Watching this video, I found it really useful because it didn’t just teach me about FX plugins I could use, but also how to use them, and why they are used. I also found a lot more out about how to set up vocal FX chains, and FX chains in general as well.
The first thing I learnt, was that the most important thing about getting a good vocal is the recording it self. This is because adding FX to a bad recording will make a lot of the problems stand out more. So starting with a good recording is key.
Before watching this video, the only FX I had used on vocals were as follows:
- EQ
- Reverb
- Delay
- Compression
However, I learnt that one of the first things to do when doing vocal FX, is ‘De-Essing’ and ‘Gating’. This helps to cut down on ‘Ess’ sounds that come from the high end frequencies, as well as unwanted background noise that is really quiet but still audible. The ‘De-Esser’ is a multi band compressor that helps to cut down on the high end sounds that create the ‘Ess’ sounds. Whilst the ‘Gate’ cuts out frequencies that don’t reach a high enough level, whilst still letting the louder sounds through, meaning that the background noise is cut out. This gives the vocals a much cleaner sound which is much easier to work with.
After cleaning up the sound of the vocals, he then continued to use the same effects that I was using before, but in a much smarter way. He used an FX rack in Ableton to allow him to set different automatable features of the FX he had placed in it, to a macro. You can also link up multiple features to a single macro, meaning that its very easy, after setting them up, to change multiple effects and features at once.
This research has taught me three things, the first being that vocal FX are the second most important thing about good vocals, the most important thing is having a good sounding recording to begin with. Otherwise you will just end up accenting the bad parts of the recording through the FX. The second thing is that, before adding compression or reverb and delay, I need to clean up the vocals by using a gate and multi-band compressor. The final thing is that I can use the features in Ableton a lot more than I have been doing, and so I now know that I need to read my book that came with my copy of Ableton to learn how to use the software to its fullest capabilities.