Looking for a way to make your vocals sound more professional? Well, you could always drop some dough on a bunch of plugins and create great sound vocals that way. But is there a way to get that same sound with only using stock plugins? Turns out, there is, and we’re going to show you how.
In this tutorial, Fabio from Noize walks you through how to create a stellar, pro-level vocal mix using only free Logic Pro Plugins.
Analyzing the Frequencies
Let’s start by listening to the vocals in context with the track and then solo. When we listen to it solo, we do so with a channel EQ open. That’s because we like to look at the analyzer and see where the vocal frequency content is.
We’re not going to use the EQ or my eyes (the analyzer) to make decisions. But this does give us a guide to where some of the more dominant frequencies are sitting—and where we might need to make some boosts and cuts or dynamic control.
The vocalist signs from lower notes to higher notes, so the dominant frequencies are always changing. We can hear that it’s a little bottom heavy, which means there are a lot of low frequencies. Those are probably masking the mid and high frequencies.
Using the EQ, we can see that those are sitting between 200hz and 400hz. We’re not going to make any critical decisions right now based on that information, but we will keep it in mind throughout the process.
Multiband Compression
The first free Logic Pro plugin we’re going to use is the Multipressor. Not a lot of people use this because there are paid plugins options that are very popular, like the FabFilter Pro Q3 or FabFilter Pro MB.
But if you don’t want spend money on either of those options, the Multipressor is a great free plugin.
If you’re not familiar with multiband compression, it’s essentially multiple compressors in one set to a particular frequency range. In this set up, we have one compressor that’s set from 20hz to 76hz, another from 76hz to 610hz, and the third compressor is going from 610hz to 5,000hz, and finally 5,000hz to 20,000z.
Using this plugin, we’re able to control the dynamics or volume of a particular set of frequencies. In this case we want to control the low mids and the mids as the singer changes as the singer changes notes, and they need different dynamic control.
Using the Multipressor, the vocals sound so much better and lighter. Why? Because we’re controlling some of those frequencies in the low to mid range. That makes the frequencies higher up appear to sound louder.
Serial Compression
After the Multibank, we’re using the Logic Platinum Digital Compressor, which is incredibly clean. We’re kind of using this as a limiter with a ratio of 12:1, Attack at 0, Release at 5 milliseconds, and then we’re pulling the threshold down to catch any peaks.
The adjustments are very subtle and transparent. The main reason for this compressor is because when we control the dynamics or volume with compression we want it to sound as natural as possible.
If you get one compressor to work really hard, it can sound like there’s a lot of pumping, which doesn’t translate to the most natural sound.
The third compressor in our chain is the Vintage Opter, which brings a smoother sound to the party. It’s got a low ration, so it’s not dealing with the peaks of the signal but the average and the body.
We’ve got a fast attack, but we’ve backed off a little bit so we’re at 3 milliseconds, and we’ve got a slow release of 690 milliseconds.
Hear the difference with the compressors on and the compressors off.
What dynamic control allows us to do is keep everything front and center and in your face. By controlling the loud volumes and bringing up the quieter volumes, we have a more sustained signal. And we did it all with free Logic Pro plugins.
Resonance Clean Up
Now it’s time to EQ. We’ve got the low cut here at 131 Hertz, a dip at 238, and another dip at 615, and a final one at 1,620.
We already know from earlier that between 200 and 300 hz the vocal is a little heavy in terms of frequency. The other areas are just a bit resonant. So we’re talking out a bit of the room in the low frequencies at 615 hz, and at 1,620 hz we’re taking out some of the harshness.
Analog Warmth
Logic Pro does have some vintage EQs that you can find in the Vintage EQ Collection. One of our favorites is the Vintage Console EQ based on the Neeve 1073. This is great if you want to add a bit of analog flavor to your signal.
Using a vintage EQ is different to a regular channel EQ because you’re adding harmonics to the signal and can change the ton, depending on the circuitry. Every analog EQ has different circuitry, which can affect the signal in different ways.
Here we’ve added a low cut at 160 hz and a low shelf cut at 220 hz to bring out some of that low end. We’re also doing a mid bell cut at 1.6, but we’re boosting the highs. This is about from 10 to 12k upwards to give the vocals some air and presence.
Toning Down the “S” with the Logic Pro DeEsser
When we added those high frequencies on the console EQ, we noticed the “s” sound in the vocals was popping a bit too much. We’re using the Logic Pro DeEsser 2 to handle this. We’re sticking to the default settings with the reduction lowered to a maximum of 3.5db.
Word to the wise: If you de-ess too much, it’ll sound like the vocalist’s teeth are missing. Not a great sound.
This EQ works in the same way as the multipressor, but it’s only focused on those high frequencies where the harshness comes through.
One More Free Logic Pro Plugin
We used one last channel EQ for a bit of shaping. We took out more low frequencies with a low shelf, a little bit at 915 and a lot at 3000, where we found more harshness was building. We also did a boost at 1700 hz.
Magic Sends
Finally, we added a series of sends that include small, medium, and long reverbs and delays. This helps add an element of space and rhythm with the echo. If you’re interested in learning more about sends, we’ve got another tutorial on the way about that, so stay tuned.
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And there you have it. You can match the sound of a mix made with over $500 worth of plugins using the free plugins available through Logic Pro.
If you need a place to store and share your mixes, give BoomBox a spin. You can sign up for free, and we’ll even throw in four gigs of storage.