Professional Analog Mastering.
Professional Analog Mastering.
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A vocal has 3 main formants - each one is a cluster of vowel and consonant-related information. Some are heavy on the tonal aspects meaning they contain a lot of vowel-related information.
This is the case for the first and second formants in the low mids and mids respectively.
But the 3rd formant contains a great mixture of vowel and consonant info, and in equal measure - meaning if it’s accentuated or amplified, it becomes much easier to understand the vocalist.
Simple EQ and/or saturation is a good way to increase the perceived clarity of the vocal, but one rarely discussed and incredibly effective method involves using parallel compression.
In short, if we send the vocal to a parallel track, we can isolate the 3rd formant with a linear phase EQ, and then heavily compress it.
So, we’ll create the bus and corresponding aux track. On the Aux track, we’ll insert the linear phase EQ to avoid phase cancellation between the original and this parallel track once we start adding filters.
Then, we’ll use HP and LP filters to isolate the 3rd formant. This is typically between 2-5kHz, but there can be a little wiggle room to the lows or highs.
Once the range is isolated, we’ll insert a compressor and begin to heavily compress.
The compressor you choose will impart a distinct timbre, so I recommend using one with multiple algorithms you can switch through until you find one that augments the region in an enjoyable way.
Once it’s compressed, adjust the level of the parallel compressed 3rd formant with the aux track’s channel fader. This way you can easily determine how much you need.
With this section compressed and blended in, the clarifying aspects of the vocal become incredibly dense. Masking is reduced significantly, and the vocal can cut through a complex mix.
What I like about this method is that if the instrumentation changes, the 3rd formant’s level can be automated to account for what’s needed.
For example, if the chorus hits and now the vocal is difficult to hear, the aux track can be increased to accommodate it.
Let’s take a listen to the method and notice how it becomes easier to hear the vocal, how it becomes clearer, and how the vocal’s pronunciation is improved.
Watch the video to learn more >
Reverb, although a crucial part of any mix, can easily obscure a vocal. The reflections reduce clarity by making transients harder to hear while emphasizing tonal aspects by increasing their duration.
In some cases, you can just use reverb with a low mix amount and be fine, but if you’re noticing that the vocal is buried once reverb is added and/or you want a fair amount of reverb, try this method.
Instead of placing the reverb on the vocal’s channel use a send or auxiliary track instead.
First, insert the reverb that you want to use and dial in the important settings, like the decay time, stereo width, etc. Keep the mix at 100% so that this aux track includes only the reflections.
Then, insert a compressor with an external side-chain, which is just about any compressor plugin.
Set the external side-chain to the original dry vocal, and ensure that the compressor is triggered by the external side-chain.
Already, you’ve made a huge difference in the clarity of the vocal. The reflections are ducked or pulled down whenever the vocal hits, ensuring that the start of the vocal phase has less reverb than what follows.
How much attenuation you need, and how reactive you want it are up to you, but I typically use a little lookahead to catch the very beginning of the vocal and attenuate by a few dB at least.
Then, I’ll time the release to the BPM of the track to make the attenuation less jarring and have it blend in more seamlessly.
Just be sure you don’t attenuate too aggressively or with super quick attack and release settings, otherwise, you’ll add some distortion to the reverb which rarely sounds good.
There’s one more step you can take to ensure that the reverb sounds exactly how you want it to and doesn’t cover up the vocal.
Remember in the first section of this video we discussed the vocal’s 3rd formant and how important it is?
If the reverb’s reflections are masking that formant, the vocal becomes unclear.
With that in mind, I’ll add a linear phase EQ after the compressor. With it, I’ll attenuate 2-5kHz - this way, the original dry 3rd formant is more prominent than the reverbed one.
Additionally, I’ll clean up some of the lows and dip around 250Hz. 250Hz often masks 2-5kHz.
By attenuating it, we reduce masking to the 3rd formant and retain clarity.
If you want to make additional changes to the reverb’s reflections with the EQ, definitely feel free to, but the filters shown here will keep the vocal sounding clear, even with aggressive reverb.
Lastly, blend in the reverb with the auxiliary channel’s fader.
Let’s take a listen as I enable the reverb, then the compressor, and lastly, the EQ. Notice how reverb ducking and then EQ greatly increases the vocal’s clarity.
Watch the video to learn more >
Harmonics forming in the low mids are a primary reason a lot of vocals sound muddy. Typically, the vocal’s fundamental frequencies cause harmonics to form between 200 and 500Hz, resulting in an excess of that range.
Predicting a saturator’s behavior is difficult since it’s amplitude-based and what’s triggering the saturation changes as the vocal changes.
However, there is a method to reveal where the harmonics will form when working on an instrument.
In short, we can use a null test to fine-tune our saturation and create harmonics in the exact region or regions we want.
To do this, first, we need to duplicate our lead vocal or the vocal we’re working on.
With it duplicated, we’ll add a utility plugin with phase inversion.
Once the duplicate’s phase has been inverted, these 2 tracks should cancel one another.
We can test this by soloing them and playing both at the same time. If there’s no output, then they’ve nulled.
At this point, we can add whatever saturator we want to the original vocal. I recommend Saturn 2 since it includes a linear phase mode that makes this process easier and parallel bands control where harmonics form.
Now if we play both vocals at the same time, we can observe their differences with an analyzer.
This is everything different about the original vocal and the saturated vocal, meaning, we’ve isolated just the effect of the saturation.
If the goal is a warm vocal, then we’ll adjust the saturation until we observe harmonics primarily in the low mids to mids.
However, since we want a clear and upfront sound, let’s find a way to generate harmonics between 2-5kHz.
With the other bands turned off, I’ll center a band somewhere around that frequency range. Since I don’t know what will trigger the saturator, I don’t know exactly where to center this band.
But, by observing the analyzer, I can find the exact crossover frequencies to emphasize 2-5kHz with harmonics.
Furthermore, I can switch between different saturation types, amounts, dynamics, and any other parameter the plugin may have to fine-tune the saturation while observing the harmonics that form as a result.
To quickly monitor the sound, I can mute and unmute the duplicated and inverted track.
This way I can fine-tune while analyzing, then monitor the effect in the context of the mix and adjust as needed.
Let’s take a listen to some saturation that I’ve tuned to amplify 2-5kHz. Notice how it increases clarity while leaving other ranges unaffected.