Every Song On Earth Should Use This Vocal Mixing Trick

[storah-raw]

A before/after comparison would have been really cool

[NickLynar]

I’ve been mixing and producing for 15 years and this just blew my mind !

[necroticpoison]

For those that don't own soothe but want to try out a free form of this (and simple), check out TDR Nova. You can sidechain with it, and use the dynamic eq bands to affect whichever areas you would like, with whichever q.

[kiingjk]

I LOVE THAT YOU KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE. IM TIRED OF CLICKING ON VIDEOS AND WAITING 10 MINUTES FOR SOMEONE TO EXPLAIN SIMPLE THINGS LIKE THIS!! THANK YOU

[JakeAdkinsOfficial]

This is like the most important mixing tip ever. I feel like everyone should learn this right off the bat but almost no one does. Thanks for this.

[paulmisty]

I'll add that:
1. Soothe reduces the frequency unaware of potential frequency maskings. This means that the instrumental will be reduced in volume as soon as there is a vocal coming in.
2. There are other plugins that are specialised for unmasking duties that analyse the s/c input and then only lower the volume if there is any frequency masking happening.
→ in short words: Soothe doesn't care what's going on in the instrumental. It's reducing the incoming s/c signal away from the instrumental - even if there was no real problem with clashing frequencies (masking). On the other hand, there are plugins that analyse masking problems and only reduce if there IS a problem.

Ducking plugins: Soothe, Trackspacer, Multiband Compressors.
Unmasking plugins: SmartComp 1 and 2, SmartEQ4.

[SteveBakerProducerMusician]

Very useful info to share for people learning to mix or producing their own Pop style tracks with loads of synths etc. Soothe is great but also so is Trackspacer for around £50. A thought I had which might be useful to share here: techniques like this are most relevant for 'modern Pop, EDM, Dance Pop' and genres that are super slick, sonically dense and full of layers of synths. BUT if you actually work on arrangements that minimise masking (the problem being solved by the technique in this vid), then side-chain EQ, dynamic EQ / multi-band compression etc don't really need to be used as much. The most experienced of the Pro mixers (and probably those close to dinosaur age) will always talk about the fact the mixing starts with the arrangement. Well-arranged tracks mix themselves - it's a principle that goes back to older times, but still holds true. Listen to the tone of the singer's voice and the other main focal points and choose other sounds (synths, guitars etc) the complement them and don't mask them. Also, if you leave space in your arrangement for the vocal to breath, the music is much easier to mix. But again, most modern Dance Pop isn't made like that - some is though. Just listen to Billie Eilish production. So clean!

[guthriejenkins]

The mixing part of this is as excellent as always but the video production is also crazy good. The way you overlaid the frequency spectra was just so perfect! Sound effects, close-ups, zoom-ins, ... awesome!!!

[kydiamusic]

Thanks for this! It took me awhile but I figured out how to do this in Ableton:
Set up a Return Track, toggle the Post/Pre button to Pre
Turn down the Return track to -inf
Route your vocal track to the Return Track; all the way up to zero
Put Soothe2 on your Instrument Group
Sidechain it to the Return track, Post FX (this is in the Audio Effects bar at the bottom, not in the Plug-in window itself)
In the Plug-in view of Soothe2, turn on the Sidechain button
From there, you should be able to toggle the Delta button on and off to hear the vocals--this is easier to hear if you solo the Instrument group AND the Return track

[TheAJKid]

this is the best use of Soothe 2 I've ever seen and I'm going to try this. Hats off to this man. I've rarely used Soothe 2 since I bought Pro Q 3.

[starrmixstudios]

This is fire. It makes so much more sense to use soothe instead of a dynamic eq! Excellent tip!

[freqhandy]

Excellent explanation of one of my favourite techniques! More dynamic version of bus splitting and phase inversion of the copied vocal, or master bus compression/creating instrumental duck side-chained to vocal.

[maxmonies]

I use trackspacer. It's great. Send the vocal through a send to the backing music. Move the high and low pass towards the kids so you don't lose the sheen on top or the bottom, but carve out the kids you need for vocal clarity.

[pfft]

Note for people taking this as a perfect solution: the problem with making a perfect inversion of the dynamics means that the backing track gets cut most when a loud sound comes in, and cut the least for quietest sounds-- in other words, the opposite of what we need to make room. The loudest parts were already loud enough to cut through and now they've got even more space, and the quietest parts that needed the most room get the least attention.

It's still a useful tool for your arsenal, just don't get confused about what it's doing. Keep in mind what's actually happening, so that you'll know if it's right for your mix or if you need to compensate for it.

[tamashalo]

Super good content man your videos are getting super pro as well....
Worth mentioning that if you use soothe 2 in 'mid side mode' instead of left/right for vocal carving, you could have your instruments 'wrap around the vocal' better. Just adjust the balance to be 20-30% side the rest mainly mid where your vocal sits 🧡🧡

[iamOnenO]

I would suggest turning the “quality” from 1x to 4x when doing this technique. I have noticed some artifacts in my instrumental channel while at 1x, but switching to 4x preserves my mix. Great video man! Keep it up!

[kadenjames]

His editing to make the complex things seem so simple is underrated 🔥

[ultralion]

havent seen your videos in a while and oh my god the production values and editing you've implemented are insane. the hard work is showing man! keep it up!

[tarastmichel]

This is basically similar to what I do with TDR Nova. I send the vocal bus to unused channels in Reaper and use those as the sidechain reference in Nova. This will work with pretty much any dynamic EQ or multi-band compressor and it’s great for mixing to premade beats when you can’t adjust anything to carve out the space manually even if you wanted to. You only really need to do it on any frequencies that are actively obscuring the vocal too much and not every single space the vocal exists. I usually do somewhere in the mids and around 5khz since those are usually spots that clash with vocal clarity and depth.

[kidknik]

You have opened my mind to so much with your courses and training methods, thank you so much for the value you bring to the community. You are creating artists! It’s people like you that make the world a better place with better music. Nobody should have to struggle when it comes to learning music production. Thank you again!