VOCAL PLACEMENT

One can sometimes forget the power that a single voice can contain. It has been a single voice that with the correct delivery can inspire a generation or inject fear into a nation. A voice can carry valuable information as well as hopes and fears and desires. A voice using speech, is one of the oldest forms of communication and has always been an essential basis for many cultures, passing on wisdom, skills and stories that in many societies formed the foundations of their modern religions, culture, beliefs and moral identity.

Within music, the vocal is also ever dominant. A badly mixed or balanced vocal can ruin the entire feel of a song and loose its power and charm. Often the vocal contains important lyrics to define the songs meaning, but even if not, the tone and placement of the vocal is in essence a primary colour within the songs sound canvass.

So where do you start in helping to achieve a well-mixed vocal? Let’s start at the beginning, the actual recording.

Choosing the correct microphone for your vocalist is not always as easy as you think. There is not one magic microphone that is perfect for every vocalist. Each studio microphone tends to have a slightly different frequency response and “sweet spot”. This means that in the same way your vocalists have a different tonal make up, so in turn do the microphones you can use to record them.

Don’t be put off from using a mic aimed at recording acoustic guitar or other instruments, for use on vocals, it may just work out as the best option. Try and get to know your mic collection and get accustomed to the tonal qualities of each one to make this process easier. Getting a good recording to start with is like making sure you have quality fresh ingredients before you cook, the end result will be much tastier and easier to achieve.

Once you have finished all your recording and are starting to mix, you need to have a general playback listen to account for obvious problems. Listen out for if the vocal gets lost on quiet passages or becomes overpowering on more energetic phrases; do you loose the vocal when the piano is playing or the guitar?

Getting the vocal mix right isn’t just to do with the level. Its how it balances against the other components of the track. Compression can help get a more consistent level on your vocal but sometimes people are guilty of over-compressing to try and cover up tonal clashes and imbalances in the mix. When compressing a vocal the ideal settings will vary dependant on the vocalist, but the compressor shouldn’t be making the track louder, just more even, preventing large peaks and troughs in the dynamics. Try to avoid using presets on plug ins, play around with settings or use a dedicated outboard unit to really get to know how the compressor you use works and sounds.

If you find that you are loosing the vocal on the verse because of the guitar, you could try two different solutions, firstly ducking. This is where you use a gate in “ducking” mode. Normally a gate acts almost like a switch in an electronic circuit or a binary digit, in that it has one of 2 values – open or shut. When open, a gate lets the sound freely through, when shut it mutes sound completely. The input threshold usually controls the gates parameters, so if signal goes below a threshold of so many dB, the gate is shut and sound muted. When a gate operates in “ducking” mode however, the sound isn’t muted, but instead is lowered in volume by several dB. In this mode the way in which you activate the process differs too. For the case of our vocal struggling with the guitar to be heard, we would insert a gate over the guitar track and set to “ducking” mode. We would then insert the vocal track into the sidechain input of the gate. This enables the vocal to become the trigger for the ducking gate and force the guitar down in level when the vocal sounds, creating manipulative automation.

Another method is one of my most used “mix tricks”. Using a simple EQ inserted on the vocal track, sweep up and down the spectrum to find the most prominent and favourable frequency. Have this frequency boosted by at least 3dB with a narrow Q of at least around 7. Then on the opposing track, set up the same EQ but this time cut the same frequency by the same amount. This method of mixing is sometimes referred to as spectral mixing or what I call a sound amnesty, allowing each frequency and instrument to be heard fairly and coexist in harmony within the frequency spectrum.

Once you have a well-balanced vocal, its important to add the correct dimension to it, this can be done using reverb to help place it in the mix. The less reverb, the further “forward” the vocal will sound. A vocal without any reverb added will sound unnatural and also as if it is just hovering aimlessly above the track. Too much reverb and the vocal will be swallowed into the mix, loosing power and intelligibility.

As a general rule, always use more reverb on backing vocals and keep the main vocal a little drier. Pay attention to the tone of the reverb you add and check it with just the vocal soloed and against the whole track, don’t be scared to layer reverbs either – sometimes layering reverbs can help the trail sound lusher and more natural.

Prioritise your vocal and use your ears and the tools of your trade to make sure it has the attention it deserves, help your mixes to stand out and be remembered through your commanding and enchanting, well balanced and mixed vocal. Strive to achieve a vocal that can communicate with the listener by resonating through the universal language of music in the most harmonious way.