Recording vocals (Plugins, Chain Setup, EQ Tricks, Mixing)

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equilibrium

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So after the past 3 years of focusing on instrumentals I'm starting to record vocals. Some questions

What are your favorite plugins for vocals and how do you use them?

What are some setups you have for your FX chain?

Thoughts about widening background vocals and pushing the main vocal line up in the mix/mixing in general?

How to EQ the voice to get it to sound amazing?

Process you go through with a vocalist, collaborating in person or online/how you record them?

Really interested in finding out about any good vocal plugins besides Melodyne.
 
Not gonna tell you what plug ins I use... trade secrets n all... but my FX chain will probably look something like this:

EQ
v
Compressor
v
Delay
v
Reverb
v
Some form of Stereo Width manipulator

v

Bus - Global Reverb
v
Bus - Global Delay

Honestly... mixing vocals is a fucking art form... it takes a lot of practise.
 
It sorta depends on what vocals you are looking for, what kind of track you want to fit them in n stuff...

But a trick I tend to use is to compress the highs and some slight dist... It helps to bring them more up in the mix.
 
Using the same vocal pitched up and octave, split to 2 tracks, one hard panned left and one right..Helps widen the vocal.

Also you can put anything on a vocal tracks like amp distortions etc. Have a play
 
record as clean as possible then eq and add fx after

invest in a decent de esser plug in - i recommend blue tubes

get a good sound at source rather than trying to fix it in the mix

always record in a separate room as your vocalist will feel less pressured if they are in their own space

make sure you get some bottles of water in and keep them chilled for your vocalist - little things like that make a big difference in peoples attitude to working for you

ensure you have a pen , paper and table near the mic for the vocalist

i like to record in my hallway with the mic set up at one end facing the length of the room as you get a good natural reverb with the space behind the singer

no matter what the vocalist says keep the headphones volume as low as possible for them as you do not want bleed on the vocal channel as its a bastard to deal with
 
When it comes to recording vocals the most important things are a good pre, a good mic running through a good compressor if you've got it (whilst riding the threshold) and concentrating on getting the best source material you can. Makes the rest so much easier.

As for a vocal plug-in insert chain, it's like the rest of production. A lot of specific plug-ins doing their own minute individual jobs make the difference between just using one eq and one compressor.
 
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