@@garudasomanna Always remember we must repent of our sins (sin is transgression The Law Of Yahuah The Father in Heaven. The Law are The Books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy). We must repent of our sins and Have Belief On Yahusha The Messiah. HE Died and Rose three days later so that we can be forgiven of our sins! Come to HIM Today. Much love!
Great advice for mixing vocals. What I find the most difficult thing to deal with is getting the volume of the vocals in relation to the backing track where it sounds good on at least most of the ways people are likely to listen to it. Vocals level that sounds right on headphones is often too quiet on speakers, particularly speakers with heavy bass. Then there are computers, phones, tablets, bluetooth portable speakers and earbuds for phones. Playback volume is also an issue, great balance between vocals and backing track when played loud is often no good at low listening volume.
A big struggle, John! Great point that there is no "perfect mix" because your mix is going to sound different on different systems. I often try to check my mix on headphones and speakers while mixing just to get a sense of how they might be sitting differently. also- sometimes I'll set my compression first when I'm trying to find the right volume balance for the vocal. It's probably the only way I really break my 6 step process.
I have yet to try all of the steps mentioned, but I've already learned a HUGE deal just by listening to this video. And I'm def guilty of adding reverb/delay way too soon but I can see how taking the time to work on polishing the vocals beforehand can create better results. Thank you so so much and looking forward to more videos like this :)
Excellent Video! Thanks for providing a summary lesson on what works. The order of the process is the most important part of getting it right, starting with a fully dry track and then building its presence.
Can’t thank you enough Col! I think I would of given up on garage band and recording if it wasn’t for you 👍🏻🙏 I’ve tried other DAW and only Soundtrap is like Garage band . My next step is Logic but still learning and loving garage band with your help . Legendary You are Mate 👍🏻🙏😉
I'm just getting started again using garageband again and these videos are a treasure of information that's useful to me right now. This is a really great series.
Dear Colin, I have just returned from a voice-over job, which also had a mastering suite, I was blown away by the sound of their simple demo's as they sounded quite simply... 'mastered!' They seemed to jump out, they seemed alive, whereas as my Garageband tracks sound like mud. I know this is 90% operator error (me). So I am right on the edge of paying to have a track mastered to see how it compares. I would be very interested to see you do a side-by-side with a Broke Royals track , Version A) mastered on Garageband, and Version B) Mastered in a mastering suite. Best wishes from a French forest. 🎹🌞 PS: You are a great drummer by the way, I always had you down as the singer.
Hey Nigel- This is a great topic and definitely doesn't have a simple straight forward answer... But I do want to highlight that GarageBand isn't the major difference-maker here. It's a lot more about the processing they are implementing. In a lot of mastering suites they are running through a lot of analog gear that is helping color the tone. While a limitation of GarageBand is that you can't really route to outboard analog gear-- the bigger limitation is not having those thousands of dollars worth of outboard gear to run through. But there are incredible and affordable sounding emulations that exist from Analog Obsession, Waves, Plugin Alliance, and a bunch more. And all that "gear" can run in GarageBand and MANY pro engineers have moved to mixing "in the box" only using emulations and no analog hardware. It really has gotten that good. That said- it's still the fundamentals that create the biggest difference. Getting the best mix possible with the fundamental tools and techniques (volume, panning, EQ, compression, effects, and automation) will give you the biggest impact. The analog flavor is just an extra polish (sheen, sauce, etc) that can level it up even more. It can help a demo sound MORE finished- but it can't make a demo AS impactful as a fully mixed track. That said- I've always tried to be vocal about being a big proponent of having someone else master your music if you can afford it. Mastering is often WAY more affordable than having someone mix for you and can help add that extra level of sheen to your mix. Even if you are GREAT at mixing, just having a fresh set of ears and tools on it can do something special to the track. Longwinded answer! Hope that all makes sense lol
@@TheBandGuide Colin, seriously, I cannot thank you enough for that detailed answer! Truly that totally validates my position. Now, just to end and this might be be most ridiculous observation, so feel free to put me in my place! But, you know how it is, if I am buzzing around in my car and I want to take my latest track/ideawith me, I will often just press play on my MacBook, and just record that with my inboard iphone microphone then run. However, if I compare this to that same track saved as a stereo mP3 on my desktop, the HORRIBLE recording on my voice memo still has an extra 'something' that the straight digital file doesn't? Anyway, thank you again for taking the time to share in such detail. Best wishes to you and yours. 👍🏆
Hey man. Pretty cool video. I've been recording in the Analogue world for more than 30 years. I can clearly hear that digital is a much cleaner sound. How the heck did George Martin get so many great recordings on to tape. I am 70 years young and I'm doing the best that I can with Garage Band. I also bought PreSonus 6.5. Honestly, I feel like I'm STONED after every little digital recording session. Your videos, I hope will help me the most. I never considered putting my Lead Vocal on 2 tracks. One without effects and the other with Echo. I can't wait to try it. Thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks for all the content you have created. Super informative. I’ve watched your static mix videos too. I’m wondering do you tackle these vocal mix techniques BEFORE or AFTER creating a static mix?
Thank you for this tutorial. I use GB and have not been using compression on any of my vocals, but your fantastic description on exactly how it works inspires me to try using it on my next recording. I will watch the specific video you have on compression to get a deeper understanding as well. Thanks for being such a great tutor! Question: I don't like a lot of the vocal patches GB has. I basically use the "Dance" vocal patch, although it sounds a bit tinny at times, but I go into the EQ and tweak it a bit to get it sounding warmer. Any recommendations on a really great and natural sounding vocal plug in that just pumps up the voice a little bit but doesn't use any auto tuning per se, that would be great!
Toughest part of mixing vocals for me thus far, is finding the right scale and recording vocals in melodies that fit the exact song scale, without tuning. How important is this really though, am I overthinking it, do I really need to try and stay within a certain scale to make the song mesh together in a more professional manner? Aside from that, I was using effects and different techinques as a crutch to make my vox sound "better", rather than nailing them at the start, & so therefore they have a strong base to build upon. Thanks for all your help @TheBandGuide kudos!
Thanks for this - some really useful advice, particularly the segment recommending addressing EQ and compression issues before resorting to tinkering around with micro-adjustments in the automation settings. This has certainly been a recurring fault of mine, making life particularly difficult, because you end up sacrificing the overall control offered by the track volume sliders. By the way, would you recommend using any of Garageband's vocal presets (from the 'Voice' drop down menu - 'Classic Vocal' 'Natural Vocal' etc) as a starting point, or avoid them altogether?
Great question! In short- no. Those presets don't know what YOUR vocal recording sound like so how can they set the best EQ for it? Or know where to set the threshold on the compressor? Or if the effects are the right choice for the song? That said- if you REALLY like the sound of one- I'd set it up but then dial in your EQ and compression from scratch- specifically catering to what you think your vocal needs.
Thank you this was very helpful.. new subscriber here. May I ask...Im a polyphonic overtone singer and I have troubles making the overtones more prominent over the fundamental singing note in the mix.. have you any EQ tips for me please :)
GREAT video. Super helpful. question: Do you prefer automating for volume vs using a vocal ryder plugin? I've seen some channels go that route, just curious.
Thanks Colin! Great work...your videos are exactly what I've been looking for in working with Garageband. One question though...I've been watching your series 'The Ultimate Garageband for beginners' playlist and wonder at what stage would this 'mixing Pro Vocals' come into that sequence? Is it before the Static Mix?
Dear Chris, I'm trying to revive and remaster the compositions of my late wife. Although she had an angelic voice and her songs could easily compete with professionals. (like Joan Baez for instance) The recordings are terrible, because she never took it professionally. Some of these songs are even recorded with a Nokia, 15 years ago during a live performance. With AI, I could separate her vocals, but with a very low quality. Can I push them up to professional level wlth GarageBand in a MacBook pro 2012? I am open to any advice from you
Hi Colin.. just being Lazy but if I just pick one of the vocal presets like Natural Vocal setting do you need to still Eq and mess with it? Or would you chose to do one preset then tweak a dry duplicate track? Thanks
I have the problem the vocals even though it’s in tune and timing is correct it still sounds kinda out of place. Like ya imagine a pizza with a piece of glass between the pizza and the cheese on top. It’s there but still not really a part of it - disconnected.
Thanks you for the great video! I really appreciate it. However, just a heads up, the link to the Melba Mautopitch plugin in the tuning step of the provided checklist seems to result in a "page not found" webpage. At least, this is what is occurring on my end. This was still a very informative video, I just wanted to bring this to your attention. :)
Thanks. I’m going over your instructions. You seem like you know more than most of these others. I’m in the midst of doing my first proper album at home. I’m also preparing to embark on a mobile recording business. I’ve been involved in recording as an artist since the 80s so, yes I did use Ampex tape. I want to get involved in mobile recording. I just got a Zoom L-20 and am learning to use it and also need to get the necessary gear to record live. I had no idea all the tricks engineers use to manipulate sound, amazing! So, anyway, I have a lot to learn. Maybe when I get some basic tracks together I’ll see what you think? Maybe have you mix or master a few for me. I have an issue in that I have a 2019 iPad Pro and I really wish I would have bought the Mac instead. GB is kind of like a kids toy on iPads. But, it does a lot the same. So, your doing a great job! It’s really helping me a lot. Thank you! We’ll be talking.
Yep! Giving you a full overview of the process and then pointing you to where you can go deeper. Can you imagine me walking through all this in one video? It would be like 90 minutes long 😂
