This weekend i have been learning about vocal processing and mixing. I have watched several YouTube tutorials on this. I wanted to have similar sound to Illenium for the vocals and found there's lot's of ways you can do this. I have learnt to pitch shift vocals by an octave and harmonize them, with a pitched down version and pitched up version, also that if you want to be in the same key, it has to be pitched up 12 semitones. how to create vocal chops, and how to use a plugin called slicex to chop vocals and play them on the keyboard. I think the results have turned out really nice. I have learnt about mixing and applied lots of this to my song, I have mixed and mastered the song, but I am going to leave it for a couple of weeks now to give it a break, and work on another song. So that I can mix and master it better.
I watched a few tutorials on YouTube on how to do vocal chops in FL Studio, this being one of them.
I then went on to create some vocal chops by using a piece of software called splicex.
It enables you to chop up the vocals and play them on a keyboard. Here's a video of me doing this.
I then saved these vocal chops as a WAV file and pitched them up an octave then added reverb to them. as I had learnt from watching tutorials.
I then added a filter and automated the cut-off to make the vocal chops rise. I also made some other vocal chops to harmonise with them. I made two versions one pitched up an octave and one pitched down an octave.
I then perfected all the chops throughout the song.
Here is a video of me sorting out the vocal chops I have on the intro of the song, I found the low end too heavy so removed some of that added some reverb and made two copies of the vocal one pitched up an octave and one pitched down in order to achieve this effect
I then made some vocal chops for the drop using the same technique and method that I had learnt previously.
I then saved it as a WAV and added some reverb, a little delay and pitched it up an octave.
I then changed the drums as I wanted them to be more varied and dramatic. To do this I first created a HiHat and edited it in the piano roll. I also changed the velocity of the HiHat so it sounds more humanised and varied. I then created the snare and kick drum, and mixed these elements in with the rest of the song.
Then I edited the vocal chops on the drop, made two versions, and pitched one down an octave to create a harmony effect. I also used a synth called vocal Synth which I found whilst watching tutorials on vocal processing, and managed to download a free trial. I learnt how to use this, and experimented until I got the right sound. This is a skill I will need for my future career in the music industry as I will need to be able to process vocals and make them sound good.
The screenshot below of a video on vocal processing was really helpful to learn what to do. It gave me many ideas like using a vocoder, pitching the vocal up or down an octave, creating vocal chops, and adding reverb. I knew what sound I wanted for my vocals so I just needed to learn how to do that.
I watched lots of different videos and searched a lot on google about vocal processing, how to achieve different effects and how to achieve the sound I wanted this a very helpful learning process and has motivated me to keep on researching, I'm also thinking of buying some new vocal processing plugins.
After I learnt how to achieve different effects I then applied them to the vocals in my track.
I then set out to mix my first track.
I learnt lots of different techniques from the internet, and also by reading my book on mixing. first of all, I started with the drums from the intro, I used a parametric EQ which I cut out the low end as you can see and enhanced the bass/low-mid section which made the kick more punchy then I boosted the parts which sounded the best. As from a tip from a tutorial I watched. I haven't been doing this for every part of my tracks, and this is a great skill I have learnt, it will make my tracks in the future sound less muddy, by taking out the frequencies not being used.
I then used a stereo shaper tool, which makes the stereo sound better, you can choose where each instrument sticks in the mix and frees up room in other areas, which leads to a less muddy sound.
I then used my mixing headphone and brought all the faders down to the correct levels, and made sure nothing peaked.
I then used a limiter on several of the mixer tracks, to maximise the sound coming out of each instrument without it peaking.
And EQ'd the rest of the mixer channels. making sure nothing is overlapping and everything has a place to sit in the mix.
I added vocal synth to the vocal chops.
I mastered the song using ozone 10, with ozone 10 you can select a reference track which is a track similar to how you want your final project to sound, it then analyses both tracks, and. gives you some insights on how to master it, whilst showing an overall level for the low-end mid end and high end. You can also look at the width of the song with the spectrogram at the bottom, and enhance the width digitally, or you can use it to use panning in the mixer, to create more width in the song.
I also wanted to achieve an effect that sounds like it is rising but be
able to choose how often or when it rises like an LFO in a synthesizer. So I did a bit of googling and watched some tutorials, I found this amazing program called Shaperbox which enables you to automate and create envelopes for things like volume, time and pitch, this is exactly what I needed, so I downloaded a free trial and played with it for a bit to get used to the plugin.
In conclusion
I have learnt lots of different vocal processing techniques, as well as production and composition techniques I have made vocal chops and edited them using a wide variety of skills, some I knew, and some I have learnt. This is important to know if you wanted to be a major producer in the future and produce a song for Beyonce or someone for example. I have also learnt a bit about mastering, and how to use an envelope to shape a sound, and automate that envelope, Over the next week, I aim to start working on one of my instrumental songs. Overall in the project everything is going well, and I have plenty of time left to complete 4 songs for an EP.
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