Lets be candid about our vst pipelines

My chain

Sonalksis compressor
Fabfilter eq
Autotune
Hdelay
Exciter
Recently i added:
Soundgoodizer
Fruity convolver

Then i parallel process with a harmonizer

The dynamics clarity and harshness of the vocals is what i need to work on. Soundgoodizer seems to help with dynamics but still a lil messy. Idk what to do for clarity, i think i might be eqing too aggressively, same for harshness

I got uad spark and soundtoys 5 recently so that’s what I’ve been using.

I usually slap on a neve preamp (UAD) or (Soundtoys) Radiator

logic stock desser

I love doing a bit of serial compression with an 1176 into an LA2A.

for EQ i’m usually using the stock parametric in Logic. If I’m looking to boost a good amount of the high end I’ll use a pultec

I play around with a bunch of different reverbs and delays, depends on the vibe Im looking for.

and vocalsuite (UAD) usually covers me for autotune

u on some different s*** i need to get on ur level

Lmfao, I’m not but thank you, chief. I’m very new to mixing tbh

I say that mainly cus ur using non-stock vsts

I tend to stick to stock/waves with a few exceptions

Ohh, yeah. I love splurging on expensive plugins I don’t necessarily need

Howcome eq before autotune?

I feel like autotune makes s*** sound sharper in a way, which is also what i do with the eq, remove low end and mids basically, then add autotune for additional sharpness, cus it rly makes the vocal inflections sound dope and pulls out the best from the autotune.

Basically i make the vocals bright then add delay and reverb, the harmonizer rly helps also flanger or chorus works too

Also i think making the vocals clear via eqing helps autotune be more accurate

i’d play around with that position in the chain personally

Yeah ive def done that before with badly recorded vocals now that i think about it.

I wonder though if youre making the vocals too loud on the high end at this stage, if youre saying you think your vocals end up too harsh?

if they’re coming out hard then there’s probably some overprocessing in the highs

i hear so many stories about autotune’s “proper place” in the chain

i know engineers who swear you should put it first in the chain - then i’ve also heard it has to be after compression and before eq.

i think you should play around and be willing to adapt to the vocalist personally

interesting

my chain - i change it a lot but this is what im doin

1073 -> cl1b -> saturn (suuuuper light) -> la2a -> soothe (depends on the recording quality) -> hoffa iq eq (really good but i don’t see anyone using it) then pro-q with a lot of midside stuff

effects are up to the song, I like the ams reverb a lot, sometimes i do ocean way or capitol chambers, sometimes various plates. Chorus i use minimal audio flex chorus or uad brigade chorus on a send

this is assuming melodyne etc has already been applied to the vocal

yo use the pultec but don’t put any settings on it just let the (dsp/transformer/whatever) color the vocal

oh yeah, it has a nice character to it but Ive been using it to add air to stuff as well

i put it on the master boost maybe half a db of low and then attenuate to taste

s*** getts bumping - also do this before compression

See, I don’t know much about mastering yet. I’ll do my gainstaging then take advantage of the ai mastering in logic and/or choose between the mastering presets.

small adjustments tho

definitely a way to go, but when you learn what you’re doing you can play the game more

all my mixes are hitting -5 lufs and shake my entire house and it owns

u got fabfilter pro-l ? i can put you on some game

well s***

i don’t want to be a know it all but i would really play with the order for this

nah, I dont own any fabfilter. I was hoping to grab pro-Q 3 soon.