How To Mix R&B Vocals (Like The Weeknd, DVSN, Bryson Tiller, Jeremih, Anders) | Make Pop Music

In this video, Austin shows you how to produce and mix alternative R&B vocals similar to artists like The Weeknd, DVSN, Bryson Tiller, Jeremih, Anders, and more. Austin shows you how to EQ, compress, de-ess, and tune vocals for that silky, smooth R&B sound. He also goes over how to add spatial effects like reverb, delay, and modulation to add instant width, depth, and vibe to any vocal mix!
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DAW / Program I Use:
new.steinberg.net/cubase​​​​​​
Vocal Chain:
Mic - Lauten Audio LT-386 Eden
Preamp +Heritage EQ - Audio HA81A
Compressor - AudioScape 76D
I/O - RME UFX ii
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My Gear:
DAW: Cubase 12 Pro
Desk: AZ Studio Workstations
Main Microphone: Lauten Eden, Lewitt LCT1040
Voiceover Mic: Lauten LS-208
Monitors: Focal Shape 65s with Focal Sub6
Interface: RME UFX ii
Compressor: AudioScape 76D
MIDI Keyboard: M-Audio Code 61
Keyboards: Roland Juno DS88, Roland Juno 106, Arturia PolyBrute
Guitars: Fender American Professional Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Taylor 214 CE Plus
Preamps: Heritage Audio HA81A & Audient ASP800
Extra Microphones: Advanced Audio 251, Slate ML-1, Shure SM7B, JZ BH-1, JZ V67, Lauten Audio LA-320, Lauten Audio LA-220, Lauten Audio LA-120, AKG P170, Sterling ST59
Camera: Panasonic G7
Lens: Rokinon 12mm f2
Camera Lights: Neewer LED Light Panels
Timestamps:
Preview 0:00
Intro 0:17
My Vocal Chain 1:20
What Does This Vocal Need 2:55
Tuning R&B Vocals 3:08
Initial EQ 4:28
Are Vocals On A Stereo Or Mono Track 6:25
De-Esser 1 7:11
Compression and Custom EQ 7:54
De-Esser 2 9:23
Final Compression 9:54
Setting Up Sends 11:06
Vocal Widener 11:10
Room Reverb 12:55
Slapback Delay 13:56
Main Delay 15:13
Main Reverb 16:27
HUGE Reverb Cheat Code 17:30
Sidechaining Reverb To A Vocal 18:10
Low Artificial Vocal FX 20:27
Saucy Delay Throws 22:27
Final Vocal With Production And Mixing 24:02
Recap 24:36
Outro 25:23

[@FleurDelisFR]

Thank you for sharing your techniques with those of us that are still trying to find our sounds. 💯🙏🏽

[@no1u521]

Mixing vocals aside the instrumental is beautiful. Matches the vibe you are going for.

[@nemyaprod]

Love these videos man, very instructional! 🔥

[@alainpatry]

Thanks for clarifying your use of mono/stereo tracks for vocals!

[@ramaturner]

Yes!!!! Another amazing and timely tutorial!!

[@okanobop]

This tutorial was fantastic. Thank you!

[@Realnobodyelse]

this was fire bro 🤘🔥🔥

[@andresnusspaumerpilon3773]

Amazing Austin! you really inspired me to creat music man. thanks

[@ksaintartwork6577]

Thank you Austin! 😊

[@ThomasPenninger]

Hi Austin, fantastic video as always! Can you do a video about vocal pocketing? For some reason every time i try to manually align vocals it gets all weird. Perhaps you‘ve got some tips! Cheers!

[@subliminal4338]

Nice vocalsss ! :)

[@louiegroenewald]

Don't think I've ever commented...just want to say that I love your videos, your music and style, the effort and input to provide all of us amazing quality information so we can also strive to do our best. I've watched probably close to all your videos more than twice now to make sure I did not miss a thing...😀

[@cekirdekci32]

fx processing was awesome thank you soomuch.

[@jesusvalenzuelamusic]

Great content brotha!

[@RatedBamaTV]

You are the truth Austin!!!

[@MohammadSalah1979]

Thanks alote 🥰good information

[@darrenvegasmusic]

Great video I’ve been producing music for a living for 25 years and I’m constantly studying other producers techniques. Song sounds dope too

[@junovue]

i'd like to continue videos with mixing on the typical vocals. a non treated room with more of the $500 and lower microphones and interface pre amps. i find that these videos are helpful when i'm mixing stems that have awesome sources, but not so much the bedroom musicians. would love a series of that here and there.

[@boorightness143]

i understand what you're saying, but his approach here doesn't rule out bedroom recordings and less expensive setups. 99% of what he's doing could be achieved with free or stock plugins, and you could replicate what he did on the way in with plugins as well. waves clarity and izotope rx are useful solutions if you're dealing with ambient noise or reverb in your recordings. as austin mentioned, it's crucial to get the best source before mixing. bedroom artists might not have the convenience of a treated room and outboard gear, but there are a million other ways we can get a great recording, and how you achieve it depends on your unique situation and what your ears like or don't like. sometimes food looks better when it's on someone else's plate. your audio might not be as bad as you think, and perhaps you've let your physical limits also limit what you think you can do. as long as you keep the mindset of always learning, training your ears and getting a good performance, you can get great results on any budget. keep going! 👊

[@BurritoBrooks]

Excited for this one 🔥

[@MakePopMusic]

This one slaps for reallll

[@JohnJeevasingham]

Great video, Austin! How are you soloing the Parallel Widening chain without the dry vocal? I’m guessing it’s a setting in Cubase?

[@HotelRozelle]

Needed that lesson on dessing bro. Good stuff!

[@brandonbottass]

sippin on, sippin' on, sippin' on 🔥

[@AashishJhaMusic]

Thank you sir

[@davidhellegouarch1622]

Thank you for sharing this ! How often you use double for the lead vocal in this genre ? Here you just have one track, no double

ffs man, just a snippet but what a GREAT song! just love it

[@thenextmrsbrownful]

Oh my word! This video is great! What I like is that you seem to be a rare user of Cubase. The mono thing... thank you x

[@SaeOfficial_Music]

Bro that’s FL Studio. I’m a die hard user of Cubase and that does not look like its interface. I also have FL.

[@jet_lif3679]

🔥🔥🤘🏾🤘🏾 Is it better to record your vocals without plugins or can you put plugins on and mix after?

[@louiegroenewald]

Can you make a video on the possible settings regards Cubase performance. I use a 11gen i7 with a fare amount of ram SSD, etc. But struggle performance wise especially when mixing adding plugins, etc. I've noticed you add the same plugins mostly on all your vocal tracks. If I only do 2 or 3 my computer does not want to play a long.

[@RKPiano1]

Hey Austin, great video as always! Do you always have that mastering chain engaged when you are producing? You mention it at 2:30 in the video.

[@MakePopMusic]

I always flip it on when I have a rough idea so I can produce and pre-mix into a master chain.

[@ShawnLouie]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@fujiblck206]

Yeah 🔥🔥🔥

[@graysbeats7678]

Can you do a video on mixing Afro vocals? Like Tems or Burno Boy

[@angurishudesu]

Hey Austin, do you happen to have a video on how to make adlibs like chase atlantic? They're so ambient and it just sounds so good. If you have any videos please direct me!!

[@MakePopMusic]

Can definitely do one! Trying to get a song with them on it done so I can use that for the video... 😜

[@angurishudesu]

@@MakePopMusic ohmygod please take your time if so! I always find myself coming back to your videos so that'll be great for me!! Thank you so much ;w; 💖

[@rocco5182]

I would love to see a video about how to make a song like Kelela.

[@sourcefor]

Whoever is singing has a great voice!

[@MakePopMusic]

It's me! Thank you!

[@djpyramid]

Very Impressive Work! Thank you for this gem! I gotta suggest a video on an overlooked aspect of vocals which is the production. I came to realise this from a video that Nick Mavromatis did. Everyone focuses so much on the mixing when it’s only 50% of how to get a good vocal. Check out his episode on vocal production!

[@MakePopMusic]

Yes! Honestly just having a well recorded vocal, that is performed great is 90% of the work.

[@christhescientist]

Great tutorial, however was the 1176 compression edited out? or was that a mistake? Would've been great to seen the specific settings

[@MakePopMusic]

No, I should've probably shown the hardware or mimic'd the software. It was just attack between 6 and 7, release as fast as possible, 3-5 DB of gain reduction at 4:1 ratio. Standard vocal compression stuff.

[@bruvablake1056]

🔥🔥

[@FireSoldier95]

Hey perfect video gonna try it tomorrow. I have a question for vocal recording for modern RnB. What do you think it's better : recording with 1073 (uad) or voxbox (uad)? Illangelo say that he use often the voxbox for the weeknd song :)

[@MakePopMusic]

Honestly voxbox. 1073 is a little mid heavy for my taste, but it’s the only hard pre I have at the moment

[@T_Meyer101]

@Make Pop Music can you do a video on how bands like Chase Atlantic does there harmonies?

[@mayagiovani]

I’m crying cause I just can’t get it to work to mix my vocals. Been trying so hard with fl studio. Is there any project file out there that I can use as a preset? I’m so down

[@FLRNmusic]

man please finish this one its such a vibe 😪

[@gearyoutube5250]

nice

[@user-sq4ms7mk1h]

Яшанг 👍

[@a.h7776]

Do u have this vocal preset for fl studio?

[@marcchaperon635]

Hey Austin, you said at the begging that you are using a 76 with 3-5db comp, is it a game changer for vocal for you to add this before the mix ?

[@MakePopMusic]

I love 76 compression so I almost always do some with software or hardware at some point of a vocal mix or tracking session

[@aadvikabrolll]

hey austin! could you make a tutorial on how to make these gapless playback songs in albums like in dawn fm or SYRE by jaden?

[@MakePopMusic]

Yeah! I did it a ton on Riley's album so I can make that video!

[@aadvikabrolll]

@@MakePopMusic thanks a lot🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

[@hipethenomad]

@@MakePopMusici’d really appreciate that video too💪🏾

[@deepnluc]

Bro, can you tell me why you have absolutely no latency by using these amount of plug ins especially for the vocal tracks?

[@LucidBagChaser]

pls do a template like this on pro tools that we can download🔥🔥🔥

[@Nuendo1337]

Austin, please make a video on how to record vocals🥺

[@MakePopMusic]

We have one! Check the channel 😊

[@TheMrMRsmoke]

How many layers are these vocals

[@saeeee5054]

is this fl studio?

[@jeremiahmaryland]

Can we please have access to the dry multitracks so we can practice mixing?

[@MakePopMusic]

We have multitracks on our website for free! Not this song, but quite a few others

[@Izudra]

I find this video very helpful. Bur It would be much more pleasant if you mixed the vocal directly live and explain it on the go

[@XXIIXXIIMUSIC]

Please do the same video concept except for FL studio.

[@Lache_Wallace]

Sounds with no effects. What type of mic and interface do you use

[@ExileLBL]

Man I dont understand one thing. It doesnt work on BUSes? I mean the big verb. In this way, I must duplicated all like my 20 vox and on all this doubles insert the vintageverb and compressor and EQ on every single one of em?

[@uptonfilms95]

Did you produce the instrumental to? This whole song is a vibe you should release it! Do you actually release music under an artist name?

[@MakePopMusic]

I did!! And sometimes I do! Just under my name Austin Hull

[@roxstar8762]

Wats this song called ?

[@CyberTommyTMchannel]

Can we get STEMS for this? :D

[@MakePopMusic]

Maybe if I end up finishing it and releasing it!

[@gaanduhtunesleaksplugg9198]

Logic please

[@rabhijith]

@makepopmusic : hey Austin Can we use infected mushroom's wider in the bus instead of dimension D mate ?

[@MakePopMusic]

Never used it but try it out! No rules in audio!

[@Matheus-ly6eu]

There's the free TAL-Chorus, which does the Juno thingy, and it's great! Prooobably a more interesting widener effect than Wider, from what I remember from my experience with it

[@rabhijith]

@@MakePopMusic I tried wider out and it sounds a little robotic. Can you suggest any alternatives for Dimension D. I haven't seen you use anything else other than DD 😅

[@rabhijith]

@@Matheus-ly6eu Thanks mate. Let me check. But seeing austin use Dimension D, I'm looking for something that atleast comes closer to DD

[@MakePopMusic]

@@rabhijith Why not just grab the Arturia Dim D?

[@jeromearthur755]

I've noticed you didn't use any buses. isn't it necessary ?

[@cekirdekci32]

great but... that preamp, eq and compressor while tracking the vocal already sounds great

[@VicuSchek]

bro we gotta work!

[@alizcinematics329]

First😍

[@MakePopMusic]

Heck yeah!

[@VinniBrix]

I think it might be better to use discretion when "fixing" timing issues and "tuning" the vox.. you don't want to suck the humanity out of the vox. There are times where Ive found perfection in imperfection with a client performance. When you said you can't fit a vocal in the mix unless you snap everything to the grid and flex pitch and auto tune the vox isn't exactly the truth. It really depends on the performance and where you are with takes and what the client actually wants. While there's no wrong way to eat a reeses so to speak, meaning Im not saying its wrong to time align and tune a performance. Its just not applicable in all situations. I would have made that clearer if I were the one who made the tutorial. In my professional opinion, peer to peer, absolutes don't exist in mixing engineering.. proven techniques, but not absolutes. The focus should be on creativity. Love your content! Would love your thoughts.

[@MakePopMusic]

I think you’re taking my point a little out of context. If a vocal has imperfections that suit the song and the artist, leave them. If they’re just glaring mistakes that are distracting, fix them. Sometimes I’ll track a vocal where the emotion and inflection is perfect, but it’s a little flat and a word or two is rushed. In that case, I’d much rather tighten up the small errors and keep the overall vibe and delivery of the take I love. Every artist will have their own vocal style. Some are SUPER tight and perfect, some are completely untouched, and most are somewhere in the middle.

[@bwwolf]

hi. i like your videos. Unfortunately, you speak so fast that I often can't understand it. ))

[@MakePopMusic]

there's a speed button to slow it down :D