Top 5 Rap Vocal Mixing Tips from Producer Willie Green

[@Producelikeapro]

What are your go to plugins for mixing vocals? Please share below!

[@Pasta221]

I tend to throw on/sing through a channel-strip plugin like scheps omni channel or PSP Infinistrip and then bus some delay(stock DAW plugin), room reverb (usally Meldas free MReconvolution) and sometimes a plate or longer reverb ( Valhalla Supermassive or Dragonfly Plate, both are free btw!). But I still am in the "learn recording" phase and have not really gotten fully into the "mixing stage" yet! so its mostly just to hear myself sing and also give the vocals some space and mood to them to ease the recording, and usally tweak the effects later in the mixing stage and/or replace them fully!

[@DazzleRebel]

I usually start with either C6 multiband or saturation into EQ, normally Cubase's built in Frequency plug-in. Then either LA-76 into a LA-2A or RVox into LA-76 if it needs to be punchier. I might add a little more saturation (really enjoying Waves BB Tubes for this) here if needed or just go straight to a deesser before finishing off with a touch more EQ and a limiter if needed (though with editing the vocals before adding the vocal chain a limiter is rarely needed). I'll feed this off to one or more effects busses for delays, reverb, more saturation etc) before a Lead Vocal bus which will usually have light limiting, maybe some final eqing into Waves NLS on either Nevo or Mike setting depending on if I want it light and airy or warm and fuzzy, hardly any gain added, if any. Just for very subtle natural flavouring to make my vocal sound chain more like its going through a real console.

[@andreirlmeier]

For vocals recorded with dynamic microphone I prefer the joe meek eq …

[@Producelikeapro]

@@andreirlmeier thanks ever so much for sharing!

[@spitfiremusic3997]

Waves RVox of course!

[@leefchapman]

Love Willie Green as a teacher as well as producer. This will be great.

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much

[@dietofwires]

I rarely even mix rap vocals, but I’ll watch any Professor Green video because he describes such a clear framework of the purpose of mixing.

[@Producelikeapro]

Yes, he’s awesome!

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much for sharing

[@Joey-rp5vg]

Thanks very much Willie, great tips. Big thanks to the PLAP team

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much Joey

[@HitTheRoadMusicStudio]

Willie Green is such a good teacher, finished watching his Promix Academy tutorial(s) and the tips shared are gold!!!

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much! Yes, we love Willie! He’s an amazing talent

[@dimitardimitrov8692]

Listening to him feels almost like a bed time story, niiice and smoooth or as he would say - hustlin' forward 😁.

[@Producelikeapro]

Willie is an amazing talent and a truly wonderful guy!

[@Producelikeapro]

Also agreed, he is marvellous mentor

[@dimitardimitrov8692]

@@Producelikeapro Yes, he is!

[@Producelikeapro]

@@dimitardimitrov8692 thanks for saying that!

[@laureano9622]

he's awesome!!! i love how this guy talks and teaches. i would love to see him again in this space

[@stephenzeagman9985]

Thanks Willie, love the videos that have been put up

[@Producelikeapro]

You Rock!

[@Alan.livingston]

The greenhouse. God level pun right there.

[@michaelalberson126]

Absolutely awesome information

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much Michael!

[@sethmonroe9603]

Love willie, first discovered him on Adam audio channel, looking forward to hearing more from him on this one

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks so much. Willie is incredible.

[@davidallenhammond2777]

Excellent introduction to your work style. Thank you for sharing it. I loved your interview with Warren Huart the other day very useful info there and very timely for me.

[@Producelikeapro]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@crimson3510]

SUPER MASTER CLASS!!!

[@henryijeoma]

what delay time do you typically use for your slap delays? Less than 100ms?

[@johanjof5613]

From my experience it does not really matter but yes below 100, I typically land around 30 or 40, but any slapback preset should do. What matters is the blending between your track and the slapback track, and most importantly the eq moves on the slapback track to avoid the added muddiness.

[@henryijeoma]

@@johanjof5613 thank you man

[@Producelikeapro]

Yes, below 100ms adds real thickness to vocals, rap etc

[@Producelikeapro]

@@johanjof5613 well said! Thanks ever so much!

[@Producelikeapro]

@@henryijeoma yes, great comment

[@ZayMamon7983]

Guy is genius

[@DooYaaVibe]

I wonder how its done live concerning latency. I am new to music engineering. So is it special Hardware used for live performances?

[@thaexception3406]

Y'all listen up!

[@Producelikeapro]

Absolutely!

[@shestudiossheila7423]

Go Willie! Great Job!

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much Sheila

[@johanjof5613]

It seems to me that the first tip in this genre, talking about compression, should be parallel compression on the vocals. This is a widely used goto trick to make the main vocal stick out while maintaining some dynamics. I prefer this more than high compression and volume automation as shown here, I find the former shows more dynamics from the artist than the latter. And if you do want to make certain words stick out slightly for artistic reasons, you can still do that on the parallel track or even record a DT for these words

[@slavesforging5361]

you do realize that light parallel compression was exactly what he did. the only thing that was different was he automated the parallel and the original.

[@splashesin8]

😊

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks Audrey!

[@Protocol_17]

This is not my preferred genre, but many production techniques seem to be universal.

[@Producelikeapro]

Very well said

[@nobodyspecialmusic]

I do rap and r&b and have learned half if not more of the techniques I use from other genres.

[@Producelikeapro]

@@nobodyspecialmusic thanks ever so much!

[@h3liosraps]

no way i love castro!!

[@OperationChicago]

I think you need a tape machine brother :)

[@volusz]

You know what? I'm really confused... I really appreciate all these mixing engineers... but if you listen to a few people where they work in this music industry... I don't know where I have to go... some mix engineers told me "music is like a puzzle, all the pieces have to fit together so we have to cut something out to fit something else." the next engineer told me that "sounds have to work together, sounds are not jigsaw puzzles where something is cut out to make room for something..." Who's right? I think no one ... if something sounds good, no matter which way you go, you can achieve a great song ... I think the best technique is to just listen to other records, and if you like it, try to achieve that sound ... Thank you for your attention!

[@samuelellringmann3424]

One is production advice, one is mixing advice ;-)

[@volusz]

@@samuelellringmann3424 You think that way, but the first is an engineer and the second is an engineer

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

Both are correct, you are focusing on semantics. Mixing is like a puzzle there are many pieces that need to fit together. But picture the edges of the pieces as overlapping and not a hard edges where one stops and one starts. Some beginners think you need to filter all the pieces to fit in individual spaces, when engineers say music isn't a puzzle that's why it's called mixing they are addressing this problem. You have to remember art is difficult to describe, 10,000 people are all going to describe it different to each other. You can't expect them all to use the exact same words to explain what they do that's just impossible. It isn't that deep, don't read too much into each individual persons words.

[@Producelikeapro]

I believe they are just people talking about how their brain works. Of course picking anything together is like fitting a jigsaw puzzle, however sonically sounds should overlap! It can be a puzzle, however it doesn't mean that the sounds are all isolated, I've never anyone who builds a song like that. So they are just using the phrase to support their idea, not to be taken as meaning something extreme.

[@Producelikeapro]

Indeed NoQualms! It's just a phrase that works in context of what they are saying!

[@galladebutcooler8645]

Death metal mixing contest’s results when? 🥺

[@Producelikeapro]

When we’ve listened to every single mix and not before!

[@randomschittz9461]

Turn up the volume, turn down the volume.. a kid could mix rap.

[@Producelikeapro]

I'm all for kids getting in to mixing! Glad this will be helpful for them.

[@davehall8584]

LOL! i want to mix SINGERS! not somebody SPEAKING.

[@samuelellringmann3424]

can put autotune and mix after

[@percusswords]

Then this might not be for you! What's the point of this comment?

[@commonsense5188]

@@percusswords Typical non-sense from someone who can only view hip hop/rap with disrespect. Remarkable that one could read the TITLE of the video, then post a goofy ass comment as if the title does not indicate WHAT is being mixed and talked about here. A real winner, obviously.

[@samuelellringmann3424]

@@commonsense5188 to be fair rap wasnt in the title of the video in the beginning. We updated that, so its all good

[@NLNPNL]

Which one of these techniques wouldn't apply to singing?

[@Protocol_17]

This is not my preferred genre, but many production techniques seem to be universal.

[@Producelikeapro]

Absolutely! Thanks so much for watching. For producer's it is vital to be open-minded.