What are your favorite tools for mixing vocals?

[riyakataria]

I know Melodyne and CLA vocals tend to be major ones, but is there anything else?

[Passing Bye]

Xfer OTT, not joking.

[imrae]

EQ, saturation, compression, delay and reverb. Most mix effects, really...

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

EQ, saturation, compression, delay and reverb. Most mix effects, really...

Yeah pretty much.

DD Channel 2 from Dead Duck ( or any SSL )
Ivg2 from Klanghelm
Kotelnikov from TDR
Valhalla Room
Replica delay.

[NO1]

Harrison Vocal Flow

[donkey tugger]

Izotope Nectar Breath Control (because there's nothing ruins a song more than compression amplifying quiet breathing to dirty pervert levels.... )

TDR Nova GE to de-resonate and even out my frankly piss-poor mic technique.

Klanghelm DC8B compressor - high ratio to really tame peaks

TB Ferox - for more gentle tape style compression (always like to use 2 compressors - spread the load etc..)

TB Sibilance de-esser or Air windows de-esser

Just a teeny bit of slap-back delay to add depth, not much

Reverb - depends on the song which one, but always roll off the reverb before 500hz, and pre-delay of 50ms and upwards.


Tend to also use a lot of spot effects for harmonies/fairy dust etc on duplicate tracks to make things easier- Delays, MUnison, lofi stuff (distortion etc, RC20), chorus, all kinds of stuff..

Lots and lots of automation...

[BONES]

I use either iZotope's free Vocal Doubler or WA Production's $29 Vocal Splitter to double the vocals and give them some width. From there it's just a bit of EQ, compression, saturation/distortion (if artistically required) and reverb/delay. If you've got a good mix, it's usually pretty easy and a lot of the decisions around it are artistic, not technical.

[Unaspected]

I don't think there are any specific tools that I use for processing vocals. Maybe Little Plate gets used more on vocals than anything else. I don't like auto-tuning vocals.

[DarellHershey]

I always experiment with all the effects I have. Well, I don't have a favorite right now but you should try experimenting too and find your "own" sound, if that makes sense. Even the stock effects sometimes makes a big difference.

[an-electric-heart]

The basics are any E.Q, starting by high passing all the bass I don't need, then the 670 T-Racks plugin with the 'Vocal' preset (threshold adjusted to taste), followed by the BBE Sonic Maximizer plugin with just a tiny touch of the high end dial (I think it's called process). That's the bread and butter stuff that I do every time. Then I send that to another track where I apply reverb or delay (at 100%)... or sometimes reverb and delay!
Oh and I quite often put autotune on a send followed by a thick chorus, then blend it in so that it's pretty quiet, just for thickening effect.

[andymcbain]

Usually a FET style compressor, saturation and any EQ.

[Ezilyboredgames]

UAD API channel strip, struder A800 then Fabfilyer plug-ins to further eq and compress if needed. fabfilter reverb on the bus.

[jamcat]

IK TR5 EQ-73 (MIC)
IK TR5 Black 76 (fast attack)
IK TR5 White 2A (COMPRESS)
IK TR5 Tape Machine 80 (456, 15 ips)
IK TR5 British Channel
Eventide H910 or H949
Relab LX480

This recreates a very typical tried-and-true classic vocal chain, starting with a high quality preamp (Neve 1073) into an 1176 to smooth out transients before compressing with an LA-2A, and printing to tape (Studer A80). From tape it goes to an SSL SL-4000 mixer channel to one or more Eventide harmonizers and a Lexicon 480L reverb aux buss.

[Mathematics]

Easy...EQ and Compressor. You had to ask this? For mixing right? Yes...these two. Now...for effects...that's a different question. Maybe you should post that question.

[cryophonik]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't really consider Melodyne a tool for "mixing" vocals, except arguably when I adjust amplitude of some notes to balance them out, or reduce sibilant sounds or plosives. Regardless, the plugins I use most often for vocals include Fabfilter Pro-DS, Pro-G, Pro-C, and Pro-Q (still dying for a FF channel strip!), Waves RenChannel (often on the vocals or BG vocals submix buss), Waves LA-2a when I want in-your-face-ness. EchoBoy is my go-to delay for vocals, and Valhalla Room, Plate, and VVV are my go-tos for vocal reverb sends and inserts.