So recently I needed to open up a song that I had worked on a while ago…and to my surprise, I found THIS on the Lead Vocal channel. My Lead Vocal inserts are usually never this populated…maybe four or five plugins (plus whatever may be down the line in the way of Bus/Aux/and Master channels)…but not this many.

Then after refreshing my memory on it, I was able to recall what exactly had happened here. *Most importantly I must point out that the Artist was extremely happy with their vocal on this, as was I. 

Once I had opened up and seen what each plugin was, it helped me remember the paths taken to the final mix, and why.

As many of you know, I normally prefer as much preparation as possible when producing a song. Being a musician and songwriter myself though, I also know that there are times when inspiration hits, and you’ve just got to get something out of your system (or heart) ASAP, and sometimes the rules must be thrown out. I sensed that when this artist (with whom I had worked before) called. I could tell that they didn’t have all their boxes checked yet concerning a fully arranged and produced song, ready to bring into the studio…yet could sense the need for them to get this idea down soon. So I told them to come on in.

As suspected, the song was very emotionally raw and personal…but beautiful. When the vocalist ran it down, they sounded softer and breathier then normal…very intimate. I gave them little to no direction while singing (a bit unusual for me)…just encouragement. While they sang, I realized then that I would need to do some forensic work (Air Conditioning noise is usually never an issue here as most bands I work with perform at high volumes), but this was summertime in Houston so the AC was cranked as the vocalist sang very softly. Wasn’t super bad, but you could hear the A/C hiss slightly in headphones, etc. I started using Izotope RX software a few years ago, and it solved that issue very accurately. *I felt I needed to give some background on this part or it may very well sound like I didn’t know how to properly record that vocal.  ; )

So here’s the rundown of plugins, and why:

Logic’s Pitch Correction – (Yeah, I know…boo, hiss, Pitch Correction). I CAN say that I never just “set it and forget it” like some do. I always only automate it on when a note needs to be nudged just a bit in the right direction. It’s very meticulous, I never automate it to be on at the front of a word (that’s when you’ll hear it), only on the held “note” portion, and only when absolutely necessary. If a note is wrong, we re-cut. Nothing wrong with messaging and nudging slightly to make a mix tight.

Fab Filter ProQ3 – Can’t say enough about this tried and true EQ (and more) plugin. Very little EQ was needed for this vocal, but some slight dynamic frequency cutting in the low-mids and upper highs was being done with ProQ3.

Yes, there are three compressors in a row! Unusal for me, but each of the Logic compressors are doing something completely different to the vocal, and in very small amounts. In this case two were better than one to prevent one from doing too much heavy lifting. Then there is the UAD Fairchild, which is doing a small amount of compression, but is mainly there for tonal purposes. For this kind of vocal and song, it was perfect.

RX Mouth-Clicks Remover plugin – You know when something says what it does…and it works…just as described? Yeah, that’s this thing. Amazing. Compression makes breaths and other mouth noises get much louder than normal. So that needs to be dealt with. I first tried “Clip-Gaining” the mouth smacks and clicks down, which usually is a mixer’s tried and true remedy for such things…but RX did it better, saved time and the day itself.

Yep, there are two de-essers in a row. The UAD Precision De-esser is simple and effective. There are two, once again to avoid too heavy a lift for either. One’s set around 7k, the other around 9k.

Last but not least we have SoundToys MicroShift for a bit of thickening and widening. It takes this mono vocal (and mono plugin chain before it), and fattens it up while stereo-izing it too.

You can also see the Vocal Output Bus’s plugins inserted.

BX’s SSL E Console (which is also inserted on all Output Busses to emulate the good ol’ days of mixing on an SSL).

CLA-76 and CLA-2A are next in line (yeah two compressors again), crazy…but if y’all know about the famous trick that an engineer can do by using both of those (hardware or software) together in a row…then you know. Really smooths out the bumps. You may be asking “why EVEN MORE compression at this stage”? This is the Vocal Bus, so not only does it have this lead vocal going through it; but all harmonies, doubles, counterparts, even some backward vocal reverb and other vocal oddities that also needed that final smoothing too.

Tone Boosters – Barricade. I have a lot of Limiters. L1, on up. This one was (maybe still is) a FREE plugin. I love it on Bass and Vocals.

Last, there’s the UAD SSL Bus Compressor plugin. Once again, to achieve the virtual hit making set-up of an old school SSL, I’ve got an SSL Bus Compressor on every output that has the BX SSL channel. My bus compression is done on a per output basis, of which there are sixteen separate outs (instead of just one Stereo L/R output) going into a Dangerous 2-Bus, which gets fed back into the computer as a full mix.

Whew, yeah…almost too much audio nerd information even for me…almost.