Making Vocals Come Alive with Harmonics (ft. Soundtoys and Rachel Alina)

[@JustinColletti]

Big thanks to Soundtoys for helping make this free to the public. Get up to 70% off plugins at soundtoys.com

[@mixedbyrachel]

🎉🎉🎉

[@storytimesongs1]

Yooo Rachel was my Berklee mixing professor a few years ago! So cool to see her on here.

[@mixedbyrachel]

Hey, good to see you!How are your mixes?!

[@ThaBeatBuffet]

That makes sense, she’s great at explaining everything in detail

[@ThaBeatBuffet]

She’s great, whoever gets to learn from her is one lucky person, her knowledge and ability to explain everything is wonderful.

[@mixedbyrachel]

Thank you so much, that really means so much to me!

[@DJarvisOfficial]

Another analogy - drawing. Perfect lines with no shadows can come off as inorganic, but when you shade & ad shadows so things are not so "perfect", it's all of a sudden more natural and organic - as we are.

[@jakefauber7073]

Watched this twice already and changed my vocal channel and bus settings. Great info that works and makes sense! Please have Rachel back to go over her Master Bus philosophy! Keep up the great work. Thanks!

[@SonicScoop]

Would love to!

[@sarahmacdougall20]

Rachel is the best, such a great mentor.

[@mixedbyrachel]

Sarah, it is the biggest honour to work with you. ❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@thedaveut]

Really good stream you two! Super informative. I really like Rachel's approach to vocal chains and harmonics/saturation.

[@DerekES]

Please do a mix bus video with Rachel! 🙏 Helpful tips as always Justin💯

[@mixedbyrachel]

Would love to!

[@mixedbyrachel]

Would love to! 🤸

[@brittmurray9818]

Rachel seems like such a wise, beautiful soul. I learned a lot and could have listened to this conversation for hours. Thanks! I also love the Soundtoys plugins. EchoBoy was actually the first plugin I ever bought! I just wish the text was easier to read. It's made it hard for me to use them lately. (We can make feature requests here, right? 🤣).

[@mixedbyrachel]

Thanks so much for the kind words!

[@Alexannmarkus]

Rachel is the best!

[@SonicScoop]

Agreed!

[@DJarvisOfficial]

In essence, infusing harmonics into frequencies is making an ensemble out of them with generally results in a fuller/warmer sound. Just like with orchestrations.

[@Rhuggins]

This is highly valuable content, thank you so much

[@SonicScoop]

Glad you dug it!

[@marcdanielnelson317]

Super fun! Nice Justin

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks for tuning in Marc!

[@sickmessiah]

I own ALOT of plugins but in the least year my favorite tool for saturation is the stock “ red lite dist “ in studio one. Using High and low pass filters in it. Adjusting the output gain to match. Then the mix noob. It does a thing I like a lot and is simple.

[@mixedbyrachel]

Oo, excited to check it out!

[@BottleneckMoses]

Rachael’s secret to success? Using the biggest microphone ever made 😉

[@carlos-ni4hn]

Well Justin, I'm glad to hear that hes doing two!! What two songs will they be? What days will it be the drop the mix con ? If I can attend the live can you ask him this? How do you adjust the preamp and compressor to have the perfect vocal gain? what has that voice that the other songs don't have, that sounds so present and cutting. What microphone did you record the song with? What did you do in the master to make the bass sound so strong, leaving the voice in that very present position? How much autotune did you use on their voices? 😊😊 thanksss

[@SonicScoop]

Got your questions! Hope to have answers to all of them soon :-)

[@loganunknown]

I really liked this episode and what a refreshing approach, I liked the wall of plugins comment, resonated with me haha. Do bad room frequencies come out with saturation or harmonics? some of us do the best to we can with our homemade vocal booths.

[@UncleBenjs]

Didnt make it to the end so missed the Q&A which was a shame, catching up now tho

[@UncleBenjs]

Great episode, very interesting! 🔥

[@SonicScoop]

Glad you caught it Benj!

[@mixedbyrachel]

Thanks, Benj!

[@iam607]

Aw yeah Rachel cold

[@pwsilzer]

💯🎧✨

[@alexanderewing3779]

I should start by saying i am an amateur musician, who mixes and master's my own stuff but this seems like an awful lot of processing, particularly for a vocal that isn't that dynamic etc? Enjoyed the video though. Cheers!

[@mixedbyrachel]

Not doing too much on each, though. All about the sound!

[@toweringmother]

What did you guys say about tape.. I’m lost 😂

[@anastasiosioannou9868]

I knew there was something wrong with my songs....I will erase them right away and record them again, with harmonics this time...how did I miss that? Thank you!!!

[@HugoArgentina]

As great as she is (no one can doubt that), I’m a simple man: I need to hear examples rather than listening to someone talking about them

[@SonicScoop]

We have that to! The meat of the visual demonstration starts a bit before 26:46, with audio examples after that.

[@toweringmother]

She starts the examples at 36:50

[@anastasiosioannou9868]

Oh, and probably take a lien on my mortgage and take some class in Berkley.... Thanks again.