Vocals are among the hardest elements of a track to mix, particularly when they’re recorded on top of an existing, compressed beat. There’s a danger that they’ll end up sounding like precisely that - an audio appendage sitting on top of a song rather than feeling like an integrated part of it. Alternatively, the vocal may feel buried, and not standing out as it needs to.
Fortunately, says YouTube-content-creating audio engineer Streaky, there is a solution. His credits include the likes of Adele, Ed Sheeran, Depeche Mode and Paul Weller, and he’s now revealing how the pros approach vocal mixing.
The aim, he says, is to create space in the backing track for the vocals to sit in, so that they sound ‘glued-in’ rather than ‘stuck-on’.
In the video above, you’ll see him demonstrating his preferred method in Logic using FabFilter’s Pro-Q3. You can also download the project files from the session via the link in the description.
