Top 10 Vocal Mixing Tricks And Techniques Audio Issues

You know the vocals are usually the most important part of every mix.

That's why I thought I'd put together a handy tip sheet for you that you can use the next time you're struggling with mixing vocals.

Here we go:

1. Filter and cut - This is simple but important. Filter the low-end, cut the nasally mids and smooth out the highs if they're too sibilant.

2. Cut guitars between 1 - 3 kHz - It's not the vocal's fault that it doesn't fit in the mix. Sometimes you need to cut the guitars in the high-mids to make room for the voice.

3. In your face but spacious - Increase the early reflections on your reverb to separate it from the vocal. That means you can still have plenty of space without making the reverb clutter up the early phrases of the voice.

4. Separate stereo - You might be tempted to put a doubler or a stereo spread on the main vocal track. Don't. Send your main vocal to a separate bus so you can keep the punchiness of the main vocal track with some extra stereo spread from the bus underneath.

5. Accent phrases - If you have a good single vocal track but want some extra accents for certain phrases, copy the vocal track and use slight pitch-shifting and delay to make only certain phrases sound doubled. They'll cut through the mix and give the voice more dynamics.

6. Side-chain your guitar to the vocal - If the guitar and vocal are fighting you can duck the guitar out of the way every time the voice is singing. Easy automatic automation.

7. Mix up the spaces - Is the verse quiet and the chorus big? Use short delays and hard compression in the verse and spacious reverbs and smoother compression in the choruses to break things up.

8. Make the vocal the priority - Try to get a good vocal sound as soon as possible during the mix. If you've mixed the drums, bass, guitar, synths, percussion and orchestra first there's not a lot of space for the vocal anymore. Save yourself some time and give the vocal the space it needs. Then, add the other instruments.

9. When in doubt, simplify - Is the vocal sounding great with just that one channel strip and a reverb? Great. Your job's done. No need for 5 extra processors to take down the rabbit hole. Focus on the rest of the mix.

10. Double and Pan Wide - Double your vocal(either artificially or using the actual double), pan them hard left and right in the choruses. This makes the chorus stand out more and sound wider.

Use some of those next time you're working on vocals.