Quick scream vocal processing questions

[JayB]

Hey guys , I was going to post this in an existing vocal questions thread , but that thread is about 8 months old. I just have a few quick questions about what you guys do with screaming vocals , as far as processing and bussing them to aux tracks. Currently I have in a project two main tracks of screaming , edited tightly (which I remember Joey saying he does). There is also another track of "background" addition screaming vocals in different pitches etc. I am currently compressing , de-essing , gating etc , then g - clipping each individual track , then sending them all to an aux where I have some compression to "glue" them together and then slight delay and reverb. It sounds pretty good to me so far but I just want to know if this is the correct way of doing it , or if there is another way that would get better results. If it helps I am using on each track

*Pod Farm's console emulation "American Classic" with some drive for distortion
*Pro Tools' 1176 compressor emulator , all buttons in , fast attack slow release
*all the fish fillets (blockfish with saturation etc) plug ins
*g clip with 2x oversample on
on each individual track before they are sent to the vocal aux.

If this chain is totally wrong let me know !

 

[DanLights]

not that I could help, but clips would be nice. And ask yourself first, does it sound good or not? Cause simply stating the signal chain isn´t really a solid way to know if it´s "right" or "wrong"

 

[JayB]

^ I know what you're saying , as I said in the OP it does sound pretty good to me already I'd just like to know if other people use a similar chain , or something radically different , for comparison's sake. Like I said it sounds pretty good to me but adjusting the chain a bit might make it sound better, if something in there was totally out of place.

 

[maggot616]

All you need is the BlockFish Compressor. Use the preset "Close-up Vocals".
It bashes you away.
Then EQ a lil bit. Boost some highs and cut all of the balls out and you will have a great vocal track, fitting perfect into the mix!

 

[Ermz]

Don't use Gclip on vocals.

Drive is fine, as is the 1176, I'd just avoid using all-buttons mode on it. It makes the attack too slow for general vox duties IMO. Try instead using 4:1 or 8:1 and then following it with an L1, or the W1 alternative if you're cruising free. Dunno about the fish fillets stuff - never used it.

As much as the company sucks, Waves make good plug-ins for vox processing. Come to think of it my ITB vox chains are almost entirely Waves and Nebula. Assuming I'm not using outboard or Nebula (which is basically never these days) I'll be doing a chain like this:

RDeEsser
SSL Channel
RVox
CLA76 Bluey
L1 Limiter

...all Waves plug-ins.

And honestly if the vocal isn't entirely in your face and abrasive/obnoxious enough to cut through everything after chaining those 3 compressors, then life is failing you.

 

[JayB]

Don't use Gclip on vocals.

Drive is fine, as is the 1176, I'd just avoid using all-buttons mode on it. It makes the attack too slow for general vox duties IMO. Try instead using 4:1 or 8:1 and then following it with an L1, or the W1 alternative if you're cruising free. Dunno about the fish fillets stuff - never used it.

As much as the company sucks, Waves make good plug-ins for vox processing. Come to think of it my ITB vox chains are almost entirely Waves and Nebula. Assuming I'm not using outboard or Nebula (which is basically never these days) I'll be doing a chain like this:

RDeEsser
SSL Channel
RVox
CLA76 Bluey
L1 Limiter

...all Waves plug-ins.

And honestly if the vocal isn't entirely in your face and abrasive/obnoxious enough to cut through everything after chaining those 3 compressors, then life is failing you.

Ermz , thanks so much for the tips brother ! I really appreciate it !

 

[JayB]

Ermz by the way what settings do you use for limiting vocals with L1?

 

[Ermz]

It tends to range somewhere between 'flatten' and 'annihilate'.

But naw, recently I've been backing off, using it only to shave some peaks. So about 6dB max. More commonly hovering around 3 or so.

 

[amarshism]

Are you talking threshold or peak/gain reduction?

 

[Ermz]

GR of course. Threshold is an entirely arbitrary setting dependent on the source. It'd be like saying what I set the 'In' and 'Out' knobs to on the 1176.

 

[JayB]

Thanks again for the info man

 

[acappa]

SSL Channel

Do you do all your EQ processing into the SSL Channel?? What eq you tend to do??

Am, another question: Is it De-esser prior Eq, or after???