The Secret to Mixing PRO VOCALS is Not What You Think 

The trick I found that helped a lot is compressor chaining. Use 2-3 compressors on vocals, each of them not too high on the ratio, no more than 4:1 usually, with a soft distortion on the last compressor. Also, do your EQ cutting before Compressors, do EQ boosts after compressors.

you literally just leveled up like 30 of my tracks. i cant explain to you how greatful i am

Wow that's a lot of compression! Too many gurus mindlessly say stuff like "mixing is all about subtlety, never compress more than -3db" but sometimes you gotta smash it.

I've heard Jordan repeat this a thousand times...so I knew it was comp!

This is such a topic that I used to honestly be like "oh only 3-5dB compression to not overdo it" and now... I just don't care as long as it sounds great... just did a vocal session last week and was hitting almost 20dB of compression on my WA-2A (analog) at the loudest parts and it sounded just insanely good. And that wasn't even the post-processing - that's just as we tracked it!

Well, I guess if you never told us we'd never knooow. So, thanks for telling us! I've been going hard on vocal compression for a while now cause of you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

This way of showing how you worked and your thought process is something that more people need to do. Good stuff, Jordan

Right said! When I started back in 2002 everybody told not to overcompress blabla - and i believed it and wondered why my vocals never sounded right. One day I really accidently had the insert active in on my console with my 1176 on where the GR Hit constantly between -12-20# db - that was the day I realized not to listen to otheres but to the music! Great video and thanks for not telling the boring automation fairy tale. Yes automations is imoportant, but for me clearly at the end of the process.

Dudes right. The vocal sound people are wanting to hear is the aggressively compressed and upfront vocal. Use whatever you’ve got to make that happen - vocal riding/auto level plugins, upward compression, regular compression, etc

when you mentioned how the compressor was emphasizing the attack/annunciation of the vocal, it all finally began to make sense to me. thank you !

SUCH a good example on why compression is so important on vocals. Especially hit records like you were saying! Awesome job man!

I'm so happy to have found this channel. This is what I was looking for when I found Glenn Fricker's channel a few years ago. I think I was catfished into that channel. This channel has actual mix content. I think I'm gonna cozy up here for a while. Lol. thank you for what you're doing!!!

I learned this after 2 years of my mixing journey. Thank you for just straight up putting it up there!

I love it when a video comes out on exactly what I'm struggling with. I just couldn't get vocals to sit right. Now I'm gonna compress them much more! Thanks!

I knew the effect I was after years ago when I first started to work with a singer. I just didn't know how to achieve it. I even tried making her sing behind bubblewrap! I then discover compression and it all fell into place. Now I have discovered side chaining with reverb and delay my life is complete.

This is the third time I’ve watched this… I feel like it’s sinking in man. Flippen love your stuff Jordan.

OMG, this just solved my biggest problem in my current mix!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, Jordan! :)

I knew you were talking about compression since the beginning, however, I would never imagine the possibility of stacking several compressor together for a vocal! Thank you for the great tip!

dude i struggled for sooo long and most of the time just didnt know why my vocals wouldnt fit in with the rest of the song. This changed everything even though its sooo simple omg

To be fair: once you've wrapped your head around compression which is definitely the basis for a great sounding vocal, EQ, Layering and Reverb/Delay are equally important!

I mean this is spot on. We don’t need other mixing channels long as we have this one.

i like to use low level compressors a lot on vocals, something i've really been doing a lot lately, it's been helping a ton getting everything balanced and shaped how i want

Man I so love the way those harmonies sound being raw by itself without the mixing & mastering fx's @ 3:33...Just beautiful and close to being/sounding professional without the enhancements. Love It Dude *****

two compressors that morphed my mixes: the OSS compressor from Analog Obsession & Crammit from Sixth Sample.. i recently did a vocal mix for an upcoming song featuring Bizarre, and Bizarre's vocals were already mixed and sounded pretty amazing. The mix i did for the other artist, who had recorded his vocals at my place, just weren't sitting right until I added Crammit. After minor tweaks in Crammit, the artists vocals were at the same mix quality that Bizarre's engineer had done. The OSS was already in the mix and made quite a difference but the addition of Crammit changed everything. Chances are, Bizarre's vocals were recorded on either the u87, the Telefunken ELA M 251E or the C-800G and my recordings were done on the NT1 lol and my mix sounded right up there with biz's mix once i added crammit and made a few tweaks.

Love the pacing and realism of this tutorial. Isnt relying on special gear or plugins - great information - and none of the annoying RU-vid stuff like stopping multiple times to tell me to sub

The 1176 Bluey is my absolute favorite compressor for vocals (and almost everything else). Definitely agree with what you said about the attitude it brings to the vocals, specially when you smash it with 10+dB. Great video!

Turns out it is what I thought 😂 you say you rarely use reverb on the lead vocal but have you tried *just* using the early reflections, it's great for giving a vocal a sense of space without clogging up the mix. Another thing I like is using a bit of tonal balancing compression on the ssl strip by using a very low ratio, fast attack and release and just a couple of db dignal reduction. Good video!

This is true, but it's one of several ingredients. In my experience a modern sounding mix is: Slammed with a fast compressor then more subtly rounded out with a slower one (1176 -> LA2A or CL1-B), has serious clip gain automation, is arranged so there's room for the vocal in terms of frequency, uses reverb and slap delay for space, is comped to heck or recorded with an exceptional vocalist or both, is run through a mix bus compressor to glue it to the mix, and is mastered louder than heck.

Very good walk through . I'm a retired film rerecording mixer and to my ears the best result was when you used automation . Obviously , EQ , COMPRESSION , REVERB , DELAY are all hugely important . But I may hear things differently - a song usually has not much dynamic range whereas a film is all over the place ( in a good way , if well done ) . In film mixing it's the faders - the other stuff is a compliment . Thanks for showing us your knowledge and techniques .

Wow thanks! This is one of the first videos I've seen where I can actually hear the compression effect clearly despite RU-vid own compression!

I love the way you roll. You don't copy others. You push limits on everything. I love it. Your metal drum mixes sound better than anything I've heard. That covers 46 years of playing drums back to 1977.

Starting off my chain a neve1073 emulation, i use cl1b for a smooth high end sound, a 1176 for the excitement, a 2a for body, an oxford inflator for parallel conpression. Tape saturation is important too i usually put it before the 2a. I only did a low cut a bit off highcut and cut some low mids on a ssl emulation.

I actually thought about this these last couple of days. I've been listening to some music from different genres and it was the first time I really thought about the vocals, the first time I noticed that the vocals were really heavily compressed. And it sounds great!

While trying to record vocals in a private room with a dynamic microphone (Beyerdynamic Opus39S) and an affordable - but still very flexible - compressor (Behringer MDX2600 Composer Pro-XL) on a Behringer Xenyx mixer (those have these sort of "british" soundig EQ's) I ran into a very interesting problem. Here is the situation: - The compression ratio is around 3:1, soft-knee mode is on, auto mode is on, a bit of de-essing keeps the harshness out, a slow noise-gate is active for signal pauses. - The mic has a noticeable proximity effect (bass frequencies get louder while getting your mouth closer to the mic) - The low cut filter (75 Hz) on the mixer channel is active. - The semi-parametric EQ is good enough to achieve a good sound (at least for my personal taste), no issue here - The more I switch up the gain control knob on my mixer, the more "roomy" the mic sound gets - Increasing the gain to the 2 o'clock position or above will make the signal noisy (still great pre-amps for such a cheap mixer) And here is the issue: My vocals are too silent compared to all the other keyboard and drum machine signals during a song...and I cannot add more gain without making the signal too "roomy" and too "noisy". - I'm using a dynamic microphone because from the very beginning I already thought that a condenser mic would catch up even MORE of the room. - If I get closer to the mic, I get a very "bass-y" vocal sound (totally unwanted...). Remember: The low cut filter on my mixer is already ON! - For a more neutral vocal sound I always try to stay 10 cm away from the mic while singing. My amateur-level singing style is not very dynamic and - at first glance - the ratio of 3:1 seems to be enough compression for my taste. In addition a relatively low ratio like this avoids the typical "pumping" of a compressor. Does anyone here have suggestions about how to solve the issue? I was wondering if maybe something like a Tascam TM-AR1 might be helpful...? Maybe I need another mic (with a higher output level)? Or do I need a more professional mic pre-amp? Thanks in advance for your help. 🙂

Thank you for your videos and insight! Really appreciate you mix cheat sheet as that really made a huge difference in a recent post-production of a "modern" Elvis tribute show. I adopted your techniques and was able to convert it and tailor it for the post-production. Even drum parallel compression which really worked as you described and demonstrated (from another video). Thanks for your work!

Best video i have ever seen on vocal mixing. Thank you sir!

I heard a good difference in the harmony. The compression sounds like the volume was lowered a little and makes it more comfortable, a professional vibe. Thank you for this video

Thank you for the video. I track analog before going into the box. Everything I track is compressed. Once in the box, everything will get compressed at least one more time via final multi- compression, while some tracks are individually compressed again an eq’d prior to any FX. Have recently been using multi compression on the individual kick and bass tracks. This has worked out well for me.

@Hardcore Music Studio, I wish I had seen this video years ago when I first started. I used to try everything to get my vocals to sit on the beat, but it wasn't until I tried compression and really focused on it that I got my vocals to blend properly. As a bonus, heavy compression can also bring horrible transients to the forefront, making them easier to track since they are not as hidden.

This video is not new anymore, but I wish someone showed me it many years ago when I started mixing. Instead, I got some really bad advice such as "only compress 2 or 3db", "don't compress all the time", which are things that only made it harder to actually understand and hear compression. At some point, I had a clarity moment where I realized that nothing of that really matters, if it sounds good, it sounds good. I'll put in a clipper and shave 3db off peaks, and then I'm compressing the shit out of it. Boom, whole thing now sounds more cohesive and present. This video is great advice for beginners, compress the shit out of those vocals and you'll hear the compression in no time. A whole new world opens after that.

Another thing to be mindful of is layered compression. You can smash it to give that character and then another to bring some life back to it. Bc totally smashed alone isnt great all the time. Also smashing the saturation on colorful eq’s is part of this “sound”. Different tones per tool and shaping the tone to fit in the mix well. Some people are into sidechain compression but honestly I haven’t gotten into digging the sound. This with proper mixbus compression, vocal bus compression & the vocal channel compressor is more than enough. Even some multiband compression for backing vocals is super nice.

It’s awesome that I found your page. I play in a couple rock bands and wanted to start recording myself to save money. I’ve been recording in my living room for about 2 years now, and I’ve found that I’ve naturally doing a lot of the things you advise, so it’s good to know that I’m on the right track. I’m gonna get into the automation tactics you mentioned and I’ve gone for your free tutorial as well. Thanks for making these videos.

This changed the way I mixed music. Best video on compression I ever watched

Thank you for this video, I wrote an album over the pandemic and Ive been learning to record and produce the instruments one by one as I've needed to. I'm on to vocals now and this was super helpful. The layering trick was really cool as well. The compression blew my mind, it instantly made my vocals sound like a real song.

Love the straight forward and showing each step fast and Efficient non wasting time content. 10 out of 10

The real action-Jackson is compression! More particularly, it’s Parallel-Compression! That’s the sauce. Stable and dynamic. Music is fundamentally MOVEMENT. Create some motion in the ocean. Two concurrent sensations, anchored stability juxtaposed to punchy movement! Alas, that is how thou doth have it young squires!

Great video. It took me 13 years before I learned how to properly set up a compressor. My ears at first could'nt work out what it was doing. Once you can hear it you can get the balance of attack/relese dialed in, which is crucial.

You are truly the GOAT here on RU-vid especially for beginners like me who are just figuring out how to mix their own music. Appreciate this video so much!

the most painful secret is the quality of the source. And it depends on the quality of the source code most of all. You can already listen to your vocals even without hanging anything❤

I had to come back here and say thank you thank you thank you! This is one of the most helpful videos I've ever seen. I've been severely struggling with the vocals in an electronic song I made. After tons of trial and error, I had a deep feeling it was compression, but I was too scared to push it too hard. After seeing your video, I took a similar approach with my CLA76, SSL E Channel and CLA2a plugins. The vocals sit perfectly now and they sound so much more confident!!! Thank you!!!!

So there are a few things I will add here. I would say how your vocals are recorded goes a long way in determining how much compression to apply to a vocal over the course of mixing. If I have the opportunity to record the vocal myself I would already be recording into a single band compressor that works for the level of aggression of the performer (followed by an LA-2A to smoothen transients). So if I or anyone else is going to mix that I would hope that you are not doing 20 - 30dB of single band compression again during mixing. What I would suggest is to look into multi-band compression or dynamic equalization targeted at enhancing the highlights of the vocal and suppressing area of harshness etc. Also how you apply the compression is also important. It is good to understand when to apply compressors to pick transients or ride the envelop to shave some dBs off. Lets not forget saturation or soft limiters too. All I am getting at is that it is important as a mix engineer to apply yourself and good judgement.

I keep going back to this video for information and now the song is in my head. :)

Totally agree with this. I think a lot of people have been put off heavy compression because tutorials are always talking about less is more and saying things like "if you can hear compression, it's too much".

I have struggled rigorously with this for months and finally you have saved my sanity and passion for this. Thank you.

If you've ever mixed live, the mids and especially the high mids are the ones you'd usually be pulling down if there was any hint of a problem. I don't know any decent sound engineer that boosted the mids live or in the studio to 'make the vocal sound bright'. in fact with female singers you are usually attenuating the high mids. The audio here peaks in the high mids when the singer says 'know', you can hear it and see it in the meters. It's no secret that compression has been used in audio recordings since the 70s. The main reason you compress a vocal is to limit the dynamic range so you can sit it on top of the mix without bringing the vocal peaks up too much. In this recording I would have attenuated that peak when the singer says 'know' with a 31 band graphic, then did the compression, then added reverb if desired.

Thanks for the vid, I've been trying to do less compression and focus on EQ more lately but my mixes have honestly been sounding worse. So going to go back to playing with more compression and see how it goes. Also that dudes voice sounds so good. But I guess if you never tell me, I'll never know!

Watching so many videos on compression and listening to all the warnings of over compression so I was almost afraid to use it. Thanks for making things a lot "clearer"

Watching this again; you’re the best!

Serial compression with dbx and Opto style compressors for general leveling and 1176 for hitting the remainder with each compressors hitting at about -6dB of gain reduction (which makes for about -18dB). Works for me all the time. Not to mention additional bus compression where a single vocal gets hit with -6dB again and with layered vocals it can get to -12dB.

I was STOKED when I saw the song you were working with was "Round You" by Jevani Sanders. Discovered him through another one of your videos, and I think it's great he's worked with you! What a killer combination. I'm only 50 seconds into the video but that alone has me hooked to watch the rest. Thanks for the killer content JV!

This is so good it's almost unbelievable to me still. Absolute gem of a video right here, major kudos kind sir! 🙏 You are a lifesaver! Thank you!

I'm pretty confident that it's actually parallel compression though because you are able to get all of the benefits of compression without any of the drawbacks. Heavy amounts of regular compression soften sibilance and sibilance is an important when it comes to imparting energy and emotion that is a large part of how we perceive language.

All the money I spent on plugins I spent on compressors (limiter, mastering and ssl) because I had to realize early on that our ears automatically and instinctually associate compression with pro records. A non-compressed vocal or bass will *automatically* make it sound like an amateur garage band. A consistent blow of good bass and and upfront vocals is what most of us are used to and the key to that is compression.

When you hear the isolated stems (not tracks, but stems) of professionally recorded vocals you realise the compression and delay are very prominent. This video really hits the nail here.

Man I love your tutorials, the way you explain things is so “ matter of fact “ that it really assures me to go and do it. I would love to see some more troubleshooting videos, as you know, as mix engineers, sometimes we get less than feasible material to work with, I’d love to see how you handle some of the common problems with vocal recordings that were done in a less than ideal environment ect. When re recording isn’t an option. Thanks man, keep ‘em coming!

what a beautiful voice

Hell yeah, I've been recording a new song recently and had pretty extreme multiband compression on it, then followed up by a general compressor as well on all of the vocals so far, and I have been thrilled with the results. Seeing this video while looking for tips on how to make it even better is so gratifying.

I make/mix experimental HH for myself and my friends, and this couldn't be more facts. This shit applies to any genre trying to gun for a more "mainstream" sound

Good tutorial. Not just compression: use multiple compressors and automation on the vox chain (and dare I say it, a touch of auto tune!), parallel comp on an aux channel, side chain certain frequencies on other instruments (guitars are often the culprits), side chaining the vocal effects, add saturation and tape emulation. I’ll leave it at that.

I'm glad I found this video and thank you for making it. You're right. In my case, it's everything I've been doing plus carefully position serious compression. That smooth, mellow, polish, and garnish professional vocals have come from compression. This solves my problems. Can't wait to use this when I get artists with blessed vocals since I'm currently using my vocals and I'm no vocalist.

Same here.. Found out that compression on my vocal production is the most important point.. Now I usually use 2-3 compressors on one vocal tracks..

I always treat the vocal twice. After tracking it, I run it through melodyne for pitch correction. Then run it through Neve 1073 no tweaking, then through 1176 and LA-2. Then I bounce it out as a stem. After that I import it to the mix and run it through 1073 again, this time for tweaking. Then through summit 100a, manic, soothe2, 1176 and LA-2 again. All other effects are sends.

The answer's at 5:40 (compression), and I already knew for some reason, even without having ever seen a single video like this, or even learning from audio engineers

it's also clamping down nicely on the gnarly resonance around 600-800hz, (most noticeably at the end of the phrase in the word "know" of "I'll never know").

You won't realise how many people need this video, i spent six years wondering what the secret was and i recently found out myself that it was compression, coming into this video i took a guess and knew that was what you were gonna point out, Good stuff

I don’t produce rock or metal but have been long ago. My vocal approach is extensive parallel processing, and extensive width-doubles, apart from thickening doubling.

I kind of re-found this truth the other day when I was mixing a vocal that wouldn’t sit right. I started playing around with the purple 76 from PA and just smashed the vocal and voila, it sounded like a polished vocal

Once I accidentally added a limiter to the vocals instead of compressor and since then I find the technique incredibly useful.

Excellent video - you continue to build my confidence in the studio & I'm extremely thankful for that!

THIS! Is the secret I wanted to find for so long! Thank you, I finally can listen to my own voice and I kinda like it :D :D

When I go heavy on vocal compression the vocals seem to get harsh and nasty, plus all those breathing sounds get amplified. I use gates and automation sometimes to get rid of the unwanted sounds and EQs to try to correct the harshness but the vocals start to lose their character. For me, careful EQing of the other main elements, guitar bass, drums, seems to help a lot in giving the vocals more space.

if you watch EDM sound design videos, people are throwing like 14 OTTs on everything. i wouldn’t be surprised if in 10-20 years there is a return-to-dynamics movement, but in the mean time, i love the squashed sound.

this video is gold, thank you SOOO much mate, i spent hours on trying to understand what was the problem with my mixes...i never realized the power of the compressor until i watched this video!

that's exactly what I was already thinking and doing almost 20 years ago...and people told me "but you have to use the compressor just in a subtle way...bla bla bla". I was right from the beginning. For shure: the mic and the preamp does a lot too. More than any EQ or FX Plugin. But it is really interesting to hear how different preamps react to strong to compression. ISA One comes undone with it...without quite extreme compression you think "Oh that's a boring preamp..." ...with compression you get a fruity, crisp pop sound...just for example...Just do what you feel like. Not what other people say.

An excellent video on a very important subject. I have a 'little' pro experience on this so... I'm surprised, given the massive clue in the waveform fluctuations, that compression doesn't instantly scream at more folks - especially in today's digital era where you always see the waveform. Of course, the next issue for the hobbyist (and too many pro's) is that you need to remember what the 'Loudness War' was all about. Unless you want to suck every crucial dynamic out of your tracks/mixes, you need to balance the level of compression with the level of dynamics you want to retain. For most music types, you shouldn't 'compress to the max'. For track editing, if you want to take 'compression' to the next level of pro then make use of a volume lane on the track. Here, you zoom in to each word/phrase and boost/cut the volume as desired. That way, you maximise the dynamics/natural characteristics. You can then apply a small amount (much smaller than if no volume lane editing) of track boost/cut/compression to bring the volume to the desired level within the mix. It takes some time to do but your mixes will stand out as a result. Of course, ignore all that and slap on that 'infamous' Waves L1 and continue with the war (and throw the Art out of the window) - that's also the danger for bands who give their hard earned tracks to a studio who's aim is to get a finished product out as quickly as possible by using 'the easy one-click way'. By the way, and this is a huge Pro tip, you 100% MUST(!!!) look at what the compressor is doing to the original waveform by recording it onto another track. I am a wee bit stunned you didn't do that here. It's... 1: A learning lesson for your viewers - they can instantly, visibly see the waveform change! (same applies to a great many other processing tools). 2: You, as the engineer, can see what the compression you've selected has actually done...has it removed those dynamics/gotten too close to flatlining?...what headroom do you have left?...(a big one) are there words/phrases that you still need to manually boost using a volume lane?...etc etc

You are always so inspiring in the choice of topics that concern a large majority...Thank you for everything you do to help musicians!🥰

Amen! Don’t be afraid to use your plugins & tools. Twist the knobs!

Mann I really like that automation u did tbh 😅 super cool and informative video thanks for Sharin 😊

compression just adds this energy when you slam it on certain things. it's hard to explain why, but it just FEELS more lively and intense.

Took me years to figure this out. Had one singer come in to do a Suzy Quattro song where I used the ALL setting on the CLA-76 for the first time - sounded spot on.

Thank you so much, for this video that really has helped me to up my game as a producer. I’ve always used compressors of course, but I held back a little too much. Now vocal mixning has become a fun, and satisfying process, in stead of a time consuming pain. Im really greatful, Thank you 🙏😄

One of the better videos I've found in a while. Thank you!

The #1 most important thing is having a good source, the guy in this video is a killer singer! Although close 2nd after that is compression for sure

if im being real i’ve learned a lot more by experimenting so many different things and straight trial and error and exploring each FX and what it does and i was able to do a lot more and understand by myself. of course i watch videos but only to clean up minor mistakes. i found out on my own that sometimes you will need 3 compressors max or jus 2 minimum. i suggest play around record and figure out what works for your vocals specifically and then watch videos.

Thanks for the video! Any chance you could show us how you'd approach a full vocal track from raw DI recording (no hardware processing) to Finished? It would be amazing to see the workflow.

goes to show the many different ways to use compression, I tend to focus on my attack and release times to get the dynamics tighter and only compress about 2dB max of GR. I want most of the signal very lightly compressed only trimming off the tops off the louder parts

This guy ain’t lying 💯

When explaining to clients watching me mix what compression is, I say it does for vocals what overdrive does for electric guitar.

In my experience, compression will get the vocal 80% of the way there, but automation is usually what eventaully takes it over the edge.

compressor로 source에 attack을 만들거나 깎을 수 있습니다. source 가 threshold를 초과할 때, compressor는 attack time만큼 시간이 걸려서 source를 누릅니다. 결과적으로 그 시간동안은 소리가 튀어나왔다가 눌리게 됩니다. 그러면 source에 attack이 생깁니다. threshold를 깊게 주고 attack을 길게 잡으면 극단적으로 attack이 강조되고 sustain이 낮은 소리를 얻을 수 있을 것입니다. attack과 threshold를 적절히 조절하여 원하는 만큼의 attack을 얻을 수 있습니다.