Best Vocal Mixing Plug-in?

Prosthetic

The One-Armed Bastard
I am fairy new to mixing vocals and I need a plug-in that do the most with some somewhat bland vocals when originally recorded. I'm working on my first major project so I gotta be on point with the vox. I got the IzoTope Nectar plug-in for my FL but it doesn't seem like I can do much with it... Maybe I'm not using it right I dunno... Anyways could you recommend me a great plug-in for vocals if Nectar aint it? Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Agree with laurend - I'd dig into the manual for Nectar because it has pretty much every processor you'd ever need for vocals...
 
I guess I havent really dug deep into it, but at first it just seems like a bunch of presets, thats it. Imma look more into it
 
How does one end up with a $300 plugin without having a clue of its features? Oh, right...

Sorry Krushing but I've got to disagree. Everybody who ends up with a $6,000 Waves bundle knows how to use it. After careful calculations, I've concluded you're only required to have knowledge about your major purchases at or above $301. This still qualifies!! :)
 
I much prefer Waves as opposed to Nectar on Vocals. Plus Vocal Rider from Waves all but ELIMINATES the need to even compress vox anymore making your job way easier. Nectar is a great program but the presets don't give you enough creative freedom to mix your vocals right (Like carving out the eq from the reverb patches in Nectar" While plugins like R-verb from Waves have that option. If you have Waves go with that. Trust me. Ill be shortly posting up my vocal chain to help you guys out in a little bit.
 
"Vocal Rider works like an idealized version of a human engineer. Unlike typical compressors used to corral the vocals and keep them consistent within the mix, Vocal rider doesn't shrink the dynamic range of vocals or color them. AFTER YOU'VE GONE TO THE TROUBLE OF MAKING THE VOCALS SOUND AS GREAT AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN, you'll definitely appreciate how Vocal Rider performs. You can even write Vocal Rider's automatic adjustments as automation, then fine-tune adjustments manually. It's one of those rare time savers that actually improves the process. If you're serious about your mixes, then you need to get this plug-in!"

---------- Post added at 11:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:54 AM ----------

I am fairy new to mixing vocals and I need a plug-in that do the most with some somewhat bland vocals when originally recorded. I'm working on my first major project so I gotta be on point with the vox. I got the IzoTope Nectar plug-in for my FL but it doesn't seem like I can do much with it... Maybe I'm not using it right I dunno... Anyways could you recommend me a great plug-in for vocals if Nectar aint it? Thanks.

Waves jjp vocals might be the plugin that gives you the vocal presence your looking for from a weak recording. It has worked for me. Also bbe sound maximizer and harmonic exciter can sometimes help.
 
I am fairy new to mixing vocals and I need a plug-in that do the most with some somewhat bland vocals when originally recorded. I'm working on my first major project so I gotta be on point with the vox. I got the IzoTope Nectar plug-in for my FL but it doesn't seem like I can do much with it... Maybe I'm not using it right I dunno... Anyways could you recommend me a great plug-in for vocals if Nectar aint it? Thanks.

You are not using it correctly.

I can tell just from looking at their website that it has every processor you would need for your vocal mixing... and that it is fully programmable... and very simply laid out. It should be extremely easy to use. If you have trouble using Nectar, you will have trouble using any other processor.

---------- Post added at 03:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:17 PM ----------

I much prefer Waves as opposed to Nectar on Vocals. Plus Vocal Rider from Waves all but ELIMINATES the need to even compress vox anymore making your job way easier.

WaveRider serves a different purpose than a compressor.


Nectar is a great program but the presets don't give you enough creative freedom to mix your vocals right (Like carving out the eq from the reverb patches in Nectar" While plugins like R-verb from Waves have that option. If you have Waves go with that. Trust me.

"Creative freedom" comes from tweaking parameters... not from "presets"... "Presets" are, by definition, the ABSENCE of creative freedom.

And, FYI, I can see just from looking at the Nectar reverb interface on the website that it has the same adjustable EQ on the reverb that Waves RVerb has...

By the way, in my opinion, Waves Rverb is one of the WORST reverbs in existence... it sounds horrible... the one reverb i have (simply because it was part of my Waves bundle that i actually purchased) that I absolutely NEVER use.
 
I guess Im the only one who hates Nectar eh? Actually I hate all the izotope plugins, they are unnecessarily cpu intensive; and for the amount of processor they use they dont do half as good a job as you would expect... IMO a decent chain with an compressor, EQ, a little delay (for thickening), and a reverb send/return, is the best place to start... besides a well recorded vocal track :-)
 
Last edited:
I guess Im the only one who hates Nectar eh? Actually I hate all the izotope plugins, they are unnecessarily cpu intensive; and for the amount of processor they use they dont do half as good a job as you would expect... IMO a decent chain with an compressor, EQ, a little delay (for thickening), and a reverb send/return, is the best place to start... besides a well recorded vocal track :-)

I have absolutely no opinion on it.

I had never actually even heard of it until I read this thread... I just checked out the website to see what it does and whether or not it is programmable and what it's features and parameters are.

But it does have everything one would need to mix a vocal... and I am sure it does a fine job... regardless of whether it is something I would personally choose to use or even care to try, I would be willing to bet if you gave me something to mix and that one plugin that I would be just fine with it.

It would have to be pretty terrible to keep a person from completing a good mix...

(there are very very few plugins which are that terrible)

If he cant mix a vocal with Nectar, it is definitely not the plugin's fault.
 
I wonder if headshot will realize how much ppl are correcting him today.

---------- Post added at 11:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 AM ----------

I guess Im the only one who hates Nectar eh? Actually I hate all the izotope plugins, they are unnecessarily cpu intensive; and for the amount of processor they use they dont do half as good a job as you would expect... IMO a decent chain with an compressor, EQ, a little delay (for thickening), and a reverb send/return, is the best place to start... besides a well recorded vocal track :-)

Can you plz let me know of a better mastering effects chain than ozone???

Ozone is kind of soooooo sick.
 
I wonder if headshot will realize how much ppl are correcting him today.

---------- Post added at 11:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 AM ----------



Can you plz let me know of a better mastering effects chain than ozone???

Ozone is kind of soooooo sick.

No I can't... besides a real mastering engineer... That's my answer to any mastering question, a Mastering Engineer; and I hate Mastering, its completely unnecessary (now) and is just being kept alive by mastering houses and record labels who have just become accustomed to the practice...
 
How does one end up with a $300 plugin without having a clue of its features? Oh, right...

Hey krushing.....I got keys for a BMW M3 can you tell me how to drive it because it really doesn't look much different then a Kia really....I mean I don't really know anything about BMW's anyway. Oh nevermind I think I will just look for the Ferrari Keys torrent online and try a Ferrari instead.
 
No I can't... besides a real mastering engineer... That's my answer to any mastering question, a Mastering Engineer; and I hate Mastering, its completely unnecessary (now) and is just being kept alive by mastering houses and record labels who have just become accustomed to the practice...

Well let's plz not turn this into a digital vs analog shit flinging contest. That's like saying you aren't a real software engineer if you don't program in c++.

I'm a scientific engineer, and the only reason sound engineering and mastering engineers exist as professions is because of it being a specialization of scientific engineering.

Now the only reason the egos of these specialties exist is because ppl like to feel important. The mastering engineer who knows the difference between different plugins and rack equipment is the kind of person I can appreciate. The one who can appreciate the definition that each device brings to a result and the way to get the desired result is the goal of a true engineer in any aspect of scientific engineering. This is actually the goal of the most successful developers releasing plugins like ozone, whose goal is to bring us the best of both worlds by modeling analog processes with linear-precision.

I have seen the development of ozone for the past five years and it gets better with every version. In fact, version 4 was awesome and 5 is even better.

I know they say anyone can use it, but they need to sell their product. I'm a mastering engineer who uses it for electro and dubstep tracks. I have friends with vintage racks, and we all make great music. Those guys are a bunch of house headz. We are all real mastering engineers.

And, I know some producers like handing their work over to another professional, but when I dj, I know how I want my tracks mastered for computer speakers and loud sound systems, so why would I want someone else to do it for me unless they can do exactly what I tell them without any ego about how to get the result I want? I am always learning from other engineers, and there are some whose opinion I respect more than my own, but I even master all the tracks for my label because I'm the one who knows how I want the music reproduced and distributed when I want it done and it saves me from having to buy the beer this weekend. I never sleep so I'm up for playing ball.
 
Why do people get so defensive on this forum if someone states their opinions. We all love music. IT'S ALL LOVE. Now, with that out of the way. Your opinion that R-Verb is a horrible sounding reverb is obviously your opinion. I didn't say R-verb was the best I just stated a feature it had. Secondly, I would love to know how vocal rider is different than a compressor? Isn't a compressor just an automated fader? Also, I understand creative freedom comes from tweaking parameters to your own personal need I just did not word it right. What I was basically trying to say is that Nectar's presets aren't all that great in my opinion. The End.
 
Why do people get so defensive on this forum if someone states their opinions. We all love music. IT'S ALL LOVE. Now, with that out of the way. Your opinion that R-Verb is a horrible sounding reverb is obviously your opinion. I didn't say R-verb was the best I just stated a feature it had. Secondly, I would love to know how vocal rider is different than a compressor? Isn't a compressor just an automated fader? Also, I understand creative freedom comes from tweaking parameters to your own personal need I just did not word it right. What I was basically trying to say is that Nectar's presets aren't all that great in my opinion. The End.

You are the one becoming defensive, by the way.

And I did say that rverb being a poor reverb is my opinion.

And I was letting you know that nectar has the same eq functions as rverb.

Anyway...

A compressor is different from "riding a fader" or "automating a level" (which is what Vocal Rider is emulating)...


A compressor has a "sound" while automating a level simply evens out levels.

Without getting too much into how a compressor works or what the purpose is or what one sounds like...

A compressor has an (sometimes) adjustable attack that let's some defined amount of the signal through before it reduces the level at some defined ratio... And the level reduction recovers at some defined rate (also sometimes user adjustable)...

This causes sounds to be "punchy" or to "lose their attack" or to "pump and breathe"...

"compression" has a "sound"... Pro engineers don't use compressors to "even out performances"... Pro engineers use compression when the want "the sound of compression"...

It's peaks get lowered... This is different from "leveling out"

This is a quite different result from simultaneously lowering highs and raising lows (and a compressor does not "raise lows")... And it is quite different in sound since automation works without "attack" and "release" being a factor.

Compression is literally "squashing" the signal... It is bringing a ceiling down on the audio and squashing it... That sounds much different from evening out a performance level.

---------- Post added at 11:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 PM ----------

A compressor reduces dynamic range, a fader does not.

Actually, if you are riding a fader or automating a level to even out a performance... You are reducing dynic range...

You are reducing the difference between the lows and the highs making them all more uniform... Thereby "reducing the range of the dynamics" or "reducing the dynamic range"...

But it is done in a VERY different way and with a VERY different result from compression.
 
You are the one becoming defensive, by the way.

And I did say that rverb being a poor reverb is my opinion.

And I was letting you know that nectar has the same eq functions as rverb.

Anyway...

A compressor is different from "riding a fader" or "automating a level" (which is what Vocal Rider is emulating)...


A compressor has a "sound" while automating a level simply evens out levels.

Without getting too much into how a compressor works or what the purpose is or what one sounds like...

A compressor has an (sometimes) adjustable attack that let's some defined amount of the signal through before it reduces the level at some defined ratio... And the level reduction recovers at some defined rate (also sometimes user adjustable)...

This causes sounds to be "punchy" or to "lose their attack" or to "pump and breathe"...

"compression" has a "sound"... Pro engineers don't use compressors to "even out performances"... Pro engineers use compression when the want "the sound of compression"...

It's peaks get lowered... This is different from "leveling out"

This is a quite different result from simultaneously lowering highs and raising lows (and a compressor does not "raise lows")... And it is quite different in sound since automation works without "attack" and "release" being a factor.

Compression is literally "squashing" the signal... It is bringing a ceiling down on the audio and squashing it... That sounds much different from evening out a performance level.

---------- Post added at 11:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 PM ----------



Actually, if you are riding a fader or automating a level to even out a performance... You are reducing dynic range...

You are reducing the difference between the lows and the highs making them all more uniform... Thereby "reducing the range of the dynamics" or "reducing the dynamic range"...

But it is done in a VERY different way and with a VERY different result from compression.
I stand corrected. Understood. It just seems as though Vocal Rider is a breakthrough plugin. You can use very light compression settings and vocal rider and have balanced VOX. Something that was not as easily attainable before.
 
Back
Top