphasis bands to attenuate any resonances in the low mids to high mids.
This will smooth out any aggressive frequencies in the vocal, creating a smooth and balanced sound.
I’m going to adjust the pre-emphasis bell filters and center them on frequency ranges where I’m hearing the most clashing and clutter. I’ll also emphasize a bell around the sibilance, and attenuate a little more in this area.
This will vary from vocal to vocal, so if you use this plugin, use your ears and decide where attenuate is and isn’t needed.
We’ll keep subtle settings, or attenuate more aggressively, and then blend the effect in with the mix dial.
Let’s take a listen to the plugin being introduced and notice how it smooths out the sound.
Watch the video to learn more >
Next up, let’s work to control the sibilance a bit more. With future processors I’m going to amplify the highs, so I really want to ensure that the sibilance is controlled before amplifying anything.
I’m going to use this Weiss De-esser since it lets me control the attack and release times, as well as the knee - this will help me alter the timbre of the sibilance until the ess sounds are present but smooth and controlled.
Alternatively, you could use this T-De-Esser by Techivation, which is a free option, or Toneboosters makes a great affordable alternative called Sibilance.
So, with both the split and high shelf bands, I’ll first find the offending frequencies, and achieve a little bit of attenuation by carefully setting the threshold and altering the range.
Already the attenuation is helping, and the sound of the de-esser is very clean, resulting in a transparent sound.
But I’ll open up the settings window, and adjust the attack and release for each band, while listening carefully to find a good balance of smooth without reducing clarity. The soft-knee setting will increase the amount of attenuation, so I’ll have to adjust the threshold of the bands while increasing it to find the right amount of attenuation.
Once the attenuation sounds correct and has smoothed out the sound, I’ll use make-up gain to amplify the compressed range - typically only on the high shelf. I’ll amplify it as much as needed, but likely won’t make up all of the attenuation that I introduced.
The idea here being that once the sibilance’s timbre has been altered to a smoother sound, I can amplify the range - in turn balancing the spectrum before additional, broadband amplification.
Let’s take a listen to the vocal, and notice how the frequency response is similar to what it was before, but that the sibilance and high end in general sounds a lot smoother.
Watch the video to learn more >
Next, I’m going to control the overall dynamics - first with peak down compression, used to bring all the quieter details forward, then with RMS compression to smooth the sound.
So, first up I’ll use this Pro C 2, and use the vocal algorithm. If you don’t have this one, your stock compressor will work well.
Now, this algorithm locks the knee and ratio, but still gives me control over the threshold.
Next, I’ll turn on lookahead, increase it to a couple of milliseconds, and ensure auto-make up gain is on. So far, these settings will cause smooth compression due to the algorithm and soft knee, that quickly captures the vocal due to the lookahead, and then automatically amplifies quieter details due to the auto make up gain.
Too much attenuation and the vocal will begin to sound harsh, so I’d recommend about 2-5dB of compression, depending on the genre. Less compression for softer genres, more compression for pop and RnB.
Lastly, I’d keep the attack around 10ms, and the release around 200ms. This release time is quick enough to retain the vocal’s detail, but long enough to subtly smooth the vocal’s dynamics.
Once we’ve settled on settings for this compressor, let’s introduce an RMS compressor
An RMS compressor measures the overall loudness of the signal, instead of trying to capture the peaks - RMS compression results in a very smooth and clean sound, but lets some peaks through.
This free compressor by Tokyo Dawn Labs will work well. We’ll set it to a completely RMS setting, use a longer RMS release, and then achieve about 1-2dB of compression. Lastly, we’ll use some make-up gain to compensate for the changes.
So the first compressor controls the dynamics very accurately as well as brings up quieter details, the second compressor controls the loudness and creates an even smoother sound.
Let’s take a listen to the vocal in the context of the mix, first with the Pro C 2 enabled, and the RMS compressor enabled.
Watch the video to learn more >
Finally, we’re at the point we’re we focus not on smoothing the vocal, but on creating an airy sound. The plugin Fresh Air by slate digital is one of my favorite ways to increase air - it’s free, but keep in mind it requires an iLok account.
The plugin both equalizes and adds harmonics to the highs - creating a clear and airy sound. The high air band equalizes frequencies 12kHz and above, so this is really where a lot of air will come from.
Since this is a simple plugin, let’s just take a listen to the vocal having it’s highs amplified, and notice how some adjustment is needed until the right amount of brightness and air is found.
Watch the video to learn more >
At this point we’re done with processing on the vocal’s channel strip - next, we’re going to set up a send or bus. On the corresponding auxiliary track, we’re going to insert an EQ and then a short reverb.
The idea here is that we can equalize the signal before it hits the reverb, making it easy to control what gets reverberated. So with the EQ, I’ll isolate the signal to the mids. A HP filter around 600Hz. and a LP filter around 3kHz will work well.
Then, I’ll introduce a short room or ambience reverb. I’ll keep this effect at 100%, then use the channel strip’s fader to blend it in with the original dry signal.
The short reverb creates density due to the quick reflections, almost creating a doubling effect but in a more realistic way. Since the reflections are short, when they blend in with the original signal, they’re soften some of the transients, smoothing out the sound.
Since the reverb’s effect is at 100%, we don’t need to worry as much about using linear phase processing on the EQ, but it won’t hurt to enable it anyway. This will avoid phase cancellation, while also softening the transients slightly due to the subtle pre-ringing.
Let’s take a listen to this reverb being blended in - first I’ll use it aggressively and then adjust it until it feels right for the vocal and mix.
Watch the video to learn more >
Just like the last chapter, we’ll start with creating a send, set to unity or 0dB.
On this corresponding auxiliary track, we’ll first insert a Reverb - a bright plate is going to work really well. If the reverb allows for it, amplify the brightness of the reflections and attenuate some of the lower frequencies.
Like before, we’ll keep this effect at 100%, and blend it in with the channel fader. Before we blend it in though, let’s insert Fresh Air after the reverb.
Then, amplify the mid air and to a greater extent, the high air. This is going to excite and amplify the brighter reflections of the reverb - creating an ethereal and airy sound. If the effect feels too aggressive, we can increase the pre-delay of the reverb until enough of the vocal’s transient cuts through, but how you adjust this is up to you, and will depend on the mix.
Let’s take a listen to this reverb being blended in. Same as before, we’ll use it aggressively at first so that you can hear it, and then lower it until we find a good spot for it.
Watch the video to learn more >
So right now we have the vocal’s signal starting at the channel strip or track - it’s then split and goes to one aux track with smooth short reflections, and one aux track will airy long reflections.
Currently, these 3 signals are being combined at our stereo output - but say I want to equalize both the original dry vocal, and these 2 reverb aux tracks.
What I’ll do is change the output of the original channel, and the 2 auxiliary channels to a bus, where I can process everything collectively.
On this new bus that contains the original vocal and auxiliary reverb, we’ll insert 1 last EQ to do some final shaping.
I don’t want to tell you what to do at his point, since it will rely heavily on the surrounding instrumentation, but just know that you can use this EQ to get the vocal to sit where you need it too.
For example, say it still sounds too present or forward, I could reduce a little of 3kHz with a bell or amplify the fundamentals a little more. Or if it got buried somewhere in the processing, I could do the opposite to brighten the sound.
Say I want the vocal to have even more air - I could run all the tracks through one last instance of Fresh Air and subtly boost the hi air band.
Since we’re processing everything together, this EQ will give us the control we need to make any last adjustments.
Let’s take a listen to the full vocal being shaped with this collective bus EQ.