How to get Upfront Vocals in a Mix Every Time

[@JuicemanGravy]

I literally never thought to use a parallel EQ bus, ever. True game changer

[@Shiye]

Bradley literally saved my song, it was done as best as I could have, but the man has insane objectivity and experience, and noone else would have done it better. More of Bradley please! Love

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

YO!! ❤❤ That’s super nice man, I appreciate you.

[@Shiye]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood my brother!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@Shiyegood to see you here my guy!

[@whosrichpurnell3328]

This song actually doesn’t get old during the playback. Well done sir. Catchy

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

That’s what’s up 🫡

[@Quant-Beat]

I am sure far most agree with me here. When width is created via sends, it tolerates mono greatly - no phasing issues what so ever. It does in worst case just disappear in mono, or attenuated. If one creates width let's say from the whole bus/channel itself, it can often sound terrible in mono. Sends for width is pretty much the best and only way to go.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Love doing it this way and have for over 10 years now… No complaints!

[@djucef-raideluxe9879]

Could you please, explain to me what do you mean by "created via sends" ?

[@Quant-Beat]

@@djucef-raideluxe9879 Instead of insert/s on the channel or bus, he sends the vocal for making width like one would send to reverb or delay. A "width-send". These widening-processes will NEVER degrade the mid when mono'ing.

[@tmillsoneway]

This is genius.. sound is fire 🔥.. BUT WHAT IS THAT SONG? HOW CAN I FIND IT ? 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers fam! "Haunted By You" - Bradley Denniston, enjoy!

[@BUBrilyant]

You know your stuff man appreciate the tips do you have any hip hop tutorials?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers! Check out the page, plenty of mixing/ mastering stuff...

[@officialcisko]

For vocal parallel compression, are you using a Mono Bus or a Stereo Bus? Assuming the Vocal Thickener would be on a stereo bus?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

I usually use stereo busses… mono->stereo on the return

[@MaPa60]

Great way to smooth out the vocal without losing clarity and cut!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hope it helps!

[@ConquerMedia]

Enjoyed this, took away some new tips/game and confirmations, thanks!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers fam!

[@gabrieltoscano4440]

Thanks for the pointers my dude! Very interesting to see the techniques and the before and after! EPIC!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers! Hope it was helpful!

[@ArielChobaz]

there are times where I will even put reverb as an insert before compression, it almost gives the same effect as using a reverb as a send with compression side chained off the vocal. Makes the reverb bloom a bit when the singing cuts out, and pulls it back when the singing comes in again

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

YES! 💯, I sometimes add the reverb as an insert on the vocal mix buss and just blend in ever so slightly as well, then you can do some cool fx parts with all vocals

[@ArielChobaz]

​@@RadiumRecordsHollywood absolutely! love your energy, keep up the great work

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@ArielChobaz A lot more coming... Stay tuned.

[@Pjaysusity]

Great contribution. 💯🇹🇹

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

hey!! Cheers!

[@soundproductionandadvice]

Every day is a school day. Thanks. ;)

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Let’s go!! 📚

[@diptabagchi]

Thank you Sir for some valuable tips!❤

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Really hope they help!

[@Astro3300-xcc]

Great video. I noticed there wasn’t any mid/side processing and it still sounds great. Iv always felt like it’s a necessity to get the vocals sit in.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Using the widening really helps with that, as it is really a M/S process...

[@NgabireJohn-yo1jq]

Well done

[@bjorn_bennett]

Great tips!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers!

[@bf4lvr]

Amazing from Bradley as usual

[@fp1183]

thanks for sharing your experience, top !

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hey! With pleasure.

[@vadimmartynyuk]

Waves plugins remind me of 90s and 2000s

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Love it. Waves been around longer than any of these other companies

[@Sputz3]

When the Diamond bundle was 5,000 😂☠️

[@MelissaLyric]

Incredible! And his energy is A1👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers fam! Appreciate you

[@dolpheffect]

looove this one

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

BAM! ❤️

[@AbrahamCloud]

I noticed you were leaving in the vocal breaths..... reason ?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Performance… I don’t like overly processed stuff, this song needed that “desperation” in the voice

[@TenMinusNine]

So it sounds like a human did it and not a robot lol

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@TenMinusNineYES! That’s one reason… 😢

[@bradashlock]

John Lennon LOVED breaths, gum chewing smacks, weird nasal exhales - gives a vocal character and life! Keep it in! 👍

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@bradashlockGotta keep that human element poppin

[@arinin77]

Great Tutorials.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hope it’s helpful!

[@LeDungProducer]

thank you so much

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hey! Hope it helps!

[@BossNkeyXay]

Would you recomend to use a faster release in the parallel 1176 if you use it on rap vocals or would you still keep it that slow? 9:22

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Great question! I would set the release to the performance of the vocal 100% of the time... If you have a fast rap vocal, going faster on the release will allow it to pump to the vocal phrasing. There's no hard/ fast rule here, just hit the compressor hard to hear it, then set the release to where it sounds most musical to you.

[@StavrosMusic]

good vid - very helpful

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers! Happy to help!

[@sskmusicofficial]

Amazing❤

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Thanks for stopping by!

[@alinoor8829]

Hey peeps, was the reverb placed directly on the track or via bus? Just wanted to make sure

[@waves]

Directly on the vocal track!

[@juanlugo9240]

As soon as he said eating those cheeseburgers I took a bite out of a cheeseburger lol

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Yo! Timing on point. 🍔

[@juanlugo9240]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood fr lol

[@Tea-ml8bx]

This was so useful! Maybe a dumb question but I´m new to this, this is for the vocals for the whole song or just the chorus?

[@waves]

Can work for either of them. Depends on each vocal, of course!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

cheers! Wherever you're having issues with your vocals "getting lost" in the mix, this will help them stay on top.

[@noamberger651]

This is greattttttt

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hope it was helpful!

[@noamberger651]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood It is super helpful man, I subbed

[@TavienSG]

Hey I’m having an issue so I got the parralel compression going and idk why but my vocals seem super loud still clear tho should I lower them on the mix bus ? Put a limiter on the vocals themselves , or just lower the parralel compression

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Just lower the parallel comp to taste... Balance between the direct signal and parallel

[@Sajtlik]

Inspired by Dave Pensado 👏

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Pensado is a true legend!

[@trulytambino7068]

My mix had phasing issues, please help 😢 idk what i did wrong

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Check all your parallel returns, solo them out against your direct signal..

[@thepreseason]

I think im missing something- No EQ at all on the dry vocal signal? i get so much bass and mid-low build up i gotta notch out a good amount. Or literally only EQ the parallel?

[@ritla4169]

What kind of microphone is that you using

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Neumann TLM 103

[@ritla4169]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood great video that mic sound amazing

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@ritla4169Thanks fam! Hope it’s helpful

[@ritla4169]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood do you have any videos on how to get that type of sound with any kind of mic

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@ritla4169 I've published over 1,300 videos on my youtube alone, I'm sure there's some stuff in there to help!

[@VersatileLifestyle1]

I love it

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers!

[@siko8958]

What is the engineer's name ? Seems like Waves didn't credited him

[@waves]

Bradley Denniston! You can find his instagram here: instagram.com/bradleyhd/

[@siko8958]

@@waves thx u !!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hey! Cheers! 🫡

[@Cnc1073]

This guy looks 30 and 70 at the same time

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

LMAO!

[@Otis_Isaacs]

😂😂 Haha

[@axiyne]

😂 this guy is a genius

[@slumcitymarv7050]

Now that we know who the class clown is can we get back to this dope mixing classes he’s teaching us?

[@RealBaba]

He is 40 😂

[@juanlugo9240]

Sounds similar to take on me by a ha

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

That’s dope.

[@raykash1673]

Why didnt you put the reverb 100 percent wet since it was a send?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

The RVerb is inserted, just as I explained in the video.

[@RealRecognizeRealEnt-g2v]

ur a genius

[@slynfit]

Wats the name of this song is it out yet??

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

“Haunted By You” - Bradley Denniston… Tap in and enjoy!

[@kenleyjohnson7322]

What website did you use for this?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Sorry, I don't understand this question...

[@kenleyjohnson7322]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood what did you use for your vocals what website is that?

[@SDOTPOPPA]

@@kenleyjohnson7322i think you mean what DAW bro. This is Logic Pro X. Apples workstation. Not a websitebut an application

[@RealRecognizeRealEnt-g2v]

NO RVOX????????? How come brother?

[@jacksanders601]

Good tutorial but I think we would really benefit from some gain-matching since the 'After' result is louder. The before is just too quiet in comparison to make any real assumptions about what this chain is doing right. Obviously adding compression and doubling and reverb is going to help a vocal stand out from the mix and its clear that that's being achieved, but then again so would raising it's gain, so subjectively I think it can get hairy without giving us a loudness-matched reference.

[@SDOTPOPPA]

The after affect is a tighter more upfront vocal which gain staging wouldnt do bro. He level matched as he mixed as you see from the start as he adjusted the input he adjusted the output as well. Seems to be louder but thats what a compressor does to a vocal. It tightens the signal coming into it and gives it the effect that its more present . The volume increased maybe 2 DB from its peak. Turn a non treated signal up 2 DB and see how much better it sounds in the mix.

[@TavienSG]

Wow I’ve been interning with a dude that’s in the industry and the way you just broke this song down makes me look at my current template and sigh 😭I use the exact same plugins but just in a different way that’s more complicated than what u just did

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hope it's helpful!

[@musiclover-r9m]

I don't get how his parallel compression is level matched - when I do this in ableton the whole vocal gets significantly louder and then it beomes a game of blending it

[@SDOTPOPPA]

If you look at the send he has the parallel compressor on he has the volume of that send turned all the way down. When you send the track 100% to the aux send you adjust the volume on the aux send to balance the level of the output of that signal and retain the amount of signal being processed. He basically had it playing with no affect at first and dailed in the volume of the effect on the signal after setting the levels on the compressor to where he wanted them

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Send 100% to your parallel, then blend in the return.

[@SDOTPOPPA]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood i couldn’t remember the word return to save my life nd had to stretch my explanation 😂😂 you came in clutch! Keep up the good work man i really appreciated this video. Ive been learning to simplify my mixes. Will be looking out for more of your content🫡

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@SDOTPOPPA Cheers fam!

[@Thermolizer]

I preferred the before it felt more vibey

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

cool

[@stringsmandela5219]

Salute

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Cheers! Thanks for stopping by

[@subtitles1492]

the shrill over-compressed vocals nearly split the gorilla glass on my ipad… i guess it takes a special monitoring system to appreciate the harsh beauty. 😅

[@gillihansmobilewelding]

This is Dana Carvey being Butch Vig

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

LMAO! So good...

[@leroifox]

Wow, I'm just getting Dana Carvey Wayne's World vibes here. Just me? Huh.

[@universalearthling3227]

Asphincter says what?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

😂😂 thanks!! #legend

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@universalearthling3227😂 classic

[@leroifox]

@@universalearthling3227 What? 😏

[@leroifox]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood If you do a Garth impersonation in a video I will subscribe to your channel. Heck you'd probably get a lot of viewers that way.

[@Samehde]

hearing this in my 2$ ear buds :D

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Sweet! Where can I get eat buds for $2?

[@rabizzle254]

I don't care about gain reduction meter, I compress that thing till it sounds to my ears. On the parallel comp, oh I just pin that dude! Btw on my consumer Bluetooth speaker, the vocal is still buried in this tutorial, just saying 🤷🏾‍♂️.

[@Jimthehumanoid]

We're not mixing for mono anymore. Sonos enters the chat.

[@justcallmeroze]

S1 always makes me feel like the proximity and closeness of the vocal is instantly GONE

[@justcallmeroze]

like the adlibs sound more coherent with an s1 on a main tbh

[@SDOTPOPPA]

Because its a stereo imager. Tighten it up towards mono nd it will bring it back closer.

[@justcallmeroze]

@@SDOTPOPPA Dude do you think im an idiot thats exactly what im talking about not widening it, bringing it mono, it sounds like absolute shit

[@spiceproductionsmusic]

💪✔️💯

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Let’s go!!!

[@TheJodyBlow]

Bradley as James Brown used to say “you are super bad”.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

😂 Damn, I love JB

[@Kelvinapplegate]

This popped up in my notifications as 4 minutes ago, I see comets from 7 days ago. Can someone please explain to me what's going on?!?! 🤔🤯🤷🤔

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

I think it was live on Waves website before it went live here on KZbin…

[@waves]

Video was embedded on our website ;)

[@stingylizard]

​@@wavesBTW,a master-class video,right here👍

[@ThisIsVersatile]

💪🏽🫡

[@vendettabout2runup347]

Beach music I swear

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

I feel it

[@livingthedream137]

As soon as he said get some tuning going I wanted to click away.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Yea, we don't all love things being "in tune", but I find that most listeners do.

[@habeuscorpuscle]

That's not what the "chromatic" setting does on Tune Real-time. At all. And I'm listening to this on my mono phone backstage. Sure It's 2024, but when your voice disappears on someone's phone, you lose. It's CRAZY easy to do a mono check on your mix. Parallel comp is a good tool. Inserting reverb on the channel is also a good tool.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

I’m well aware of what “chromatic” scales are… Thanks!

[@habeuscorpuscle]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood Yeah, sure, but the "Chromatic" setting doesn't give it a "less-locked feel bla bla." That's a "Speed' function. "Chromatic" is useful if you don't know and don't care what key it's in, and are singing less than a quarter step away from the intended note, or the melody doesn't adhere to a modal scale, and you just want to set it and forget it, not insert the plugin on the timeline per key center.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@habeuscorpuscle That's literally EXACTLY what it does... It makes it so the notes correct to a "chromatic scale" instead of a 7 note scale like a major/ minor scale. A chromatic scale is a 12 note scale, how many notes are in an octave? I don't see why this is hard to understand... I'm not trying to be rude at all, I just truly don't understand your comment.

[@onwuchekwaferdinand9756]

Chromatic settings actually gives it a less locked feel, and it retains flexibility for the passing notes to excel. Nothing up for argument here bruh, it's ABC.

[@multoc]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood efinition. The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone, also known as a half-step, above or below its adjacent pitches. As a result, in 12-tone equal temperament (the most common tuning in Western music), the chromatic scale covers all 12 of the available pitches.- so you could've clicked any of the letters of the alphabet and it wouldnt have made an impact on the interaction with the key of the song because its just tuning for all 12 notes anyway - on an already pitch corrected vocal

[@messifcb101]

Huh? He doesn’t even EQ his vocals? Hard to believe this.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

You heard it… It’s all in the video!

[@tunetitan4717]

A good mic and a well treated recording room, need no much eq

[@messifcb101]

@@tunetitan4717 I NEVER thought about that....omg thank you o much

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@tunetitan4717 I record with just a touch of compression and some de-essing on the way in… There might be a little EQ, but it’s probably just a high pass filter at 100 or so and maybe some cut at 200-400

[@rwascher]

You don't always have to EQ things just to EQ things. Some tracks don't require treatment at all, including compression. This is also a testament to the thought put into the "front end." If you get it right at the source, then you don't have to "fix it in the mix."

[@lar57jsy]

Too much and too fast to be useful for me. ...Is that a fake moustache?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Sorry to disappoint you. I glued the mustache on myself. Appreciate your AMAZING comment, super helpful for everyone.

[@lar57jsy]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood Glad you haven't lost your sense of humour :D Maybe I'll be in your league someday and can come back to review this and it will be more useful by then ;-)

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@lar57jsy honestly, I make this content to help… I truly hope it does, there’s more beginner and intermediate stuff on my KZbin if you need help

[@bazrico9945]

I put it on x.5 speed , easier to understand!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@bazrico9945 good look!

[@alovluqulle1347]

wery bad 🤬 there were very bad phases