BEST Vocal Presets ?

[techtonik]

Im Kinda New At Mixing My Own Vocals. What are the best vocal presets ?

[jamcat]

The best vocal presets are the ones made with love.

[Killzz]

Anything with a lot of autotune and reverb. Turn those knobs up!

[jules99]

Just use CLA Vocals or Rvox, both from Waves. Very few settings, pretty decent results. Don't get fooled by KVR.

[Cyanide Lovesong]

First, to state the obvious:
Performance is more important than anything.

Secondly, the capture is more important than the processing... So pairing a good mic with your vocal and recording it at the right distance and angling it such that it avoids unwanted room noise, etc.

Lastly we get to processing. To answer your question --- Scheps Omni Channel is a particularly good channel strip which offers a lot of really good vocal presets made by world-class engineers which serve as a good starting point (and give you ideas for how to use the channel strip.)

Any preset will need tweaking to work with your recording, of course.

But in the end, you're looking at some combination of saturation, EQ, and compression to start... Followed by some reverb or delay to help it sit in the mix. Remember, also, to EQ your reverb or delay so they don't take too much space in the mix. Also, if your track has a lot of width from panned instruments, sometimes a mono reverb works surprisingly well on a vocal.

You can also use multiple reverbs (a stereo & mono delay), and you can route your delays into the reverbs to make them sound less canned/generic.

In the end, there's no magical preset that will "just work" -- think of them as a starting point. What's right for the song will vary from one to the next.

Another good chain is EQ > 1776 compressor with a fast attack shaving off the peaks > LA2A compressor to bring up the body of the vocal.

An EQ with a spectrum analyzer can be very helpful. Pro Q3 and Kirchoff EQ are great options. If your mic picked up a lot of excess low end, try using a highpass filter somewhere between 80-120hz. If your mic is harsh, try a -6db slope lowpass filter and dial it down until the digital harshness is tamed.

Add a tape emulation with a little drive at the end of your chain can tame the vocal transients.

And lastly --- listen for vocal harshness especially on the T and CH and SH sounds. If you're hearing that, try a carefully tuned de-esser... But sometimes your best bet is manual editing. Considering the vocals are generally the most important part of a song, spending a few minutes automating the volume to pull down harsh vocal sounds is worth it.

Oh! And don't forget the gate/expander.

But again, Scheps Omni Channel is an affordable channel strip and it has all of that in one, complete with a bunch of professional vocal presets as you asked for.

[tr00stan]

Not a preset, but for modern rock Gain Reduction Deluxe is amazing for getting your vocals right up front. It's a very minimalist plugin so easy to get your head around. That and some EQ will get you very far!

[twasq]

First off I don’t think there is any rule to this besides using EQ and Compression at some point.

I‘d Start with a preamp, just for color.
After That I either use an subtractive EQ or mild compression (Around 2-7db gain reduction), followed By the other. What to do First and how much really depends on the vocal Recording itself, the Track and especially the purpose it serves.
Now I use an de-esser, followed by an additive EQ (which now could have dynamic Parts as well to it)

I‘d argue that at this point 90% of the work is done.

To finish it off to your Track individually there is:
Delay followed by reverb
Distortion
Pitching
Stereo Spread


And and and

This is the actual fun Part so be Creative!





Also
There are Channel strips out there That are doing quite the jobs but I feel they are there if you looking to get a particular sound.
CLA Vocal isnt this Good Overall imho. But it has this specific signature Sound you are Hearing in a lot of recordings. Sometimes it’s what you Need, but I rather have More control over each parameter itwelf (plus I only have used the Demo).

there are Many ways to get a vocal fit tight but by far the best recommandation I can give is get your Hands on actual recordings of you or your Friends, Not pro level recordings and simply Mix them. Mix them again from Time to Time without listening to the previous One - you hear yourself getting better.


Oh
Also don’t ever Solo your vocals; only of you mix a harsh frequency or a group Stack.. Context matters Most!

Hope I could help


Edit: also feel free to correct me, I‘m a noob lol

[jthekidd427]

I always used the hip hop vocal preset in izotope (i forgot which program) izotope also has an analyzer that will listen to your vocals and change them how it sees fit… but yeah like others have said reverb will help

[SYNTHLOVE]

A good microphone and a lot of trial and error will be te best method. When the recording is bad, no plugin will help.
Also it really depends on the voice. And of course, your expectations should include "I want to find a very special sound for my voice that makes it immediately recognizable". Avoid Autotune.

[Starbright]

Depends: I personaly use "Vocal Menace" a lot (it's free). Depending on certain types of vocals or abilities of the singer I might also use an instance of Auto-Tune or Melodyne or Traptune. Sometimes I also use an instance of "R-Vox" in my chain.
Afterwards the only thing else I do is sometimes boosting or cutting with an eq on my vocal bus and my instrumental bus and trying to make it it fit in.

[penbox_eu]

Silk Vocal has a lot of useful presets too.