Tips for Mixing Live Vocals

Sweetwater's front of house mixing engineer Shawn Dealey shares some tips and techniques on how to mic live vocals. With Shawn's years of experience he is able to dive into some of the best strategies for mixing live vocals. Having experienced all sorts of live settings, his tips for mixing live vocals will help sound engineers of all skill levels.

0:00 - Intro
0:47 - Microphone Technique
1:13 - Gain Staging
1:29 - Monitor Mixing
1:41 - High-Pass Filter
1:56 - EQ On Vocals
2:22 - Compression
3:10 - Tools For Better Mix
3:55 - Vocal Effects
5:15 - Thanks For Watching!

#Sweetwater #MixingLiveVocals

[sweetwater]

Did you find these tips helpful? Let us know in the comments 👇 and share any tips you would add! Want more tips for getting a great mix? Hit those like and subscribe buttons 👍

[lopakaholmberg]

This is a great overview of his signal chain, but 5 more min with an audio sample would have been killer

[betweenthedimensions]

already knew most of the basics, but i really appreciate hearing the number ranges he uses on different settings. cheers!

[louiedx]

These tips absolutely helpful I wanna try it on my mixing in live situation.

[doctorgrowl]

If you add pitch shift and delay for more depth to the vocal, do you keep the vocalist's monitor sound clean? Or do you let the vocalist hear it with the added effects?

[dreammix]

Hey thank you for the great tips! These are all things I can definitely use.

[jamtayokuyaken]

Really Helpful. Thank you very much from the Philippines!

[tukstuimaba]

What do I do if vocals is not coming out from the monitors but the front only ?

[Unplugged]

I went to this bar/club where a live band was playing. The room was maybe 100’x100’

The sound was amazing… well mixed. Vocals were buttery smooth, and sat well in the mix…almost studio sounding.

Besides EQ, compression, reverb and delay…. Is there an effects unit that gives the vocals that butter smooth sound?

[achalorocks]

On compressors, in what case would you go up to 6:1 on vocals? Wouldn’t that kind of kill an energy gain that the vocalists could bring to the mix? Been running a board for two years and am still learning, but we usually run 2:1 on vocals and just pull down vocalists individually if they get too loud or the vocals as a whole with grouping on a fader. Just curious on the usage of ratios that high.

[mattzach]

this is a great video, but what would be more awesome is if its applied hands on in the video maybe a mock concert or even a real one, all the while being documented and add narrations later after recording everything. Thanks for these videos sweetwater!

[rafama]

I wonder if you can review Luke Silva's live performances and breakdown what tools and settings he has. I love to sing (at home) on gatherings but I want to level it up a bit by sounding like him. 😊

[zornzembrano]

Have to watch with raising the gain not only for clipping but for background noise too.

[jayedwardsuk]

Anyone know wjta thr basoc eq mix would be via thr jmix8 for damce music singers ?

[jeffdtre]

what is industry standard for front of house to measure

[GreenAsJade]

Hmm - this video is about live ... I presume we mean "live performance as opposed to studio". In that context, do you really try to pingpong vocals?

[martenmanna]

Just a question out of curiosity, whats that mixer behind him/the one hes using in the video?

[axtonbenita]

Witch digital mixer is that...??(Brand)

[BAILEYWOODWORKS]

This is really great stuff. Are there more videos about mixing and EQ?

[onzkicg]

Hi, during live mix are you still listening on headphones or just the house L/R speakers? Is headphones reliable for checking critical level balance of band? I’m using Allen Heath QU24 and every time I use HP to check level balance, the mic is obviously loud all the time, but in speakers it sounds ok already, with the band.

What’s the philosophy behind using headphones? Is it for soundcheck only or always reliable all throughout the mix? I mean is it like balance everything using headphones first (primary) then double check in speakers (secondary) ? Thanks