I do my name is Lu Diaz I'm a mess
engineer producer based out of Miami
Florida I've been mixing and producing
for 25 years and I'd like to show you
some tips and tricks on doing some
hip-hop vocals
so Tony mics vocals for the song that he
provided which is called paradise they
were recorded in South Jersey and then
some of them were also recorded in
actual studios which were in right now
and the rest of his project was done
also in Miami let me play this session
for you guys so you guys get familiar
with the song and get to know when I mix
to me like the main thing is control so
anything that's bothering you out of the
vocal like when you listen to a vocal
you open up a session first thing I do
is listen to the vocal and just listen
to frequencies that are jumping out at
me that may be you know hurting my ears
so believe it or not I will actually
turn the vocal really loud and listen to
it a really really loud level and see
and listen to the things and areas are
better they're bothering me first thing
I'll do is run like for example like
this is email q4 and it's just to take a
little bit of that say from like 50
Hertz all the way down mainly because
you may be on a system idea so parent
understands or you may be mixing at home
and you're not hearing 40 Hertz or 30
very low sub frequencies and then you
may let the mix go and then you go to a
club and suddenly you hear this
slaughter or something that's because
that was happening in the vocal you
never know where these vocals are
recorded and you just assume that you
know what let's just wipe those
frequencies out and get them out of
there and then the next thing I do is
the c6 obviously is to target all these
little frequencies that bother me about
the vocal and I'm able to sort of get my
first wave of getting that vocal under
control so here's the c6 bypassed I hate
to talk but I'm never affected I'm deep
in my pockets lucky for me I just came
here to eat I don't feed in the gossip
back so when you listen that vocal you
have to start hearing what's bothering
you about the vocal the first thing I do
is use a c6 to tailor the sections that
bother me
so what I love about it is I'm able to
trim back
and I have the choice of having you know
a baron with the choice of the natak Tom
have a choice of a release not just for
that one frequency and the envelope I
can actually make it a wider compression
and so what happens is for example here
I'm gonna solo real quick so you can
hear the frequency I'm trying to pull
back now the great thing about it is
you're able to you can sort of go
fishing for it sweep across to find the
frequency you want so for me that's the
problem in that vocal right around that
above 2 K maybe 3 K and I'm able to also
zero in even more on the frequency by
changing the cue and then I'll go and
now you see the reduction that's
happening right so let's hear it with it
on I'm gonna bypass the first I hear to
talk but I'm never affected I'm deep in
my pockets
lucky for me I just came here to eat I
don't feed in the gossip back of my
owner it's a very subtle thing but as
you start adding EQ as you start adding
effects as you start adding compression
these freaker's are gonna jump out at
you so for me that's what's so important
and same goes for the low end so here at
the low end part I'm actually doing the
same thing that's controlling all that
boxy feel that you give with vocals so
this is why the c6 to me is essentially
I usually like literally on every every
vocal that ever worked on after that I
follow with Manny's Triple D which I
love because it's again another sort of
c6 but it's a catch-all so you can see
that the harsher part which is basically
this frequency I'll solo for you I'm
hitting that frequency again I hit it
with the c6 but I like to have Manny's
come after it to just to catch a little
bit more same thing with the the boxing
area I also use that and then I'll even
go further and how to c1 and I put it in
a lot of the de-esser preset and the
same thing I'd go through the
frequencies that bother me and you can
listen to him
fact that I'm deep in my pockets very
subtle at that frequency that I'm
hitting around 250 and then the last
thing I do is usually my DSA now granted
every vocal has you know a different
need for de-essing but you always want
to have a DSR there just in case
and that de-essing for all those you
don't know handles all the siblings all
the frequencies from 7 up not very
bright so I'll show you for example what
we're doing here basic is grabbing all
the esses and pulling all those SS down
and then after that here's where I'm
adding things to the vocal and I love
the APR I love the high end on the API
so if I want to brighten and give it a
little shine I'm giving it that shine
after I dust it right because I've
controlled it and I'm able to bring that
vocal up and give it that brightness
that it's lacking without it bothering
you I'll play it to you without and with
lucky for me I just came here to eat I
don't feed in the gossip back on my own
I to earn my respect in a trip right so
these things I do after I control the
woken that's why the chain goes the way
it goes and the very end like I said
before it's the our box and that's what
brings the entire group out to the front
and I'll play it to you without it with
it
[Music]
I could say your insanity you can see
what happens but you can't do this
without all the other steps first
because if you do this now without any
guessing without any banned target you
know compression all those frequencies
that just jumped out I thought I'm gonna
jump out and bother you even more and
when you you know when you bring all the
elements back in or the rest of the of
the track you'll be able to play and
pull that vocal forward and backwards
you know that that's where where the
sweet spot for me are for vocals and
that's that's really the the basics of a
walk with Jenny why I have them in the
order that I have my control first
everything I can and then I start doing
what's you know brightening things up
and adding things and then finishing
with a compressor but mixing like
eyelids and vocal stacks and overdubs
and all that stuff if it's if it's a
vocal that's supporting the lead vocal
so in other words just a double to the
local you want to treat it as a lead
vocal you want to keep in mono and put
it you know behind the lead vocal but
when it comes to eyelids and when it
comes to you know sweeteners is what we
call them to me I like pushing those on
to the stereo field I like to leave the
lead vocal as much as possible in the
middle unless the producer or the artist
specifically want them down in the
middle or close I spread them out as far
as I possibly can because it just opens
up the stair feel for one and it gives
that vocal room to sit by itself one
thing you have to keep in mind when you
do pants something out all the way like
for example in this particular song you
can see here in both these cases you see
how all my my ad libs are spread out
full stereo you have to be careful is
when you send something to stereo all
the way you're gonna hear a lot more
than you would if it was down the middle
with the rest of the track so when you
bring it out be mindful to pull that
bottom back so it doesn't overcome the
lead vocal but and in this particular
session if you can see I actually use
the doubler here which really helps with
spreading that well out right and in
this case yes whispers
[Music]
back on my own I was making a chip
so in this vocal I had to lead down the
middle and then there's only one whisper
track right I just went ahead and put
the doubler on it to give it that the
stereo field since I can't pan it out
and this is a whisper I'm able to boom
there's the are box and the are box has
squashed it to really get with the
energy really feel upfront and then push
it back a little bit and then it comes
on nice and clear here everything is
saying and it's not overcoming the lead
vocal in the middle of the group overall
after that you know after the vocals
controlled after I have the eyelids
panned after the are boxes on the group
bringing everything forward you still
have effects used to have delays you
have verbs you have flanges you have all
these things you can use to give the
vocal sort of depth or fit into the
feeling of the of the song and then a
delay is always your friend h delay i
like to have depending on the song a
quarter on ping-pong sometimes at eighth
and stereo whatever it is that sounds
good with the song and those are the
little touches you you you use to just
give all the vocal elements a little
sparkle a little shine you know and for
me I'm not big on giant effects I just
like the effect to feel like something
and not stick out of the track so much
obviously if you want to just delay one
word you'd want to you need to automate
that one word right if you leave it
static throughout throughout the
throughout the throughout the mix Union
every word is going to delay now in
certain senses you want to use a static
delay like I used for example here
[Music]
so I'm using this h delay and I'm using
it at a triplet and the reason for that
is just to the temple of it feels a
little different the rhythmic miss of it
feels a little different and it's very
low in the in the mix it's just there to
create air to create a mood just the way
of a verb would be used but if I were to
turn that send up it would sound
ridiculously loud you don't I mean so
what you want to do is when you do a
throw they lie when you're highlighting
something yes in that case you'd want to
automate them but a static delays
usually for me is used to create an
effect to create a mood to create a feel
for them for the for the vocal I'm gonna
show you just real quick a little delay
throw that I used on this verse so that
means you automate the actual scent I
have a delay sat at a quarter 145 BPM
and a little bit of a high pass a little
bit of a low pass so it has a little
radio effect so just only the word
milady was sent to the delay on the
actual vocal if you wanted to do that
whether they cute it's super simple it's
the same principle
you sweep everything out from the low
end and everything off from the high end
and maybe you know 1k maybe to 3k you
you might want to bump up that and give
it that that radio effect so I'm using
the req and you see I'm sweeping
everything from 500 down and I'm
boosting a little bit here around 2k so
I said before and that gives you the
radio for all solar for you and then
we'll play with with him without that's
with it and this is without it right so
the other delay has that same radio
effects altogether and then in context
of the song
[Music]
DJ crazy said he got a session so
there's a section in the song where we
wanted to use the that out of that
t-pain effect and we plugged in waves
tuned and you can see right here I'll
play the section real quick it's pretty
self-explanatory you know we just slam
in the slam in the settings you want the
correction all the way up you want the
speed to be as fast as possible and you
know we're just we're after that
t-pain effect and with the waves tune
retune we're able to do it super easy
super quick I'm going to show you the
effect we used waves reach them to do it
and obviously you've got to find the key
of the song in this case is a major and
then your speed and your correction got
to be slammed but it's fairly simple you
get to hangover really Greg I'll solo
one vocal real quick so you can hear it
without it I'm a city where you need to
strap up but didn't know long - every
time I I'm a city where you need to
strap up but didn't know long - every
time I hit it right or run in doing
wrong that's how you do it I was raised
by the shade and see them snakes in the
garden another change I'm more than
doing drills in the garden and the hills
god no the kid in the garden no names no
talking make some medicine