Using Vocal Rider with Logic Pro X to Automate Vocals Quickly

This video will show you how to use Waves's Vocal Rider plugin to automate your vocals quickly. I'll also show you how to edit and fine tune the automation data to get your vocals to sit perfectly in your mix.
For more tutorials visit: www.charliesound.com

[@hunghoangmusic]

Dear Waves, you need to contact this guy for promoting this plugin.

[@guillaumevaudescal9842]

Thank you so much for this tutorial, it was way clearer than the official Waves video!

[@CharlesPotashner]

Thank you, glad to hear it was helpful

[@jesonnguzu2646]

Right!😂

[@raarong]

MAN. Brother. This video is perfect. Leave it alone. Great. I'm not usually one to comment, but it was necessary. WATCH THIS VIDEO!

[@motownbaby]

I’m new to mixing my vocals (singer/songwriter here) with a track from my collaborator. I just purchased the Vocal Rider plug in and your tutorial has been the best BY FAR of anything else I’ve seen. Great content…thank you! 👍

[@kirstinwebb2477]

This is the best tutorial I've seen for this plugin!

[@themarcos150591]

Helpful? This is one of the best tutorials I have ever seen. God bless you.

[@outlier.mp3]

best waves vocal rider tutorial i've seen; thanks a bunch :)

[@seguemaserati]

thanks so much, the manual that this plugin comes with helps about 50% of the way, but this video helped me understand this plugin full circle now... love this plugin!

[@didsmusic4274]

Much clearer than any others I had found thank you

[@ThePdeHav]

Great Job. I needed to refresh my understanding of this plug-in and you helped, quickly and adroitly. Happy New Year from London. Keep up the good work. May 2022 be an amazing year for you and everyone passing through here.

[@nickmilk123]

Thank you so much friend! This plugin and your video just helped me reduce the amount of time needed for manually fader riding vocals to only time required to adjust automation data! You are gettin a like sir!

[@hersheybell8444]

Super - you really did a great job of explaining the music side chain process! Appreciate it man

[@ShamankaPhoenix]

I loved your presentation Charlie. Very easy to follow and understand. Nice voice you have too.

[@megiddo3790]

Thank you very much for this tutorial . The best explanation of this plugin I've found.

[@mastermind5601]

Oh My God! Really? Best explanation! You are really awesome at explaining man. I searched my ass off about this plugin, got so confused, now I know EXACTLY WHAT TO DO!!!! WOW! Thank you so much!

[@charliekowittmusic]

Fantastic tutorial. Hopefully I can actually implement this plugin into my workflow. Seems like a huge time saver.

[@adamdeverb]

Easy to get the information such great explanations totally understand to the points you bring in. Great work! ♥️

[@kevbomb]

For anyone using Ableton, the sidechain option is not in the Vocal rider window, it's on the ableton box at the bottom left of screen where plugins sit. Took me awhile to notice that

[@Jmusiquex]

Charly, Charly, Charly…. Stop the thirty second silent treatment. Please continue with videos like this……. very helpful and explained throughly. Come back!!!!!!

[@CharlesPotashner]

Haha, thanks. That is the plan. I'm taking longer than I would like to make some more Waves and Logic Pro videos but hopefully I'll have some soon

[@samwilliams1024]

GREAT Video Thanks for making this!!

[@curlykeys8261]

this was super helpful, thank you my friend!

[@Fast_and__curious]

Thank you sir, you saved me a lot of time 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@BossAtwork69]

As you're using Logic, build in CLIP GAIN AUTOMATION would be a better option. You can adjust volume for each section of an audio track with visual aid.

[@choppedbycong]

Thanks man, this was really useful !!

[@KevinKouto]

used this trick and added my own spice in my track

[@thetej2000]

Great tutorial sir ,thanks a lot 😉❤️

[@evangelistaestebangonzalez5309]

Thank you Charles for this tutorial it gave me more tech. ability

[@mattalan5218]

Great stuff, really useful

[@chrismarks6176]

Amazing, thank you!!!

[@theq937]

Super helpful!

[@cryptonite91]

Great tutorial!

[@deziperado]

wow...this plugin is a game changer for real.

[@RyanMartinMusic]

Great tutorial! What about double up vocals and harmonies though? Would you put it on each vox channel?

[@jelmar.manuel]

Very nice and clear video. I agree, better than the actual one. My question. When I, like you, select a couple tracks to go into a bus, it does not actually send all of them but just one. What am I missing?

[@rickyparis5005]

Super helpful thanks

[@DALEEEEED]

That was Brilliant !!!!

[@stevenotice2918]

thanks, that was very helpful!

[@therealrussellsmyth]

Great video. Kudos. Is there a way of sidechaining off the master (ie master without the vocal track)

[@hellomusic8435]

mind-blowing.... u made my day

[@vacuumelite2065]

Thanks lots, really helpful. 😊😊

[@maximeblais2032]

Very well explained. Just a question why is the track fader not also moving along with the plug-in fader after automation is written and being put on read on the track and the plugin?

[@karrot101]

Thanks u are fab I’m new and understood that easily

[@Revelations-bc1vk]

Thanks very helpful

[@alejandromoro]

good tutorial, just noticed that you don't use the vocal sensitivity know. how do you adjust it?

[@mantrinbago]

Great stuff.

[@yoelwww]

Amazing!

[@nanayawasare1]

Brilliant

[@Frankyap111]

Hi Charles, Enjoyed your presentation, easy to follow, clear and easily understood. To purchase Vocal Rider for Logis pro X, is there a specific serial no which distinguish it from Ableton DAW? I wish to buy one and requiring the correct info .I own Logic pro X. Looking forwartd to hearing from you.Thank you.

[@samsonlovesyou]

Do you tend to use it to ride the backing track by placing it at the end of your vocal chain? Or do you use it in the prep stage to level the vocals out before they hit the compressor during the processing stage? If the latter, do you commit the edits so that you have a more even waveform?

[@creativej_]

Amazing tutorial, what’s the name of this song?

[@danielwilliams3435]

10/10 your a life save 🙏🏾

[@bullydully7428]

Would you use this instead a compressor? Thank you

[@ansfelt77]

I saw another tutorial using a daw that I don’t know. They had a preview off the audio file in realtime as it ran through the plugin. Is this obtainable in Logic x?

[@0x0777]

Nice clear video. The only thing you missed is setting the aux track to no output.

[@joshgiesbrecht]

I'm doing this exactly the same way, but it's not touching the volume of my vocal whatsoever. I can grab the "Ride Fader" automation points and completely zero them out and it doesn't affect the volume at all, so the tiny adjustments it's making sure as hell aren't making a difference. In Reaper, it would write actual "Volume" automation, not this "Rider Fader" auto that isn't doing anything other than wasting my time. Is there a way to just copy the automation from the "Rider Fader" and paste it onto the actual "Volume" automation? I've tried just pasting the automation to the volume, but it just reverts back to "Rider Fader".

[@ykvlc]

can it be used without bus?

[@emboar7247]

I'm a little bit confused at 5:30 . Why don't you have a bus on this track, but on all the other ones? Thanks

[@bdj0775]

Such an awesome video thank you! Do you think that this plug in should go before you start to do any other effects work like compression, eq, etc? or would this be the last plug-in in your chain?

[@CharlesPotashner]

If you use any tuning plugins like Melodyne or Autotune those should be used first, but I would use this plugin before compressors and definitely before reverb or delays. You can use other compressors in a more nuanced way if you use this plugin to balance vocals out first.

[@davidsundas4767]

Hi whenever i load the waves plugin it doesn’t show waves display - it shows me another default interface of garageband

[@tonyp1945]

Hi, I have just bought this plugin and thanks for the demonstration its been very useful to me. Can you tell me once it's gone through the whole song, has it automatically changed the wave file and you don't have to run it again OR do you have to run it again to share into iTunes on mastering when you complete the whole song. Thank you tony

[@CharlesPotashner]

The plugin itself will not make any changes to your actual wave file until you bounce it. It is automating volume levels, not changing the individual audio clips.

[@hellomusic8435]

subscribed

[@laurentmonot5664]

helpfull thx

[@baskettoga_yaritaides]

thx man

[@CharlesPotashner]

You’re welcome!

[@thomasanderson8993]

Which song is this?

[@DJWICCA]

I did not understand how you have selected all the parts at 2min55sec ? It femmes very easy for you, but I do not how wee do that. Can you explain to me? 🙂

[@treavorwalton1929]

first off, great explanation! I have a question though, by routing the rest of the track to a bus wouldn't you want to turn the stereo output on that bus off so you're not doubling the audio of all those tracks? like basically you want the plugin to pick up all that audio, but not the master output right?

[@CharlesPotashner]

Yes, this is correct. I’ll try to update the video to include that soon.

[@treavorwalton1929]

@@CharlesPotashner ok great, thanks for the quick reply!

[@alejandromoro]

@@CharlesPotashner and the send pre fader?

[@bombmorrissey643]

Do we need to keep the vocal rider “on” and within the chain after writing the automation? Or can we simply discard the plug-in after the automation had been written? Great video. Cheers

[@BlackPanther-cd4mm]

No

[@Dclar86]

How do we compensate for the latency that accompanies vocal rider when sidechained? Can't seem to get any answers.... Automation is always a last step for me in mix before mastering and vocal rider battles latency issues with all the other plugins. A good vocal take will randomly speed up and slow down as soon as sidechain is applied. It seems this is probably a Logic Pro X issue but wondering if anybodies run into this or if there is a work around (other than less plugins or just not using sidechain).

[@CharlesPotashner]

In Logic you should be able to freeze tracks you are not using to free up processing power. I would usually have it early in the chain actually before everything except for pitch correction if there is any of that.

[@theq937]

Do you usually use this plugin before you do your initial level balance when you start your mix?

[@CharlesPotashner]

No, I’d usually make a quick static mix/initial level balance of the instrumental elements of the track first. I’ll show how I approach that in an upcoming video

[@nanayawasare1]

Where in the vocal chain do you put the rider please. Thanks. Very informative and simple

[@WriteJus]

From what I've heard, put it first. Definitely before any compression.

[@CharlesPotashner]

Yes, Chris is right. I use it after EQ, but before compressors or any other plugins. If you are leaving any tuning plugins on the track you would want those before this one as well. Otherwise anything I can think of should go after

[@williamf.9615]

Great. Once the automation has been written, you could remove the plugin from the channel, no?

[@johnwave2827]

No, because the automation is only controlling the fader of the plugin. Not the fader of your DAW.

[@KendrickCreates]

I could have sworn that the automation data copied over to the DAW's volume lane and thus would move the main fader. I think I remember removing VR off the channel once I wrote automation in Studio One, but it doesn't seem to work like this in Logic, eh?

[@CharlesPotashner]

In Logic you can manually copy over the volume automation data and remove the plugin, but it is not automatically written to the DAW’s volume lane.

[@calv1846]

cant a compressor act the same?

[@zzzyzzzyzzzyxxx]

Very good but, you didn't talk about the target control.

[@sandrabecht4489]

Vielen Dank👍🇩🇪

[@nathanknight3685]

If you send all your instruments to a bus, won't that increase the volume and change the balance of the mix? is there a way to do this without using sends?

[@CharlesPotashner]

You just need to make sure the output of the bus is not routed to the stereo output of the main mix. You can send the audio on a bus without it affecting the balance of the mix at all

[@emviousMUSIC]

@@CharlesPotashner How do we not make it routed to stereo output? And in the mixer where the aux was created for the bus, do we put another Vocal Rider. One more thing, how do we go about it riding with an already produced beat--say one we bout and just putting vocals over it. Sorry for the handful of questions but your tutorial is the best and it shows by how many dislikes you got. Mind making another video?

[@galoguevara6049]

This is an interesting plugin. But why would you use this instead of a compressor (or two compressors in the chain). The riding of the fader is basically doing the same job a compressor would do if set properly. Which means any automation after the compression stage would be minimal (mostly for dynamic effect or creating the appropriate "energy" balance as the sections of the song progress).

[@Gusafy]

This is a good question, would love to see it answered.

[@andrewericdavison]

Vocal rider will not just compress, it will also boost the quiet parts - and it's only doing so by changing the volume. Compression changes the waveform a lot more - I usually use Vocal Rider followed by compression, and it lets me not go super harsh on either. That's just my take on it tho

[@driftingmelodies]

you covered evrything so much in detail ..greaaaat..in ableon live 10 i see no 'latch' or 'write 'options ..also when i turn the instrument knob up only vocals is getting louder but turning up vocals knob doesnt make it louder.i routed it wrong or is it some techical issue?help

[@CharlesPotashner]

As stated in the title this video was intended to be specific to using the plugin in the context of Logic Pro X. I’ll consider making another video regarding Ableton at some point.

[@rmrsavage7602]

But why turn up the sends? It’s just gonna make the session unnecessarily louder 🤨🤨

[@bildjan]

don't you need to change the output on the bus to none? otherwise you'll get all doubled up, also the plugin would work without a sidechain if you want to just level the vocal tad bit

[@CharlesPotashner]

Yes, you are right. Thank you for pointing this out. I'll try to add this info to the video

[@DJWICCA]

Little precision : I am on GarageBand :/ I don't if it's that principle

[@Sherinthomas791]

That’s what a compressor do ..am I right ????

[@santinolaboy4244]

In my opinion vocal rider cant take the place of automation an thats coming from someone who hates how much time automation takes...

[@JonRayRunawayVealMusic]

Ok come on make it easy must use a bus and send all tracks to the vocal rider side chain ???? Huh what ? What about more than one vocal track …??? Whets up

[@drewchadwick2847]

IT DOESNTFCKING WORK!! WHEN YOU ADJUST THE AUTOMATION THE VOLUME DOES NOT CHANGE! LIES