Logic Pro X - #65 - Mixing (part7): Vocal Compression and EQ Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 65 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series in this episode
we're going to talk about EQ and
compressing the vocals finally like I
said I kind of want to get the rhythm
section sounding okay before we add the
vocals in so we're going to add our
vocals in today in this song we have
eight channels of vocals we had in
Episode one I sort of went through and
just balanced them created some basic
levels for them and and then panned
certain parts of them so basically we
have a lead verse vocal two verse
harmonies actually three verse harmonies
a lead vocal for the chorus a chorus
harmony and then some additional backing
vocals for the word lie so let me just
play you what this sounds like with the
vocals on I'm going to pull the vocals
up a bit actually note instead of
pulling the vocals up a bit
let's pull everything else down because
we're getting a little loud and I have
noticed that we're clipping a bit too so
I want to sort of avoid that so let's
just pull everything else down there we
go
so let's see what the sounds like with
the vocals this I'm starting at the the
second verse
so we're barely really even hearing even
the backing vocals in there like I said
we could just pull them up a hair but I
I am going to do that I'll pull them up
just a bit more but I'm going to rely on
the compressor to sort of pull these out
even more so let's just start with just
the lead vocal in the in the verse and
like I said before EQ before compression
so let's add our EQ on here what I like
to do with vocals is I like to put a
nice little two or three K bump in them
and I do that for two reasons a lot of
higher-end tube microphones they will
naturally have a two or three K bump in
them I like to sort of emulate that if
we didn't use a tube mic to record this
with this we ended up using two mics but
I think I want to say that we're hearing
a combination of one transistor mic and
one tube mica can't remember exactly
offhand what we used I think it was a
Mojave ma 200 and then like an NT 2 that
rode NT 2000 or something like that so
I'm still going to put that little bump
there I'm going to adjust the cue so
it's not such a wideband though the
other thing I'm going to do is I'm going
to bump up around 10k it's actually
believe it or not get some more civilan
cin the recording not a whole lot
because I don't want to have to use a
de-esser and then on the the the really
real high end I'm going to take this
low-pass filter here turn it on and I'm
just going to I'm just going to cut out
the material above 17km scan actually
just gonna leave that as is um the other
thing I like to do is if this is a
female vocalist I like to cut out
everything from about 80 or 100 Hertz
and lower because it doesn't need to be
there it's more like guttural tones from
the throat and background noise it's a
male vocal you might go a little bit
lower than that just sort of still hear
some of the bass so I'm going to turn on
my high-pass filter I'll pull this up to
about a hundred Hertz let's listen to
this we don't have to whoops we don't
have to look too far to see the blinding
light
I the ruined life behind us is no more
yes sorry for all the logic overloads in
these last couple of videos it's just
that I when I run my screen capture and
my audio capture simultaneously while
simultaneously running a session I
sometimes that happens so I'm just going
to have to deal with it alright so I'm
going to throw a compress around here
next what I like to start with with
vocals is I like to start with a four to
one ratio pull the threshold about down
about 10 or 12 dB pull the gain up about
5 dB always RMS with vocals always a
soft knee with vocals and then for the
attack we want a bit of a slower attack
and this sort of varies as well for what
the purpose of you know what the vocals
are for if this were like a voiceover
for like film or something or an
audiobook I'd actually pull the attack
time all the way down or if this is like
broadcasting or like a commercial or
something I'd pull the attack down or a
lot lower for this I'm going to pull it
up a bit because I want the transients
from her words to come through quite a
bit and I'll put their release up here
but as well the other factor is the
circuit type for vocals we're looking
kind of like with guitar in the previous
view we're looking for heft not for
punch so we're not going to use the FET
so you don't use FETs on vocals because
they're gonna be a bit too punchy the
only problem is that we don't really get
an option for like a leveling amplifier
like if if I was using a piece of
hardware to compressor vocals I would
definitely use like a you know if money
wasn't an issue I'd use like an la-2a or
an L a 3a or some sort of like leveling
amplifier really the closest thing to
that's going to be our vintage VCA or
the opto the vintage opto but you know
what we take what we can get you know
we're not using any other third-party
plugins I can think of a bunch of other
ones that I would rather use but we're
not using any third-party plug-ins for
this this series so I'm just going to UM
use the vintage VCA and then these
settings now if you want to toy around
with the the output Distortion like do a
soft clip this is like real hard rock
with like a
real like gnarly sounding like male
vocal you can throw that on there it
gives a bit of like a tube drive for her
I'm going to leave it off but I am gonna
pull the output mix down a bit just so I
can blend her original vocal with the
compressed vocals just eighty eighty
percent so just a touch of the original
touch of the dry signal so let's see
what this sounds like now we don't have
to look too far to see the blinding
light the ruined life behind us is no
more bright for life and pray
forgiveness now we're barely if you were
looking at the gain reduction meter or
barely we're barely touching this the
signal just basically on the high notes
so I'm gonna pull the ratio up even
further and pull the threshold down
further and that's the way I usually
rate this I start at four started like
negative ten twelve and then you know
try to get at least three or four DB a
reduction without it sounding woofy and
then just you know just keep bumping it
up until you get to the sound you like
and you see the meter going down to
about three or four we don't have to
look too far to see the blinding light
the ruined life behind us is no more
bright for life and pray forgiveness
living life and alone
you're they I just through the heart
come the hard distortion or just you
could hear it a bit actually I think I
am gonna use the soft distortion though
um I like that let's see what that
sounds like with everything else in the
mix I'm just gonna mute out the other
vocals though we don't have to do far to
see the blinding light the ruin behind
right you're the
Oh
yeah she's really coming out in the mix
now and actually to pull her fader down
a bit so let me copy this setting over
to the other lead vocal which is right
here this is the lead vocal for the
chorus we'll listen to that and then
we'll create another setting will create
another setting for all the backing
vocals so let me just get into the
arrange window which they're by the way
they're not calling the main window so
you'll have to forgive me if I keep
calling it the arrange window let's just
have it so here's the chorus see what
the lead vocals sound like here now
we were just
it on the road
that sounds pretty good I didn't pull
the fader down as much just because
there's more going on there there's less
room for her to cut through so I did
pull the chorus up a bit higher volume
wise for the backing vocals I generally
like to EQ them a little bit differently
than the leads I like to pull out more
of the high end to get rid of some of
the sibilants I'll still keep that sort
of two to 3k peak in there but let me
just put it like elsewhere you know just
on a different place just so we don't
get too much buildup in that one spot so
maybe I'll put like right on 2k you can
also sort of afford to scoop a little
bit more the low-end out sort of sort of
doing a really wide band pass of the
backing vocals and then I'm just going
to duplicate this over to all the other
backing vocal tracks just again holding
option again I apologize if you see a
bunch of lag it's just that's the screen
capture there we go
whoops there we go compression wise I'm
probably going to keep it the same but
I'm probably going to pull the the make
up gain down a hair because these don't
need to be as loud we can always just
pull the fader down later too so again
just copying there we go so let's see
what these sound like I'm probably going
to pull these backing vocals down a bit
as harmonies let's give that shot
and on you
oh never
why can't you live me
let me just hear that by itself just the
the chorus and the harmony my general
rule about backing harmonies is that if
you have to like artificially generate
them which I did here I used Melodyne to
artificially generate this harmony if
you have to do that tuck it back in the
mix far enough so the set the listener
barely even hears it's there but it more
or less enhances the vocal without you
know like if someone has to say oh
that's a really cool artificially
generated backing vocal that it's
probably too loud you know it's the same
way I feel about reverb people have to
say oh I really like that reverb
probably means you're using too much
reverb so it just should be there to
enhance the vocal but not necessarily be
that noticeable oh lord you lift me up
and nod you fold me down we'll never
change our ways all right cool
let's listen to this in the the verse in
pre-chorus here see the blinding light
the ruin
me
we don't I just pulled those up on the
word lie there let me just jump over the
pre-chorus
Oh
cool so there's some other things we can
do with this later like with reverb and
maybe some delay and there's some
spreading effects I'll show you guys
later when we get into you know getting
into our time-based effects but for now
that's that's a pretty decent start let
me just go ahead and just double sort of
double check and reference this at the
beginning of the song in the first verse
let's just make sure it sounds okay
actually now we can we could actually
afford to sort of pull these instruments
back up in the mix so let me go ahead
and just pull all that back up I just
want the guitars to be sort of a bit
more in-your-face and they are right now
hey take it
I
right for captain
Oh
yeah we're clipping like bad on our our
master output but that's okay for now
we'll fix some of that later we are kind
of mixing at a bit louder level than I
normally would but we'll fix some of
these things which we still once we
start grouping these these tracks
together now as far as the synths are
concerned um
the synths don't I mean unless you hear
like a tonal or some or dynamic
imbalance in them there's really no need
to compress them you could compress them
a bit just like I said to pull down the
dynamics or if you find that they're not
cutting through the mix well enough you
can you can just you know pull up sort
of a peak or a band in the EQ to make
them stand out a bit more but there's no
hard fast rules about you know about EQ
or compression for the synths my synth
tracks are there supplement you know
supplementary they're basically just
helping to add serve to the ambience of
the song and the pre-chorus and the
chorus they're not really serving any
real major musical function the one in
the the pre-chorus is just a sort of
like stuttering morphing sound
so I could pull up a little of the high
end just to pull it up a bit and the
chorus is just these the sort of chorus
sample based instrument
I really want that to be in the
background it's just sort of giving the
power chords in the guitar some some
sort of more harmonic character by
filling in the thirds you know that
there aren't there in the power chords
in the guitar oh by the way there was
one more thing that I didn't mention
that I want to mention real quick the
other reason why and I sort of got
myself off-track as I typically do the
the other reason for the reason for
boosting two to three K is not just
because a lot of tube mics naturally
have that in it the reason for the other
reason for boosting to two to three K is
that it's really common in stereo
recordings for speakers if you're
listening to a speaker system of course
not in the headphones it's really common
for things that are panned Center like
lead vocals to have a slight
cancellation in about two or three K and
it just has to do with the phase
cancellations involved of having a
phantom image directly in between two
speakers because your ears are sort of
psycho acoustically telling you that
there's a signal in between the two
speakers even though there really isn't
you know it's a phantom image and so
what can happen with speakers just being
spread out is as the waves can actually
cancel themselves out depending on the
the distance and the distance apart and
how they're angled and everything so
it's pretty common to hear a bit of a 2k
loss for things panned Center especially
vocals so I tend to boost that back up
just to sort of make up for that if this
were say a surround sound mix where we
actually have a center speaker there's
no need to put that 2k boost in there
because you don't get that loss when
there's a physical image not you know
there's an actual Center image a center
speaker not a phantom image alright so I
hope you enjoyed the video once again if
you want to purchase this session you
can it's available on payloads comm I
will put a link in the video description
below so you can get to that so if you
want to practice along with me you
certainly can eventually we will get to
talking about and it might be in the
next video I'm not sure yet but well
then
get to using outboard gear with logic
which is really cool it allows you to
not have to use a plug-in you know you
can use an actual piece of hardware to
compress with or two EQ with or whatever
so I'll probably go over that eventually
and I may end up using a hardware
compressor on the lead vocals as opposed
to a software compressor could just
because you're going to get a better
sound that way and I have a leveling
amplifier that I would rather use on
vocals rather than using a plug-in
alright so I hope you enjoyed the video
and thanks again for watching