Tips for mixing vocals?

What type? Clean, growls, screams? I'm not great at mixing 'em, but I usually put on a lot - heaps of compression (6-8dB depending on aggressiveness of the vocals, 6:1 ratio, ~5 ms attack, fiddle with release, soft knee), EQ depends on the track. Some people put distortion on. Then a delay and/or reverb.
 
The interesting question for me is, how to make a good sounding delay-chain.
You know, how to set up delays so that they sound more like a reverb, and you don't really notice the echos!?
Maybe someone enlightens me/us. :)
 
To make the Delay sound more like a reverb:

1) simply choose a short notelength value like 1/8th or 1/16th and keep the feedback short (maybe 20% max).

2) stick the delay on an aux.

3) then send only a small amount of signal to the aux.

Voila. Done.
 
Another option is to limit the delay so that there are no sharp, attacking transients to stick out, or to compress further with as little attack time as your compressor will allow. I usually don't bother with this though, and just set the mix low enough so that you don't hear the delay.
 
yeah i usually send the delay to a verb too.
I also send the main vocal to a nice reverb, i really like the Choir plate on the lexicon impulse pack thats going round the net on a few different forums.
i sually compress the reverb too to make it sustain a bit longer, then mix it in with the main vocal lower than you would have without the compression.
I always high pass the vocals too, you can get pretty high, approaching 200hz depending on the style and how it was recorded.
What helps them sit i find too is a wide small boost around 1khz, then take this out of your guitars and snare, kinda makes the vox sit a little clearer above everything without just turning it up. play with the freq you boost, changes every time, sometimes its a kinda presence boost, other times around 400-500 hz does the job
 
in regards to your verb aux track do you pan them any particular way?? Like do you pan hard L/R to create more space or align them with where the source track is panned?? Just curious the more popular way of doing it?
 
Anyone got any helpful tips or tricks for mixing vocals? Or any links to threads with such? As you can imagine, searching for "mixing vocals" brings up a ton of stuff. :headbang:


My Chain

hi-pass to cut the shitty loose low-end

eq accordingly if its needed - you dont want to cut the mid range too much because thats where the voice naturally lies - dont boost it too much or it will sound un-naturally gritty

compress hard - try a saturation compressor if your mic is sounding pretty dead like stairwells rocket. its absolutely the best digital comp i've ever used because its so fast

limit pretty hard

get an acceptable level

de-esser if its required on the "s's" you can use a compressor & eq to make
one if you dont have one

delay (25-30% track depending)

if your using reverb use very little unless you plan to make it sound like its in a huge hall or something