Great video Dave! Awesome to get to see what other engineers are doing. My vocal chain right now starts with HPF on the console, then a blue stripe 1176, with the same attack and release you showed on yours, into an R-Vox just doing a small amount of compression, but using it’s gate function. Then I do my EQ with an F6, even though I rarely use the dynamic-ness it offers on vocals. After that I typically go into a C6 using a slightly modified Zito vocal preset that’s been working great. Once I’ve done that I’ll typically do a R-Deesser, and then into a LA-2A just barely doing 1-2db of compression just to kind of cap things off. I do put the Waves Tune at the end typically. Your comments on that did make sense, but I’m wanting it to be after any gating I’m doing, and in my mind I want to send the fully processed vocal into it so that it’s only tuning the actual sound of the finished vocal. Idk, I’ve tried swapping it in the past and was slightly happier with it at the end so that’s where it lives now, but it very well could be hurting me at times.

Fellow Georgian. For any small artist doing gigs my secret weapon is the pod x3 live. It’s an amazing vocal processor. Multiple preamp models, compression, parametric eq. Even a volume pedal which really comes in handy. It’s an older unit but for $200 used, it outperforms many thousand dollar units. Start getting hiss? Just smash the volume pedal. Plus its hardware, makes stereo easy, you can even run an in ear rig from it if you’re playing solo. The reverbs and preamps are outstanding and will really level up your live game. Especially running straight to pa. For a subtle correction the flamma corrector pedal on about 30% works great as well. For solo or small groups type shows, if you’re new to equipment I recommend going strictly hardware. It will save some headaches. I don’t know any large livestream churches that don’t tune. It’s absolutely essential, even for the best singers. The compression of livestreams really ruins vocals. Especially KZread. Not an expert like you are. But if you’re a local artist you won’t regret a pod x3 live. Get it dialed and run your mic through it wherever you go. Can even run two separate signal paths. (2 vocal, 1 vocal and guitar etc) And it has a deesser that I don’t use. Line 6 really scaled back the functionality on newer processors because the older ones did so much. Plus if you break a $200 processor not a huge deal. I always have 2 for backup

Amazing video! Thank you so much for sharing all this wisdom

Hey Dave, you tuned our 2005 EAW boxes at Anona Church a couple years back. We finally got to upgrade this year with some LAcoustics. With all the new "truth" in our system, we are fighting a lot more vocal harshness and really getting to learn our way around dynamic EQ and multiband compression. I'd love to hear your thoughts on using that to tame vocals.

@goingto11

10 ай бұрын

That's great you guys put in some L'Acoustics. With dynamic EQ, "find the pain and reduce the gain". :)

Currently I just wiped my superrack show. 😂 so it’s just Dlive processing, and it’s work cuz it doesn’t have all the tools I’m used too. 😂 Before I wiped it, It was waves tune, to ssE chan, with compressor set to 3:1 and I would drive the pre till I got the first amber light to dance a bit. I like the ssl cuz of the auto makeup gain. I set the eq to pre dynamics, and scooped the mud a bit, then it would go to f6, where I set the range to -18 and fastest attack time and would just set the threshold to pull what I deem unnecessary out based on how hard they are singing. From there I would go to bluey 1176. I was told that 10 and 2 o’clock is the secret sauce in those compressors so I play with the attack and release. And just let it be aggressive, then cla2a and at their most aggressive it’s just 3 to 6 db of gr. Then l1 to turn it back down so if waves goes out it’s level matched. And I use l1 to catch anything that gets through. So yeah that’s really hard to recreate in Dlive 😂

@renesupersonic

7 ай бұрын

I’m currently on a dlive and was debating on upgrading to waves since the dlive has such great plugins (like the dyna8). How much better is your mix with waves as opposed to stock dlive plugins?

@micahmuth4256

7 ай бұрын

That's a loaded question. There are tools that waves offers that a&h doesn't. ie silk, the ability to stack comps, auto tune, and eq flavors. Like the pultec emulations with harmonic distortion. That being said, it depends on how good the sources are and what I'm being handed from stage. Mind ya i'm working at a church and do side work with local production houses. They run Midas Avid, Soundcraft and yamaha and I can get those to sound decent as well. But it really depends on sources. The downside to waves is it is expensive, between the annual subscription or rebuying plugins i bought years ago, I need a powerful server because dlive operates at 96K only, and then any channel that leaves the dlive's engine I have to manually delay compensate the channels that do not leave. also when the dyn8 is inserted it causes a weird phase trace to happen and I have to add 4 samples of delay to the channels that are not being sent to that processing side of the engine. but even after I delay compensate there is a weird phase trace in smaart. Waves doesn't' do that. it's weird. does it change the sound? that's up for debate. but i know it's there and i like my phase trace to be flat. Are my mixes better with waves. No, They sound different for sure, but no one would be able to tell the difference if it were stock one song and waves the next.

How can I insert vst into the main LR bus on the mixer from Live professor 2?

Awesome content! Do you do any Group/bus processing on your vocals asa whole?

@goingto11

8 ай бұрын

I usually have a compressor on a vocal group, but it's setup so it will only kick in when a lot of people are singing.

Loved it,

Great video and chain! I’m curious, with a lead vocal chain like the one you’re using that’s got the dynamics under control. Do you bother ringing out the mic from the FOH mains?

@goingto11

7 ай бұрын

Thanks! I can't remember the last time I rang out a mic in the PA. Sometimes I'll need ring out headworn omnidirectional mics or lavs, but not really vocal mics. I suppose I occasionally have a more challenging vocalist who doesn't have a lot of power and is on on the edge of feedback, but I don't usually have to notch those vocalists. If their mic is going to take off, it's usually only going to happen when they're not singing and I can manage that either with something like Waves PSE or a fader. Sometimes an expander doing maybe 3 dB on the channel can solve it. I'd rather do that than something potentially destructive like EQ.

@renesupersonic

7 ай бұрын

I completely agree having to sometimes struggle with a quiet singer and finding it useful to ring out a mic. I was thinking of having a parallel channel for a quiet/soft or challenging singer. first channel processed (multi band compression, multi band eq, etc) and then having the other channel dry but "rung out", in case I need more "gas" I can bring up the rung out channel without worrying about feedback..@@goingto11

Thanks for sharing your plugin chain its been really helpful. I have a question tho, do you use vocal rider? where in the chain would you place it?

@goingto11

Жыл бұрын

I don't typically use vocal rider live. If I did want to use it as it was intended, I would probably put it last in the chain.

Why would you not place the tuning after the PSE? You just explained that background noise can make it weird sometimes.

@goingto11

11 ай бұрын

That's a good question. I suppose you could put it after PSE. I don't remember exactly why I put it before, but it might have more to do with the way I manage plug-in safes and snapshots.

Dope video dude 👌 im planning to start doing live shows soon I'm get me a P.A system and a usb mixer either the yamaha Mg10xu or the mackie ProFX10v3 i got ableton suite11 in my laptop and i want to be able to use my vocal pre set chain as im performing live. Should that do it or im need more equipment? I do alternative hip hop so the beat is also gonna be coming out of ableton

PSE into Sibilance Live into Emo D5 intoF6 into J37

What interface do you use to go into your laptop?

@goingto11

5 ай бұрын

I don't use an interface for this. It's using Soundgrid.

You should try waves NS 1 instead of gates.... Way better.

If you have to use that many plug ins in your vocal chain then there's severe problems with your source signal. PSE, dynamic eq, compressor, desser you're using what? 8 ?

Dave appreciate your Video Curios though were is the reverb in your chain ...

@goingto11

10 ай бұрын

I never insert reverb or other spatial effects directly on a vocal. I have an aux send that goes to the reverb which returns on another channel.

Where does a newbie singer start??? Everything seems to start at such a high and unintelligible language. How can I start at a simpler basic ENTRY LEVEL?

@goingto11

11 ай бұрын

That's a good question, Peter. This is not a beginner level signal chain. If you are starting out, I would suggest focusing on getting a good overall balance and start learning how to EQ things properly.