Frustrated with Mixing Vocals

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Paris Davidson Jr.

New member
i have been trying to mix and EQ my vocals for a couple of weeks now with fl studio , and i just can not make them sound like professional quality . i've tried different plugins , different ways to EQ , even a different microphone , but its just not sounding how i want it . im really lost and frustrated at this point and i would appreciate any advice .
 
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You're gonna hate this, but just keep trying. Move on tracks and work on others, you WILL get better. You said "a few weeks" and are looking for a professional sound. Professional's are professional for a reason, they have put the time in! Mix, EQ, compressor, reverb, you know all the tools. It's just practice and experimentation, there is no secret every track is different. The more you do the more you will come to a self-understanding and you will become quicker and quicker at it. Don't give up! Frustration can lead people to stop reaching their dreams, don't reach for professional, but compare your new work to old work and you will realize you are slowly getting better!
 
Let me give you a quick wake up call: its going to take a lot longer than a couple weeks to get your vocals sounding like professional quality. I too struggle with vocals and the best thing you can do is watch as many tutorials as possible and practice what you learn. Dave pensado has free videos, ken lewis has some paid ones. You gotta learn and practice a bunch, and even then you have some work to do. The ultimate goal is to know what the task is and know how to accomplish it. A lot of people just do processing that they saw other people doing and wonder why it doesn't sound good.
 
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Try recording in another room your room might affect the recording
If not, try different mics (more than one)

And last, jst so you know, vocals doesn't always need to sound good on their on they need to sound good in a mix.. Sometimes if you make the perfect vocals in solo and then mix around it you'll find that you need to change them anyway
 
Mixing is a pain but once you learn how to do it, it makes sense. You learn to do certain things that really make a huge difference. It takes years to learn how to mix really well, but I recommend learning how to pan properly and don't overdue the eq or compression. I do mixing and mastering at low prices if you are interested lmk. tonyfinesse@outlook.com
 
Have you tried a different room? A bit of acoustic treatment around you, to reduce the natural reverb. 80% of your vocal sound comes from, the room, the mic and the preamp. If you've recorded a good take, in tune, on time, with a decent mic and in a good room, you should have a great sounding vocal already.

Mixing wise, a touch of corrective EQ to remove any unpleasant frequencies and compression to keep the vocal level. Now for a basic mix, a hint of reverb/delay and a de-esser (if needed) will 9 times out of 10 do the job.
 
Paris Davidson Jr. said:
i have been trying to mix and EQ my vocals for a couple of weeks now with fl studio , and i just can not make them sound like professional quality . i've tried different plugins , different ways to EQ , even a different microphone , but its just not sounding how i want it . im really lost and frustrated at this point and i would appreciate any advice .
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Your not going to learn that fast... even after a year....

Trying is different from succeeding. You can try to throw a football 100 ft but if you can only throw to 50ft you ain't getting shit done!!!

You can try jump in a nascar and race on the track but just because you jump in a nascar does not make you on their level.

Just had to clear up that trying does not mean you are doing anything right :D Now obviously you have to try, I am just saying trying doesn't mean succeeding :D

You can Try to EQ, but if your a derp and boost the low end on your vocals all you did was make it worst...... hell I bet some people EQ their vocals worst then what it started out as (in fact I know some people who do it).

You'll have to do more than just EQ your vocals and even EQ can get annoying sometimes if the beat is clashing with your vocals.

For example

I have had people with good mics send me their vocals/instrumentals and I mixed/mastered it and sent it back to them. Because they had good mics and sent me their crap with no effects on it they said it sounds much better.

I have had people send me vocals with crappy recordings that were not only clipping but used a horrible microphone, and to make matters worst then even added effects like reverb.....

Then they expect me to be able to mix that stuff??? Its like impossible to EQ a vocal when the person already put reverb on their vocal, now when you EQ their vocal all yoru doing is boosting the reverb along with their vocal....

So

#1 - Don't clip your vocals when recording
#2 - Use a decent mic, don't use built in laptop mics or $20 garbage mics
#3 - Don't record in a bathroom :D
#4 - Don't use MP3 instrumentals, use Wav file
#5 - Record your vocals as best as you possibly can

#1 - put everything on a separate track
#2 - solo everything separate
#3 - EQ
#4 - Compress
#5 - De-ess
#6 - Reverb
#7 - whatever else you want
#8 - Adjust all volumes really low and mix at low volume
#9 - After you mixed everything put a limiter on the master track and raise the track to 0db so its as loud as possible

EQ the beat if its clashing, ect.

The only people I cannot mix are people who sent me stupid vocals with effects already on them, like what is the point of asking me to mix something that is impossible to mix.

People fail at life.

The funny thing is I have mixed peoples songs to sound 10x better than my own, because at the time I wasn't using a de-esser, and was just quickly making tracks for the hell of it.

I only took serious the mixes people paid me for, which is why when I do those people I put them into a different FL Studio where I have a ton of plugins.

If you don't know what your doing with EQ you can easily screw up your vocals and make them sound worst, especially if you boost the high or low end to much or accidentally lower a part of your voice that you shouldn't have lowered.

If you screw up compression on your vocals your going to make them sound overly compressed and its going to sound like your talking through a damn pillow.
 
There's a few plugins you can use as a 'cheaphax' if you're only a few weeks into vocal production. Check out Jack Joseph Puig's vocal plugin for example
 
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