Thanks my friend! That’s one of the hardest aspects so I’m super glad it came across that way. All mixing is just finding that right balance of frequencies. And then listening on different sources to make sure it translates. That’s how I learned the importance of de-essing early in the chain. And then again a second time haha
Thank you so much Chase. TH-cam is an odd platform. I learn more and more about it every day but I just have to keep making these video and I’m thankful that people like you are watching and commenting. It truly helps. Thank you so much and I’m glad this info helped
Commenting for algorithm but also because I've found myself bingeing your videos all morning and figured it couldn't hurt to let you know how great all of your videos are. This video especially helped me last night while working on a cover of quantum flux. I always struggle with EQ, but you gave great insight into what I should be looking for and when I should be applying any EQ within my vocal chain. Thanks for the great content, I look forward to seeing what more you'll be uploading in the future!:)
Thank you so much for checking them out! If there are any additional things you need help with lmk. I like to help out the community Thanks for watching the other ones as well haha
These are awesome videos. As someone coming from an emo / post hardcore background and starting to write some heavier stuff, it’s so interesting to see the similarities and differences in approaching vocal processing between different genres. So glad I found these! 😊
About the Pultec, it doesn't work the way you described -- you may have already figured this out in the past 10 months though. The high band boost is a bell, not a shelf, and the Q is set with the bandwidth knob (which only affects the high band boost since it's a bell). And it doesn't share the boost/cut with the high band attenuation, unless you have both the high boost and atten set to 5k or 10k that they both share. The high band boost is the only bell, and the low boost/atten and high atten are shelves. The boost/cut relationship exists in the low band though, because they are forced to share the same frequency points. In the OG manuals for these, they stated not to boost and cut at the same time, and to choose one over the other, but you know how people love to break the rules -- which led to the beautiful curves in the low end that they're famous for. Take care, bro!
Nothing to do with vocals, but I’d love to see a video on all the ways of editing guitars tastefully whether they’re DI’s or a wet track. Also a video on how to process drums for a modern metal mix from scratch, assuming we know nothing about routing or what plugins would be appropriate to get to an end result. I’ve always struggled with this as a guitar player and have resorted to buying presets/templates because all tutorial videos assume I either know as much as a producer does or that I have an extensive library of spendy plugins AND know how to use them all properly.
ahhh that could be a good idea. I do have about 5 drum videos out right now on my channel. If all of those seem to be too advanced I can definitely do that. And use stock plugins that everyone has. But the principles in my other video should be good for you if you havent seen them. I explain why i make the EQ and compression moves and what I'm listening for. th-cam.com/video/vEzPIM85fOk/w-d-xo.html start there and watch the part 2. If its too advanced I can do a simpler version. Thanks for watching!
I bought the Shure SM7B yesterday and also have Ableton 11, unfortunately I'm not getting along with the program very well yet. But from what I hear from you, a lot can be achieved with the program, the right plugins and fine-tuning. I will always follow your videos from now on.
I just recorded screams for a song last night with your layering technique… that’s the closest to a professional sound I’ve ever gotten and I haven’t even mixed it yet. I was able to record in an Iso Booth for the first time too so that really pulled it together. Thanks for all of your help! I’m curious if you have a video about some good alternatives for some of the more expensive plugins on there? I’ve been wanting fab filter and devil loc for a while but I’m in a bit of a tight spot rn when it comes to money
Thank you so much, I’m super glad this video helped. Which DAW are you using and what’s your budget for these plugins you’re thinking of? Also are you okay with subscription based models ?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I use logic mainly, but I’m going to CRAS in Arizona to learn how to be an audio engineer and will receive pro tools soon too (I downloaded the free version of Ableton and FL though so I can try to learn everything!) I could probably drop about $100 on plugins right now but i can always save and get more with time! Subscriptions are perfectly fine. Thank you for all the help you give your community, I didn’t expect such a fast and thoughtful reply!
@@AJGuy-ev5jn No problem, this is the only platform I'm active on. Honestly, logic has some great built in distortions and everything. I think you can get great results using the stock plugins. If you're interested or have 2 other friends interested, plugin alliance is 33 CAD a month (probably like 24 USD) and you can split it between 3 computers, so I end up paying $11 a month and they have so many great plugins. They cover everything. My favourite bundle atm
Thanks my man. Listening back I would probably have done things a bit different with the mix as a whole but the purpose of it was to showcase the AI capabilities for vocals. Always room to improve though
starting over my vocals in my recent mix with this video! you're the man! Also swapped my guitars with the new Josh middleton STL pack. Sounds super sick!
I have! This is kind of my go to for the past while. I feel like I’ve tried every combination over the past 10 years and it’s always different. Sometimes it works better after. That’s why I do my distortion on my parallels which is technically after all of my plugins. So I guess technically I am using distortion last haha
Ehh thanks for checking it out! It definitely is the key! Sometimes I start with just a devil loc, ssl channel, and Distressor in main vocal, then through the decap on parallel and then continue my processing. Gets me to the finish line quick
Hey homie, amazing video! Just wondering. Do you have an apollo twin with USB or thunderbolt? If its thunderbolt, did you ever have connectivity issues? If so, how did you go about fixing it? I can't get my thunderbolt apollo to work unless i boot up my computer and then restart it again haha
I definitely get some weird issues on PC. And it’s the thunderbolt. I find that if I turn my interface on first, then PC directly after (like a second later) it syncs up perfectly almost every time. Sometimes I have to power the interface of and on to get it to work though. PC problems haha
I know you're probably busy, but I have a question for you... The band Life in Your Way has much thicker, heavy vocals going from their album Ignite and Rebuild to Waking Giants. Like, the difference is very dramatic, but it's all in the mix and production. He doesn't sound that full live. I've been trying to figure out what the producer did. Do you have any idea what they may have done to give those vocals more bass and power?
Likely doubling the main vocals, adding the right distortion as an auxiliary and also doubling up sections to have highs and lows in combination with a mid scream at times to really beef it up. Those are the standard tips. Also likely using a more “recording” mic rather than a “live” one
Good video. Very insightful and experienced. Could you explain what you mean when you say parallel? Is it referring to the main vocal layer track or something else?
a parallel is also known as a bus track, auxiliary or send and return. you have your main tone unaffected, and then feed it to another Bus track with the effect or distortion
@@BrendonKPadjasek Ohh alright, good to know. Thank you! Im in the process of writing/recording vox for my metal project rn so these recent vids have been really helpful.
@@Fitzington That's amazing! I'm so glad to hear they're helping you out. I also mix bands so if you're interested, send me an email when your track is done if you need someone to mix it. and if not hopefully they'll help you get to the finish line
@@redwood6646 absolutely. Using the take lanes is super handy and also being able to change the tempo of the song and change the algorithm o the wave to stretch to the new tempo is great. As well as reverse and pitch options are insanely easy to use
Hahaha that would be extremely difficult as I basically just repeat it until I get it. First I slow down the tempo and figure out the poly rhythms and go from there
Absolutely! You'll just have to find the right frequencies to cut/ boost for the lows. A lot of engineers put lows, mids and highs on 3 separate tracks
Blender changed my life. I love the company so Damn much and when I needed a new hat it was obvious that my money should go to them. Now I have to get an Unreal Engine had lmao and wear them both at once
@@BrendonKPadjasek Changed my life aswell mate, best UI it just makes sense and it's fluid. UE is cool for a bunch of stuff but really it's a pain in the ass for the most, UI is not as straight forward and even moving stuff is a tedious process, still worth it for lumen and large scale environement tho. Best of luck for UE haha
@albanl8979 haha 100% agree. I literally only started learning it because of how damn fast rendering is with UE. Bought a course a month ago and it’s finally making sense. Still going to do all my character modelling in blender as it has everything I need. Thinking about learning substance as well as marvellous designer for cloth
over 10 plugins for a single vocal track?? ...wow... yeah, sorry...that’s overkill. Way too much. how about...just geting a decent Shure Dynamic Microphone?? Over-processing vocals inevitably cheapens the final result. just keep it raw and simple. One EQ. One Compressor. Then add whatever effects you want. Tweaking a mix to this level just means either the mic sucks or the vocal take sucks. Do yourself a favor, folks: just simply get a Shure Dynamic Mic...then take your time and do a good vocal take. You'll save yourself a lot less time mixing and chopping up your track and a lot less stress. Sincerely, a 39 year old musician of 20 years.
Thanks for watching! Let me know what trips you up the most with vocal mixing here.
Definitely maintaining the clarity of the guitars, snare top and kick lol
Thanks my friend! That’s one of the hardest aspects so I’m super glad it came across that way. All mixing is just finding that right balance of frequencies. And then listening on different sources to make sure it translates. That’s how I learned the importance of de-essing early in the chain. And then again a second time haha
you and chris liepe are all i need to learn, you 2 are awesome, and know exactly what you're talking about
Thank you so much! Chris is amazing. Love his warm up videos and technique overall
i promise you, you can find better info
@thxwrxnch link the man some info
chris liepe is good at what he is talking about and knows quite a bit
but he doesnt know "exactly" what he is talking about
The fact you don’t have more attention is crazy. These videos are super helpful and well put together
Thank you so much Chase. TH-cam is an odd platform. I learn more and more about it every day but I just have to keep making these video and I’m thankful that people like you are watching and commenting. It truly helps. Thank you so much and I’m glad this info helped
Commenting for algorithm but also because I've found myself bingeing your videos all morning and figured it couldn't hurt to let you know how great all of your videos are. This video especially helped me last night while working on a cover of quantum flux. I always struggle with EQ, but you gave great insight into what I should be looking for and when I should be applying any EQ within my vocal chain. Thanks for the great content, I look forward to seeing what more you'll be uploading in the future!:)
Thank you so much for checking them out! If there are any additional things you need help with lmk. I like to help out the community
Thanks for watching the other ones as well haha
Dope - digging the longform \m/
Metal for lyyyfe. Thank you :)
These are awesome videos. As someone coming from an emo / post hardcore background and starting to write some heavier stuff, it’s so interesting to see the similarities and differences in approaching vocal processing between different genres.
So glad I found these! 😊
Oh thank you so much! Yeah they can have similarities but just like over doing it on the distortion hahaha.
Thanks!
About the Pultec, it doesn't work the way you described -- you may have already figured this out in the past 10 months though. The high band boost is a bell, not a shelf, and the Q is set with the bandwidth knob (which only affects the high band boost since it's a bell). And it doesn't share the boost/cut with the high band attenuation, unless you have both the high boost and atten set to 5k or 10k that they both share. The high band boost is the only bell, and the low boost/atten and high atten are shelves. The boost/cut relationship exists in the low band though, because they are forced to share the same frequency points. In the OG manuals for these, they stated not to boost and cut at the same time, and to choose one over the other, but you know how people love to break the rules -- which led to the beautiful curves in the low end that they're famous for. Take care, bro!
I didn’t realize all that. Thanks for pointing it out as well! Whoever first broke that rule is a genius and I applaud them
Nothing to do with vocals, but I’d love to see a video on all the ways of editing guitars tastefully whether they’re DI’s or a wet track.
Also a video on how to process drums for a modern metal mix from scratch, assuming we know nothing about routing or what plugins would be appropriate to get to an end result. I’ve always struggled with this as a guitar player and have resorted to buying presets/templates because all tutorial videos assume I either know as much as a producer does or that I have an extensive library of spendy plugins AND know how to use them all properly.
ahhh that could be a good idea. I do have about 5 drum videos out right now on my channel. If all of those seem to be too advanced I can definitely do that. And use stock plugins that everyone has. But the principles in my other video should be good for you if you havent seen them. I explain why i make the EQ and compression moves and what I'm listening for.
th-cam.com/video/vEzPIM85fOk/w-d-xo.html
start there and watch the part 2. If its too advanced I can do a simpler version. Thanks for watching!
I bought the Shure SM7B yesterday and also have Ableton 11, unfortunately I'm not getting along with the program very well yet.
But from what I hear from you, a lot can be achieved with the program, the right plugins and fine-tuning.
I will always follow your videos from now on.
Thank you! If you have any specific questions lmk and I’ll be happy to get to them
I just recorded screams for a song last night with your layering technique… that’s the closest to a professional sound I’ve ever gotten and I haven’t even mixed it yet. I was able to record in an Iso Booth for the first time too so that really pulled it together. Thanks for all of your help! I’m curious if you have a video about some good alternatives for some of the more expensive plugins on there? I’ve been wanting fab filter and devil loc for a while but I’m in a bit of a tight spot rn when it comes to money
Thank you so much, I’m super glad this video helped. Which DAW are you using and what’s your budget for these plugins you’re thinking of? Also are you okay with subscription based models ?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I use logic mainly, but I’m going to CRAS in Arizona to learn how to be an audio engineer and will receive pro tools soon too (I downloaded the free version of Ableton and FL though so I can try to learn everything!) I could probably drop about $100 on plugins right now but i can always save and get more with time! Subscriptions are perfectly fine. Thank you for all the help you give your community, I didn’t expect such a fast and thoughtful reply!
@@AJGuy-ev5jn No problem, this is the only platform I'm active on. Honestly, logic has some great built in distortions and everything. I think you can get great results using the stock plugins. If you're interested or have 2 other friends interested, plugin alliance is 33 CAD a month (probably like 24 USD) and you can split it between 3 computers, so I end up paying $11 a month and they have so many great plugins. They cover everything. My favourite bundle atm
@@BrendonKPadjasek awesome thank you so much, I’ll definitely check it out!
@AJGuy-ev5jn let me know your results
Great vid as always!
Thanks for checking it out! hope you found some use in it when working on your own stuff Joel.
yessss!!!🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Killing it as usual dude!!
Thanks Ryan! Stoked to see what you guys have cooking up next !
This is exactly what I did with the vocals on your song haha
@@BrendonKPadjasek you definitely have it down to a science man, they sound awesome
Thanks my man. Listening back I would probably have done things a bit different with the mix as a whole but the purpose of it was to showcase the AI capabilities for vocals. Always room to improve though
starting over my vocals in my recent mix with this video! you're the man! Also swapped my guitars with the new Josh middleton STL pack. Sounds super sick!
Super glad I could help! I'm just uploading my josh middleton video now so it should be u shortly. Very sick
@@BrendonKPadjasek yeah. Sadly I bought archetype nolly 2 weeks ago haha. At least I got 10 days trial and can finish the mix with stl!
Hahaha yeah there are so many sims out there it’s tough to know which one to get and they keep coming out haha
@@BrendonKPadjasek so sad :(
It’s alright I’ve heard the Nolly plug in is sick
Thanks! Some nice tips over there!
Happy to help. Always glad to give a little insight into what I’ve picked up over the years
@@BrendonKPadjasek have you tried using distortion after compression?
I have! This is kind of my go to for the past while. I feel like I’ve tried every combination over the past 10 years and it’s always different. Sometimes it works better after. That’s why I do my distortion on my parallels which is technically after all of my plugins. So I guess technically I am using distortion last haha
amazing video, decapitator on parallel is the magic key haha
Ehh thanks for checking it out! It definitely is the key! Sometimes I start with just a devil loc, ssl channel, and Distressor in main vocal, then through the decap on parallel and then continue my processing. Gets me to the finish line quick
Hey homie, amazing video! Just wondering. Do you have an apollo twin with USB or thunderbolt? If its thunderbolt, did you ever have connectivity issues? If so, how did you go about fixing it? I can't get my thunderbolt apollo to work unless i boot up my computer and then restart it again haha
I definitely get some weird issues on PC. And it’s the thunderbolt. I find that if I turn my interface on first, then PC directly after (like a second later) it syncs up perfectly almost every time. Sometimes I have to power the interface of and on to get it to work though.
PC problems haha
Trick: do a whisper take to use for extra emphasis and control over consonants 🤌🏻
Great tip!
I know you're probably busy, but I have a question for you... The band Life in Your Way has much thicker, heavy vocals going from their album Ignite and Rebuild to Waking Giants. Like, the difference is very dramatic, but it's all in the mix and production. He doesn't sound that full live. I've been trying to figure out what the producer did. Do you have any idea what they may have done to give those vocals more bass and power?
Likely doubling the main vocals, adding the right distortion as an auxiliary and also doubling up sections to have highs and lows in combination with a mid scream at times to really beef it up. Those are the standard tips. Also likely using a more “recording” mic rather than a “live” one
Appreciate the response! Thank you!! 🙏
Good video. Very insightful and experienced. Could you explain what you mean when you say parallel? Is it referring to the main vocal layer track or something else?
a parallel is also known as a bus track, auxiliary or send and return. you have your main tone unaffected, and then feed it to another Bus track with the effect or distortion
@@BrendonKPadjasek Ohh alright, good to know. Thank you! Im in the process of writing/recording vox for my metal project rn so these recent vids have been really helpful.
@@Fitzington That's amazing! I'm so glad to hear they're helping you out. I also mix bands so if you're interested, send me an email when your track is done if you need someone to mix it. and if not hopefully they'll help you get to the finish line
What program are you using, out of curiosity, your videos are really helpful
I use Ableton Live 11. But I’ll be upgrading to 12 soon. I personally think it’s the best DAW for writing and recording
@@BrendonKPadjasek for guitar too?
@@redwood6646 absolutely. Using the take lanes is super handy and also being able to change the tempo of the song and change the algorithm o the wave to stretch to the new tempo is great. As well as reverse and pitch options are insanely easy to use
Can we get a video explaining how you manage to play and scream this stuff at the same time? 😳😂
Hahaha that would be extremely difficult as I basically just repeat it until I get it. First I slow down the tempo and figure out the poly rhythms and go from there
would this sort of processing work as well for lower, more deathcore-ish vocals?
i record using an SM57 just direct to my interface ‼️
Absolutely! You'll just have to find the right frequencies to cut/ boost for the lows. A lot of engineers put lows, mids and highs on 3 separate tracks
Blender cap ftw
Blender changed my life. I love the company so Damn much and when I needed a new hat it was obvious that my money should go to them. Now I have to get an Unreal Engine had lmao and wear them both at once
@@BrendonKPadjasek Changed my life aswell mate, best UI it just makes sense and it's fluid. UE is cool for a bunch of stuff but really it's a pain in the ass for the most, UI is not as straight forward and even moving stuff is a tedious process, still worth it for lumen and large scale environement tho. Best of luck for UE haha
@albanl8979 haha 100% agree. I literally only started learning it because of how damn fast rendering is with UE. Bought a course a month ago and it’s finally making sense. Still going to do all my character modelling in blender as it has everything I need. Thinking about learning substance as well as marvellous designer for cloth
*Promo SM*
haha the SM7B is a beast of a mic
over 10 plugins for a single vocal track??
...wow...
yeah, sorry...that’s overkill. Way too much.
how about...just geting a decent Shure Dynamic Microphone??
Over-processing vocals inevitably cheapens the final result.
just keep it raw and simple.
One EQ. One Compressor. Then add whatever effects you want.
Tweaking a mix to this level just means either the mic sucks or the vocal take sucks.
Do yourself a favor, folks: just simply get a Shure Dynamic Mic...then take your time and do a good vocal take.
You'll save yourself a lot less time mixing and chopping up your track and a lot less stress.
Sincerely, a 39 year old musician of 20 years.