5 Tips For Better Live Vocal Mixes - Mixing Live Vocals - Live Sound Tutorial - Shown on X32 & XR18

Improve your vocal mixes! Vocals are one of the most important aspects of a live audio mix, typically layered on top of all of the other musical instruments to varying degrees. Blending lead and background vocals. Harmony vocals. Audience members want to hear the singer! Especially true with popular modern music, musicians, and audiences. It all starts with a good singer, a good vocal microphone, and solid audio engineering practices.

This vocal mixing tutorial is applicable to any console, or processing. Various vocal mixing tips and tricks are shown.
Live Sound Reinforcement Tutorial - " 5 Tips For Mixing Live Vocals " discusses audio mixing topics like EQ (vocal equalization), HPF (high pass filter / low cut), vocal compression, reverb and other topics involved when mixing live band vocals. The video features Behringer X32 and XR18 (Midas M32 and MR18) consoles for demonstration purposes. The information is applicable to all digital consoles and analog audio mixing consoles as well though. The audio mixer surface or GUI might change, but the mixing goals and basic information and concepts stay the same.

This video is targeted to live audio but is applicable to studio work as well.
Useful for cover bands, audio engineers, sound techs, home recording enthusiasts, duos, churches, touring bands, praise bands, soloists, duos, singing groups, clubs, auditoriums, various musicians, and any person / aspiring tech interested in audio mixing.

Solid, audio vocal settings are also important to proper stage monitoring and can start right there. Setting Up The Behringer X32 For Monitors:

The information can also be applied to studio recording and DAW mixing techniques, though live sound presents some challenges not faced in the studio.

Both the X32 and XR18 (and Midas M32 and MR18) can be controlled with software running on the PC or Apple's Mac platform. Both can also use apps on Android tablets and the iPad. They can be connected directly or use wifi with a proper wifi router.
X-Edit, M-Edit, X-Air Edit, Mixing Station are all popular software option options.

~~~~~~
►Script files and other tutorials and info in PDF format as well as scene and library files at the Patreon Page.
►Patreon Page:
~~~~~~
Affiliate Links:

►Vocal Mics for sale at Sweetwater:

►Mixers for sale at Sweetwater:

►Amazon Affiliate Links:

►►Amazon -Channel Storefront:

Shure SM57 on Amazon:

Shure SM58 on Amazon:

Shure Beta 58 on Amazon:

Shure Super 55 "Elvis Mic" on Amazon:

Behringer XR18 on Amazon:

Midas MR18 on Amazon:

Behringer X32 on Amazon:

Midas M32 on Amazon:

Gator Cases G-TOUR ATA Style Road Case - Custom Fit for Behringer X32 with Dog House and Heavy Duty 4" Casters; (G-TOUR X32) on Amazon:

Stellar XT (Narration) Mic on Amazon:
--------------------
►Facebook Group:

.

EQ Cheat Sheet From @Producelikeapro :

►Suggested videos:
5 Typical Mistakes Behringer X32 and Midas M32 Users Make:

5 Typical Mistakes Behringer XR18 and Midas MR18 Users Make:

X32 / M32 Gain Staging and Signal Flow (Soundcheck Basics Series):

XR18 / MR 18 Gain Staging and Signal Flow:

Audio Compression 101 / Compression Basics:

Behringer "Vintage" Reverb Tutorial:

Behringer X32 DCA Tutorial (with DCA Spill Discussion):

How To EQ A Snare Drum:

Live Production Playlist:

0:00 Intro
0:10 Tip #1
1:56 Tip #2
3:38 Tip #3
7:37 Tip #4
9:30 Tip #5
11:25 Bonus Tips

#BehringerX32
#MidasM32
#MusicTribe
#LiveSound

Summary:
5 Tips For Better Live Vocal Mixes is a Live Sound Tutorial with a focus on the X32. Overall Digital Console Tutorial and Audio Mixing Tutorial for audio engineers and vocalists. Concepts are focused on vocals and vocal mixing and include standard Behringer Setup. Equalizer setup. Reverb setup. These topics also apply to Digico, Avid, Yamaha, Allen - Heath, Mackie, and other audio mixing consoles.

"As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."
"As a Sweetwater Affiliate member I earn from qualifying purchases."

[harpplant]

Also very important: Choosing the right microphone! This sometimes makes eq'ing obsolete. A mic fitting the vocalist makes her or him hear and therefore perform better.

[michaelst]

20 years ago, when I first started doing FOH, a wise sound man told me "Bring up the vocal effects till you can hear them, then back them down 3-4 clicks, let the listeners ears do the work, most vocal effects are really psycho-acoustic events". I still get compliments on my vocal mixes. Of course there are times when the effect is part of the song, like a Robert Plant echo.

Another tips is watch out for drums in the vocal mics. Cymbals have a sneaky way of finding open vocal mics.

[docholiday]

"...sometimes you just need to let the band be the band." How true! Great wisdom and technique outlined in this video.

[edwardjameshruby]

I have nothing to add. The only differences in setup and process are individual performers and equipment.
I'm pleased to know, my mentor quickly cemented this exact process, years ago. Great job.

[edwinwise]

Great advice.. nothing can ruin your vocals faster than the desk being set wrong .played at a club where sound guy had my vocals at 3 times louder than parody

[josephnorris]

This is awesome! Thank you for putting this together.

[FurtiveSkeptical]

Aligning the rejection areas of the microphones being used, with the stage monitors.
Also, ideally, I've found that having access to the stage performance area and using your EQ to
'ring out' any bad resonant frequencies that naturally occur, given the particular size/ shape/acoustic dampness of a room in question.
That, coupled with getting your band to give you examples of their, louder, more aggressive tones and playstyle you'd encounter in a typical set.
This allows you to avoid most
'sudden level surprises'....a hot synth patch, a boost pedal for guit solo, a song with a bit more screaming fire in vocals than last number, etc.
Doing this at the gain staging part of your setup allows you to have a reasonable idea what will and won't happen if, during the course of the show, should you have to raise the master level.
Lastly, this one's tough, try to achieve the quietest ' relative ' stage sound as a band you can. Nothing guts a Front of House Mix (and the band's ability to be dynamic) more than everyone insisting their monitor/amps be cranked.
Pings, howls, rings being pushed into the main mix and makes for instability and a strange, inverted, hollow barrel-ish version of your FOH start to poke thru your main mix from the monitors.
In ear monitors fix this, but they aren't for everyone.
Thanks for video. 👍

[ashstanke]

Thanks for all your contributions to helping those of who need it Alan! Great advice for the beginner and intermediate pseudo sound guy (aka guitarist in the band!)

[chandlerkessler]

Great video! Thank you so much for the time spent on this. I learned a few new things!

[greenpea]

I tell you what. This was a damn fine video right here. I ran sound for about 8 years then stopped around 2 years ago. I'm back in the saddle so to speak and this was a nice refresher to think about.

[tronlady]

Perfect voiceover audio! No mouth noises! No low end breathing! Thankyou 🙏

[TommyC-njrt]

super informative and appreciate your taking the time to explain every step articulately and thoroughly.

[MrRockandBlues]

Thank You so much! I really appreciate the help and advise!

[XaRuS]

Your videos are excellent, precise and concise advices, with real case uses... It's invaluable to me as a newbie to digital consoles, many thanks for all of these videos !!

[mikesledge]

I'm adapting studio knowledge from years ago into live. Luckily I had a deep education on compression.
I've adapted my routing to have a general bus for main instrument groups. That layer holds my feedback suppression and main peak 'limiting' for extreme moments, but more often for layered vocals that won't fall off the mic a bit.
I compress most vocal channels with a generous knee to level them out a bit...

[KSsoundguy]

I've done sound for years and your spot on. Well done videos I might add so I'm now a follower. Kudos to you!

[wanderblitz]

I find the last part very helpful, sometimes I get too panicky about my mix that I tend to overthink about everything in the console. Just like the mix, I also need to breathe and just sit back and listen before I adjust something. As an amateur live audio tech, your channel is such a godsend. Thank you so much!

[NonnyStrikes]

This alone helped me a ton, can't say enough. The most recent video on output routing I feel was somewhat part of my confusion haha.

It all came down to me complicating things when I didn't need to. Stepping back and thinking piece by piece while keeping the future on the backburner, helped a ton.

[ThomasLoyd]

Alan, excellent video as always! One thing I've done with my BA in Linguistics is use the knowledge of phonetics (sound production points in human mouth & throat) and the frequencies associated with those to help in my mixing. I also enjoy the tips you have because we've standardized on M32/X32 mixers for our two church campuses and this makes it so much easier to work with and understand them for both FOH and live streaming which I work with the most. Thank you as always!

[watchmanvancouver]

Simple and precise. As a “serious karaoke” singer with my own mixer, your video tutorial is very good advice for me to master a digital mixer and how to EQ a live band situation.👍👏🏼😘🙏🏼😇🐷