Mixing
Mixing is our most complex service, it can take 1-2 hours for the simplest projects, or up to 4-5 hours for the most intensive projects such as full symphonic ensembles. Our mixing engineer has worked on most styles of music for nearly a decade, he has specialized training and experience in Acapella music. For references on our mixing and mastering engineer's work in the studio, there are fully serviced recordings by past clients on the home page available for you to listen.
The standard rate for mixing services is $75 per hour. We recommend to book a consultation to help you get the services you need at the lowest cost.
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Below are Mixing packages that we recommend to give you the best quality with the lowest cost. Additional time will be at $75 per hour.
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ACAPELLA GROUPS:
Please click the "Acapella" link at the top of the page, as price packages below do not apply to Acapella music.
Below is an example of a full vocal mix by one of our mixing engineers, Ethon Dorrity. He will go through step by step to help you understand what can and should be done to vocal tracks. We hope that highlighting his process can gain your confidence in Impact Recording Studio's ability to properly produce your music.
Vocal Process
Mixing vocals in my opinion is the biggest wildcard in music mixing, depending on the style it can be drastically different whether it a ballad, 80s or 90s, country, acapella, pop, etc. This section will give an insight to how I would mix a vocal track. This section I will focus on a vocal excerpt of cover of the 90s song "I Want You" by Savage Garden. I will mix it with that era in mind. I will go over tried and true techniques I have learned as well as some personal styles and preferences.
Raw
This vocal track was recorded in Impact Recording Studios with a Shure SM7b dynamic vocal microphone. The room has been designed and treated by a professional acoustic engineer at Auralex Acoustics.
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This recording is far from perfect, but I chose it to show that you don't need to be a professional singer to get professional results.
The first thing is to do is gain staging, which makes sure that the input gain is hot enough to escape the noise floor, but low enough to avoid signal overload.
Pitch/Rhythm Correction
Every single artist in the modern day has used some sort of pitch and rhythm correction. It's the truly great mixing engineers that can edit pitch and rhythm so subtly that you will never even notice.
Pitch/Rhythm Correction
The white lines represent the pitch of the singer. I corrected the pitch and rhythm issues, but didn't go overboard to keep the singers expression lively.
Surgical EQ +
De-Esser
EQ is done in many different styles, when applying EQ to vocals I will always use subtractive/surgical EQ to get rid of unwanted frequencies. A De-Esser is used to decrease the harshness of sibilances, especially the "S" sounds.
Surgical EQ + De-Esser
I started with a hi-pass filter, which gets rid of all of the frequencies below 200 Hz. Those frequencies are all unnecessary as it causes a low rumble that can muddy the mix. I cut on a wide Q around 500 Hz to get rid of some undesired muddiness in the low mids. I cut on a narrow Q around 3000 KHz to decrease the harsh high end that hurts your ears.
I use Izotope Nectar for the De-Esser, starting at around 2500 KHz, which is where the sibilances start. This decreases the harshness of sibilances when I apply additive/colorful EQ.
Compression
Compression is a dynamic plugin that decreases the difference in volume between the softest and loudest parts of an audio track. When done correctly, compression can be manipulated to not only create a consistent sounding vocal, but can add so much color without reducing the dynamic contrast of the vocalist.
Compression
I noticed that the vocalist moved a little bit during recording, so it led to some inconsistencies in volume in certain areas, so compression will fix that issue. I chose to work with my favorite compressor for vocals, which is a VCA. I started with a ratio of 4.5 and adjusted the threshold until it had between 3-6 db of gain reduction, I left a medium attack and medium-slow release to leave definition to the transients, but allowed the compressor to keep them under control. I adjusted the make-up gain to 4.5 to adjust for lost volume during the compression process.
Multi-Band Compression
The difference between a compressor and a multi-band compressor, is a normal compressor applies compression to the entire sound, a multi-band compressor allows you to compress specific frequencies separate from each other.
Multi-Band Compression
After normal compression, the volume is more consistent. However, I noticed that certain parts of the vocal track are highlighting different frequencies, especially in the mids. I started with the mids, they seemed to be the biggest culprit. I compressed it very hard with a ratio of around 7:1 and adjusted the threshold to where the average gain change would be 0. I did the same thing with the upper mids but with a smaller ratio, and a harder ratio on the highs to keep a crisp sound, but without any harshness. After both forms of compression, the sound is consistent across the entire spectrum.
Additive/Colorful EQ
This EQ is to fine tune the frequencies to exactly what you want now that it has been compressed. Unwanted frequencies should never be compressed, so now that it has been compressed, you should have free reign to adjust the frequency spectrum to taste.
Additive/Colorful EQ
After I have gotten everything as consistent as I can with volume across the frequency spectrum through surgical EQ, de-essing, and compression, I now can add EQ that makes the vocals stand out in a mix. Around 250 Hz is where the fundamental note lies of the vocalist in this circumstance, so I boosted it slightly to make it warmer. I already cut the low mids in surgical EQ so it doesn't need any more, I cut around 1000 KHz to reduce honkiness slightly, I chose a wide Q to lower the 4000 KHz range to get rid of a little harshness. I boosted by a wide margin around 10,000 KHz and up to get a crystal clear high. Normally a vocal isn't boosted this much in this range, however this is a 90's song and this style was very popular when combined with good reverbs.
Exciter
Sometimes using drastic EQ to adjust the highs can come off as harsh, and leave an artist unsatisfied with how unclear their vocals are. This is where an exciter comes in. An exciter is an effect that boosts highs in a way that sometimes EQ just can't get to, without making the vocals harsh. They need to be used in moderation, because the misuse of an exciter can destroy a good vocal track.
Exciter
I was a little unsatisfied after colorful EQ with how clear I could get the highs. I started the exciter to work around 6600 KHz to work on the shimmering highs instead of the upper mid highs which would make a harsh mix. I boosted the harmonics to taste and was very happy with the result.
Modulation
Modulation is an effect that edits the parameter of the audio waveform, resulting in a wavy, sometimes robot-like effect. Modulation is used very frequently in vocals to give it dimension, and if used correctly, give it an artificial flow that helps the vocal sit in with other instruments or with background vocals. Modulation is often heavy on background vocals depending on the style of music.
Modulation
Now that I am happy with the EQ spectrum and compression, I chose a modulation effect called flanger. Since this is a very powerful effect, I put it on a separate bus to mix in the flanger very subtly instead of having the full effect. I chose a small rate to simulate a wavy-type effect that gives the vocals a stunning character. I chose to have it stand out a little more as was the style in the 90's.
Reverb
Reverb is when sound interacts with the environment around it, echoing and continuing the sound, like in a cave, or in a concert hall. Artificial reverb is simulating an instrument or vocalist as if it is being performed in a space that it wasn't recorded in. Depending on how it is used, it can have a 3D effect on vocalists or instruments, simulating closeness or far-ness. More complex uses of reverb can simulate different spaces at the same time or at different times in the duration of the piece.
Reverb
I chose a small concert-hall like reverb for this vocal, because it takes advantage of those higher frequencies that I exaggerated during the colorful EQ and exciters. This is the perfect reverb for those early styles of rock. I still chose to EQ this reverb, high-passing all of the low frequencies to get rid of rumble, and lowering the mids to help a natural blend with the vocal, and boosting the highs to echo the highs. Since this is an extremely powerful effect, I also chose to route it through a bus.
Delay -
Final Result
Delay is a very similar effect to reverb, however it acts as a repeater of the sound. Coupled with reverb it can have a powerful effect on the stereo imagery and spacial imagery of the recording.
Delay
I found that the spacial effect created by the reverb mostly did the job for what I was looking for, but lacked a little body and depth to it, so I added a fast delay time with alternating 16th and 8th note times to accent the stereo imaging and ambience without being too obnoxious.
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I am now happy with how this vocal track sounds!
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Here is a recording with the full mix to see how it fits in with everything!
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