Vocal Mixing Tips
Introduction
There’s a lot you can get away with in your music, but there’s one thing your listeners will never forgive: a bad vocal track. The human ear naturally focuses on the vocals, making them the main element most people pay attention to.
It’s the one area you simply can’t mess up—otherwise, that’s all anyone will ever talk about. Until you get it right, your music just won’t sound professional. Recording and mixing vocals doesn’t have to be difficult; it just has to be done correctly.
The two most important aspects of “recording and mixing vocals” are right there in the phrase itself: first, there’s the recording stage, and then there’s the mixing stage.
When recording, capturing your voice as accurately and as cleanly as possible is more about what you don’t do. This is a mostly passive process: as long as you perform well and avoid specific recording mistakes, you’ll be in good shape.
Mixing, on the other hand, is the active stage. Here’s where you polish the final product, using signal processing and effects plugins with knowledge and skill. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can easily ruin your results. While recording is the creative side, mixing is the technical side.
You must be extremely attentive when working on vocals. Whether you’re placing the microphone, isolating the vocals, or recording them entirely, every detail matters.
If you mess up this part, you could end up with bad vocals that can’t be fixed in the mix. So, take care to handle every step before you even start recording, making sure you’ve done everything possible to capture the best vocals.
If something goes wrong later, you’ll know it wasn’t your initial setup, and you can look for the problem elsewhere.
That’s why we’ve put together these 17 tips to help you get the best results when working with vocals and make sure everything is in order.
Below, we’ll list some of the most essential vocal tips:
1. Always record a dry vocal signal
There’s often a temptation to treat recordings like in the old days, when you had to commit everything straight to tape and get it right the first time.
Because of that, you might think you need to wait and add reverbs or other vocal effects later. But today, in the digital world, there’s really no reason to do things that way.
The only effect that truly makes sense to add before your signal reaches your DAW is compression. And if you don’t want to compress on the way in, you don’t have to.
Once you’ve recorded your dry vocals, you might find they’re a bit quiet. In that case, just bring them up with a gain plugin. You can use your DAW’s stock gain plugins or add an external one.
2. Record more takes than you need
When you’re recording, you usually won’t have time to analyze every take as you go.
The best approach in this situation is to save all the previous takes while the pressure is on, mark the “that’s the one!” take, and then record a few more run-throughs once the pressure has eased—since the vocalist now feels confident about their performance.
Remember, you can treat the human voice like any other instrument. Use this to your advantage to achieve high-quality vocals in the final product. Comping vocals—blending the best parts from multiple takes—is a well-known technique for getting the best possible result, so don’t hesitate to use it.
3. Record harmonies and adlibs
Even if you think you won’t use them, always record harmonies and accent phrases. This gives you more options later when mixing the vocal track. Sometimes, a performer may tell you they want a very intimate performance without any doubles or harmony lines.
Just say, “Okay, that’s fine, but let’s play it safe and record them anyway.” You never know when the song might get rearranged or need a big build-up at the end, where these extra tracks could be really useful, or in other similar situations.
You can also use these harmonies or adlibs with volume automation, bringing them up in certain spots to make the vocals sound fuller. This creates an effect similar to vocal doubling.
4. Listen In Context
Before diving into specific vocal tips, it’s important to think about how the vocals fit within the overall track. Something that sounds great when the vocal track is soloed might not work as well once it’s mixed with other instruments.
By listening to vocals in context, you can analyze their frequency range and see how they fit into the full spectrum of the song. This is crucial when mixing vocals because, except for you, nobody will listen to them in solo mode.
5. Mix Everything Else Around The Vocals
On the flip side, tweaking other elements in the mix can sometimes affect the vocals. A big mistake many beginner engineers make is forgetting that lead vocals are the most important part of a mix.
Because of this, they might wait until the very end to bring the vocals in.
Instead, try mixing the vocals first and use them as a guide for mixing the rest of the track. Even your music production will get better if you start with the vocals and then move on to the other parts of your song.
6. Roll-off bass frequencies
For most mixes, unless you’re working with a simple vocal/piano or vocal/guitar duet, you’ll almost always need to roll off the low-end frequencies.
Using a high-pass filter helps remove these unnecessary lows that can muddy up your sound. While there are times when you might not need to do this, in most cases, it’s essential.
Even though vocals usually don’t reach down into the bass or sub-bass range, there can still be some low-frequency content in your vocal and instrument tracks. All of those unwanted lows add up and create muddiness in your mix.
7. Reduce problematic areas
Here’s a general guideline you can follow to help identify these problematic areas:
- 100 Hz – 300 Hz: Too little loses body; too much removes clarity.
- 200 Hz – 500 Hz: Just right sounds warm; too much gets boxy.
- 250 Hz – 750 Hz: Too much here makes things muddy.
- 600 Hz – 1.1 kHz: Excess can make it sound honky or nasal.
- 1 kHz – 3 kHz: This is where intelligibility lives—the sense of understanding what’s being said.
- 3 kHz – 6 kHz: This range gives presence.
- 5 kHz – 8 kHz: Watch for sibilance here.
- 9 kHz – 15 kHz: Adds sparkle and a crystalline quality.
- 10 kHz – 20 kHz: This is where you’ll find air and breathiness.
8. Improve Vocal Frequencies
After removing any problematic low frequencies from your mix, you can gently boost other areas to enhance the sound of the vocals. Start slowly, using a wide bandwidth and just a small amount of gain.
If you want a thicker, fuller vocal sound, try boosting the low end around 100Hz to 250Hz. Be careful in this range, though, because it can easily become muddy.
Generally, it’s best to cut out any troublesome low frequencies from the vocals and focus on boosting the upper range. If your vocals need more brightness or “air,” use a high-shelf filter to lift the higher frequencies.
9. Use a Dynamic Equalizer To Control Presence
The harsher qualities in lead vocals are often found in the 2.5kHz to 4.5kHz range. This frequency range is crucial for helping a lead vocal stand out in a mix. However, too much presence here can make the vocal sound harsh and unpleasant.
A common issue when mixing is that this frequency content can increase when the lead vocalist changes registers. Changes in dynamics can also cause this problem, making it challenging to set the right EQ curve for this area.
One solution is to use a dynamic EQ and adjust the gain reduction for certain frequency bands. In this case, the gain reduction will only occur when there is too much information in the selected frequency range.
Additionally, gain automation or volume automation can help smooth out the vocal performance, in addition to using traditional compression. Consider trying this approach as well.
10. Parallel Compression (Use Even More Compressors)
Over-compressing a vocal can sometimes sound surprisingly good, especially when you’re using compressor plugins that emulate analog outboard gear.
However, it’s easy to take things too far, which can actually hurt the quality of your lead vocal. A great way to avoid this is by using a technique called parallel compression.
With parallel compression, you send your lead vocal to a secondary aux track and apply heavy compression only to that channel.
This lets your vocals cut through the mix. With the right attack and release settings, you can add more interest and energy to your vocal sound.
A good starting point is to set the threshold high enough for around 8 to 10dB of gain reduction, with a fast attack and a medium release. This will squash the dynamic range, but when you blend the compressed signal with your original vocal, you get both the punch of the transients and the sustain from the over-compressed signal.
When we mentioned “more compressors” earlier, we were talking about serial compression. This means using two or more compressors in a row to achieve a different result.
Try using different compressors from different developers for the first and second stages—this can give you unique tonal colors if the plugins offer them. We have a full article dedicated to serial compression if you want to dive deeper.
11. De Ess Your Vocals
Compression can sometimes make quieter sibilant sounds more prominent in your mix. To fix this, use a de-esser at the end of your vocal chain to reduce any unwanted sibilance.
If you’re dealing with harsh “S” sounds, don’t skip the de-essing step. Used correctly, a de-esser will tame those sharp sounds, but if you overdo it, your vocalist might end up sounding like they have a lisp—so use it carefully.
A de-esser is essential for controlling sibilance in a vocal mix.
Proper de-essing is more than just dropping a de-esser plugin onto your channel strip and choosing a preset.
12. Fix Vocal Timing and Tuning
Vocal recordings often have timing and pitch imperfections. If you notice any off-key notes, use pitch correction plugins like Celemony Melodyne or Waves Tune Real-Time to fix them.
After applying pitch correction, bounce the audio to save processing power during mixing.
You can also go through and fix any timing issues. DAWs like Ableton Live and Logic Pro offer time-stretching tools that make it easy to correct timing problems.
Remember to apply timing and pitch correction while listening to the vocals in the context of the full track, not just on the isolated vocal!
13. Adding Reverb To Lead Vocals
Reverb is your main tool for creating space in a vocal mix. Never insert a reverb plugin directly onto the vocal track. Instead, use an aux send to route the vocal to a separate track with reverb processing.
The pre-delay setting is one of the most overlooked aspects of vocal reverb. Using a longer pre-delay will separate the reverb from the vocal, pushing the reverb further back in the mix and bringing the vocal forward.
This approach is ideal for lead vocals, so always use a pre-delay of at least 50ms when mixing them.
14. Using Vocal Delay
Adding delay to vocals can really give your lead vocals a polished, professional sound, offering lots of creative options. But if you’re new to using these plugins, it can be hard to know where to start. Let’s keep things simple.
A mono delay with a short delay time and low feedback is great for adding thickness and depth to a lead vocal. This technique helps your vocals stand out without overwhelming the mix.
Both reverb and delay are essential tools in music production because they add a sense of space to your tracks. Almost every vocal track uses at least one of these effects.
Of course, there are some hip-hop tracks that don’t use either, but in those cases, the engineers intentionally chose that dry, upfront sound.
15. Vocal Saturation
Using small amounts of saturation or distortion can really thicken up a vocal and help it stand out in a busy mix. Saturation adds harmonics, presence, character, warmth, excitement, and cohesion.
It also makes your vocals easier to hear on smaller devices like laptops, earbuds, and phones.
If you want a more aggressive vocal sound, try sending the vocal to an aux channel or use parallel processing to apply heavier saturation. Then, blend in the processed channel to your liking.
Parallel processing is a great technique that can give your vocals energy and punch without changing the original sound. Remember, a little goes a long way!
16. Automate Your Lead Vocal Fader
Once your track is finished, go back and use fader automation to even out the levels of the lead vocal.
This means more than just balancing the quieter verses with the louder choruses. You can really elevate your vocals by automating individual phrases to be louder or softer as needed.
Another helpful technique is to gently raise the level at the end of a phrase when the singer starts to lose dynamic energy.
17. Compare your vocals to a reference track
Reference tracks are professionally mixed and mastered songs that you use as a tool to compare your mix to.
Referencing is one of the most valuable and effective mixing techniques you can learn. Comparing your mix to a commercially prepared track will help you achieve professional-sounding mixdowns and masters.
Reference tracks also guide your mixing decisions. Quickly switch between your mix and a reference track to figure out what your vocals might be missing. This simple method can reveal issues you might not have noticed otherwise.
Conclusion
These suggested strategies offer a great starting point for mixing your vocals. They’re common techniques that can help you make more informed mixing decisions. Feel free to experiment—try changing the order of your plugins and playing with different settings.
Mixing vocals is a lot of fun! You can shape your sound by adjusting problematic frequencies, controlling dynamic range, using serial compression, automating gain, applying low and high pass filters, and more. All of this will elevate your song and take your music production to the next level.
That said, remember to take this step seriously. You don’t want to sacrifice vocal quality, as vocals are one of the most important parts of your mix. Make sure to give them the attention they deserve.
Lastly, be careful not to overdo it. Learning to mix vocals with fewer moves and plugins will give you more natural results. Good luck!
