Thoughts on Waves Silk Vocal

Mix engineer Dave Stagl shares his thoughts on the Waves Silk Vocal plug-in and dials it in on a vocal.
◎ MIXING & MASTERING in Dolby Atmos & Stereo: www.staglproductions.com
◎ Training & Consulting: www.goingto11.com
◎ 5 Tips for a Great Dolby Atmos Release: tinyurl.com/y76pdt2u
Waves Silk Vocal: waves.alzt.net/g1QoLA
Sonarworks: tinyurl.com/bdf4a7y8
SoundFlow: soundflow.org/invite?fpr=293i6
Waves Plug-Ins: waves.alzt.net/93xg4
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SOCIAL MEDIA
/ fohdave
/ fohdave1
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00:00 - Start
00:58 - Initial Thoughts
02:04 - Compressor Thoughts
02:35 - Gate Thoughts
03:16 - Gate Tips
04:03 - Helpful Live Use Tip
05:54 - Dynamic EQ Thoughts
06:36 - About vocal harshness...
07:48 - DeEsser vs. Hi-Shelf
08:56 - HPF Thoughts
09:24 - Live Version vs. Regular Version
10:55 - Signal Flow Thoughts
12:21 - Dialing in a Vocal with Silk
14:21 - Compressor Tip
15:43 - Precision Control Tips
16:43 - Tone Shaping
17:32 - A/B'ing Results So Far
17:46 - Adding a 2nd Compressor
18:12 - Addressing Sibilance
19:18 - Adding a Little Bit of Top
20:15 - A/B'ing Everything
20:37 - A/B'ing Silk Vocal
21:09 - Wrap-Up

[@andybrowne8232]

It looks like you can right click the headphone icon to disable the solo function

[@goingto11]

Great find! Looks like I should've read the manual.

[@alexanderewing3779]

Really good tutorial, Dave. Looking forward to trying it out. Cheers!

[@roncook767]

Great video Dave. Gonna give this a shot on tomorrow nights gig.

[@GregVasquez777]

Thanks great video!

[@MJCGuitar]

Thank you so much. Great tutorial!

[@goingto11]

Glad it was helpful!

[@micahmuth4256]

I kinda built something in f6 with really tight filters and each filter i park over weird frequencies, fast attack and medium release, with this plug i can move the f6 to the upper mids of the vocal. I'm excited to try this out.

[@artysanmobile]

I’m loving the brilliance it is NOT causing for a change. Like saturating a transformer stage, the enhancement is to primary frequencies rather than harmonics and I’m all over that sound. Much like the console preamps of 80 series Neve’s, the drive amount IS the tone setting. Very nuanced sound is possible with this processor.

[@lance134679]

The resonance filter sections are basically Soothe for vocals - could this mean Waves is about to release a Soothe competitor?

[@varukami]

There's a little arrow under the high section (default it's set on 4k-12k) You could increase the frequency range to target the de-esser more effectively there.

[@goingto11]

That doesn't actually change the response, I believe it just changes the display.

[@varukami]

@@goingto11 Ahh I see.

[@yungbevvo]

Can we get a review on the AMEK 9099

[@DaWizeDeciple]

Great review!!!!! How is this compared to Xvox Pro?

[@goingto11]

Thanks! I don't know about Xvox Pro because I haven't used it.

[@brucewayne251]

5:50 could you also use 2 instances of Silk | Vocals with only the mid enabled on the 2nd instance, and the bandwidths set?

[@goingto11]

I suppose you could do that. I've just been going to F6 if I need something in addition to Silk, but that's been rare for me so far.

[@games.music.tech.3560]

They dropped Silk Vocal but I don't see a live version? I'm primarily a live-audio engineer - where can I find it?

[@goingto11]

It's included with the plug-in.

[@aus-reviews8462]

this pretty much looks like a compact version of multiple waves plugins

[@prodbystm]

It’s more than that the cleanliness of the vocals sounds nothing like the other EQs it’s just immaculate

[@vio4jesus]

Does it support iOS?

[@STAR_CMND]

How do you go about using this (or any plug-in) live?

[@goingto11]

I use Waves SuperRack. waves.alzt.net/2ZQkQ

[@STAR_CMND]

Thank you sir@@goingto11

[@JamesArthurHurley]

So. It’s Waves soothe?

[@weedywet]

exactly

[@goingto11]

Sort of, but not quite. Soothe offers a lot more control and is useful on any input. This is really tailored for vocals and can be faster to dial in.

[@jjjtttggg]

No side chain capability like soothe. 😕

[@sanciopancioahoy]

13:56 Thank me later..

[@MasonTorrey]

That sounds like Hillsong.

[@elcantantejr1]

A mí me gusta más la voz en este caso sin el Silk😂😂😂

[@Endless_Skyway_Adventures]

My opinion: MEH