Can You Make a $40 Microphone Sound Expensive With Plugins?

When recording vocals, inspiration starts the moment you hit record. Find the best plugins for your next vocal mix: link.waves.com/dvk2h
In this video, Bradley Denninston shows you how to build a vocal recording chain you can record live through using Waves plugins. Watch and see how a $40 microphone can be transformed it into a stellar studio sound you’d think was recorded with a much more expensive mic.
In this video:
0:00 Intro
1:23 Dialing in vocal chain for specific genres
2:25 Hearing the microphone before any processing
3:30 Setting the compression on CLA-76
5:02 Shaping vocal EQ with SSL EQ
7:15 Adding vocal effects with CLA vocals
8:52 Before and after vocal comparison
Check out Waves Creative Access Ultimate to get instant access to the plugins featured in this video along with every plugin Waves has to offer - link.waves.com/314oj
Try the plugins featured in this video:
Waves Tune Real-Time: link.waves.com/o2gsq
CLA Vocals: link.waves.com/02qgv
SSL EQ: link.waves.com/i2mh2
CLA-76: link.waves.com/77eo7
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[@markchristopher4165]

Mixing/mastering engineer here, and this was surprisingly good and useful. A great reminder to know your frequencies, as these ideas won't work without that.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hey! Cheers fam, hope it helped!

[@johnlase4376]

yeah im starting to realize how important it its to know my fruequencies by heart.. smh thank you for that reminder

[@indieotatv]

​@@RadiumRecordsHollywoodI luv so much ❤🎉

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@johnlase4376 Just takes practice and ear training over years...

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@indieotatv Cheers fam!

[@BryanJohnson-yz2xr]

"I NEED THE FULL MASTERCLASS!”

[@MelissaLyric]

HIS ENERGY !!! Loved this video, he's incredible >>>>>

[@deamonghod]

Great tut! Thank you! Just good to for me to step up my vocal chain game! The Track with yur voice actually slapzzzz ded on this track! Keep flippin them gears brother!! Subbed

[@xMaSSxHyST3RiA]

THAT WAS FUN 😁 THX 4 UPLOAD!

[@thechiefpriestofmusic]

Amazing bro

[@twilightfilms9436]

Very good video man. You’re selling the product so well, unlike others from your channel. Congrats!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

I use these plugins every day in recording/ mixing/ production... Easy to talk about.

[@hmwise3712]

THANK YOU 🎉

[@garaiss]

Amaizing! Would love to get that chain! :)

[@kylieloc7840]

I NEED THE FULL MASTERCLASS!

[@teamdarinkatrel1719]

Very inspiring

[@JZN_RYN]

I need that masterclass!!!

[@Ekklesia803]

This dude is awesome. And we want this song!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hey! Now I gotta finish it... haha

[@PhormaticBeats]

This guys energy is A1 lol

[@gkakaj]

we need it bro

[@longchank0]

this is awesome man,, gotta try this for my next song hihi

[@mimoochodom2684]

CLA plugin sounds fantastic.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

So damn good...

[@kylieloc7840]

I NEED THE FULL MASTERCLASS

[@Vincent_Andrews_747]

This is VERY helpful!!! Can you do one for lead vocal?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hell yea! Let's go!

[@StanislawHalasa684]

Cool sound

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Yea, came out pretty good! I'm using the chain now for content with my music!

[@juaninbits]

Wow 🤯

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Lesss go!!

[@elcantantejr1]

Chain!

[@steverushforth7009]

V GOOD, "keep on running".

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Keep it moving baby!

[@PharaohLawLess1]

Sounds nice

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Not bad huh?

[@biglankonthetrack]

This cold

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Seriously hope it helps!

[@KingYahuchanon]

🔥🔥🔥

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Let's go!

[@RonniePenko]

Certainly possible! I use a cheap Stagg for all my recordings/video and it sounds awesome.

[@rayrav__]

So glad y’all found a new person to do tutorial videos. I was getting so tired of Sean Divine😂 his videos suck, but this guy is the real deal🔥

[@ojaix555]

I learned a lot from Sean's videos. Maybe they're not what you need but they don't suck.

[@rayrav__]

@@ojaix555 he knows how to mix of course but he does mixing walkthroughs instead of breaking down what the plugins are actually doing. He doesn’t explain why he’s doing certain moves. And the audience is a bunch of people who are trying to LEARN. Then a lot of the time, the mixes aren’t great. He’s knowledgeable and I don’t mean to sound like I’m trying to discredit him, but when I was on my learning journey, his videos gave me anxiety😂😂😂😂 Nowadays, I’m already experienced and schooled so I just watch for fun these days just because I just love music. You can never stop learning…

[@ojaix555]

@@rayrav__ You could have used a better term than saying his videos suck. There would not have been any need for the long explanation. People learn in different ways and every teacher connects to certain kinds of students. As a new producer, I learned so much from Sean and I'm still learning from him. There are some awesome producers who seemed to be speaking over my head because I could hardly learn from them. However, it would be childish for me to publicly say their videos suck just because I couldn't understand them. They're not just my kind of teacher.

[@PowerOfDestruction]

Can we see you use the silk vocal plugin with the 40$ mic. Great video!

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Oh yea, I use Silk vocal for de-essing all the time...

[@obagh2]

I can see you my big brother, this man is like human AI

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Lmao...

[@530Zeno]

Interested in what he's using on the master bus while being in the production and mixing stage. Looks like ssl comp, the mastering chain, L2

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

You want me to pop the chain up for ya?

[@kapitbanda]

i like waves

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Some great plugins... Even made this mic sound pretty damn good

[@GTSongwriter]

The reason I'm afraid to buy another Waves plugin is I don't want it to require that I update every single plugin I have (and all the demo plugins I don't have) in order to buy another plugin to add to the plugins I have. It has done this in the past, every time. I was going to get CLA-76 today, but this is why I'm not.

[@GTSongwriter]

Is this in Studio Verse via StudioRack?

[@ThisIsVersatile]

Need the studio verse link

[@darionjaikaran4180]

After recording, do we leave the processing such as the compression and EQ on The Vocal and exported for mixing?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

That really depends on who is mixing and mastering your songs... In my opinion.

[@JonDeth]

Come on, this is a no brainer but also what makes working in music production so much fun! *Editing skills, knowledge and general perceptions that are critical in the multifaceted craft of music production.* *If you can use Nil's K1V and process it into modern standards for commercial music, you got something serious to brag about.* It's an 8-bit 80's synth based plugin and yes, there are better options both paid and free, but it also does a lot of amazing sounds that take very little editing to reach present standards. Now, if you can do a deep dive production adventure into one of the awful 1980's made for TV episode score so you process it into sounding like the selected instrument, *you can tackle anything!* Of the free instrument plugins I'm willing to work with, I will say that if you can take one that's just say average and moderate in variable function parameters and process it into sounding authentic, you should be able to earn a solid income off your editing and production skills even with it being self taught. *Producing a preset off something so crude that is worth posting for public use is a crazy amount of work but well worth it due to where it advances you as a musician and as a studio and production engineer.*

[@sisekelombuso5836]

👌

[@dusha420]

i want the chain

[@adkywun]

Nice Karaoke

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

lmao...

[@MolotFx]

after autotune began to introduce artifacts into all my new projects, even at 196kHz, I finally switched to waves tune realtime, watch the video further)))

[@titledworld8393]

This is actually a pretty good song hahah

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Hey!! Should I finish it??

[@titledworld8393]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywoodyeh dude

[@DarkGloComics]

I was doing this in 2001 with a $15 mic from Radio Shack and no waves plugins.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Oh yea? What were you doing with it? I remember recording onto those old Tascam 4 track cassette recorders...

[@DarkGloComics]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood I was recording into Cakewalk Pro Audio 9. ANNND it was the 1/4” into a lil Behringer mixer that went into my computer with a 1/4” to 1/8” cable. After that, it was just compression, eq, and reverb. To be fair…this was due in part two having started in a professional studio in 1997 in Los Angeles. When I moved back to my hometown, I took everything that I learned from starting out on a Mackie 24 track board, and three ADATs, with a AT4050 mic- and what I was learning by recording in a computer mixed with a good ear and just made it sound good. It really started when my mic was acting up. My group mate, and I were at the mall (in my hometown of Houston) and the RadioShack is on the outward facing part of the mall. So I see the sign in the window advertising the microphone for $15 and I say oh that’s a pretty good deal to which he retorts that he won’t be recording on that because it will sound like trash. I told him that I could make it work and he didn’t believe me. When I finished a song using it, I invited him over to take a listen, but I didn’t tell him that I used the $15 mic. After the song was over, he asked if I had gotten my mic to working and I said no it was the $15 mic… He couldn’t believe it. Lol.

[@pianissimo369]

Does anyone know where I can get a cheat sheat for approximate EQs? Im a total newbie...

[@behappyaswell8822]

Is there a waves video called how to master your voiceover? How do I get the voice over sound such as you in the video?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Yo! That's actually a great idea

[@Bradleybrookwood]

What audio interface are you using? There's no hiss at all. I'm going crazy trying to figure out how to get rid of that hiss from my recordings and it seems like no matter what setting I use there's always some hissing noises. I have the most expensive XLR cable that you could buy. I don't like using noise gates

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

You may have a ground loop or something else adding noise to your signal... Make sure and ground everything to the same ground and don't plug your audio gear into the same circuit as refrigerators/ A/C units/ fans/ lights/ lamps, etc.

[@Bradleybrookwood]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood So I just received the triton audio Fet head, plugged it into the SM seven DB microphone and I actually ended up having to put it on bypass mode and turn off the actual preamps that were in the microphone and when I did so there was considerably much cleaner gain than the built-in preamps that were in that microphone. I don't know why they decided to use cloudlifter technology when the triton audio in-line preamp has a lot less self noise in fact you don't even hear the self noise because I did a/B testing with this microphone as well as the electro voice 27N/D microphone and both of them sound much better and no hissing at all with the triton audio in-line preamp as opposed to a cloud lifter. I wish that the SM seven DB microphone could be redesigned with preamps from Triton audio because I don't want to have to deal with loads of clunky wires and the triton audio in-line preamp actually gives a lot more clean gain as compared to the cloud lifter even if most marketing materials say that cloud lifters go up to 28 or 30 DB, just because they might do that doesn't necessarily mean that there's no noise. The cloud lifter actually introduces a lot more noise with their amplification. The cloud lifter could give you hundreds of DB of gain so they say, that still doesn't change the fact that it's nothing but hissing noises. I would also like to point out that being totally blind I have to rely on my ears because that's all I've got so my ears are extremely sensitive and I hear things that people who have site may not hear and that hissing from the built-in preamp from cloud microphones is absolutely horrible.

[@kinkotcb2]

Where is this sm48 available for $40?

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

I don't remember where I got it from, it was years ago... I'm sure you can get a used one for $30 or so, brand new maybe 60-70 bucks?

[@TRXST.ISSUES]

2.5 - 5k sounding a little spitty in the mids on the video VO my friend. iPhone speakers 😅

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Yep! That's the joy of using a cheap-o mic. Also why I recommended de-essing to go even further with this chain.

[@TRXST.ISSUES]

@@RadiumRecordsHollywood spot on, love your vids - keep it up!

[@FMI_TheMixEngineEar]

how about 10 dollar mic from walmart???

[@tk22222]

10 dollars & garage sale - correct solution 😊 "walmart" & "panasonic" karaoke mics - sh💩t

[@JustPlayitc00l]

​@@tk22222 Sharp update 👌

[@maximusecho7831]

Na bro

[@jimmoore9490]

I was wondering what happened to My Sherona

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

LMAO!

[@AnomieDomine]

I must not have the golden ears, for I've yet to learn to hear expense

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

haha! One day.

[@AudioReplica2023]

Im sorry I learnt my lesson . I will never try polish the turd again.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

LMAO!

[@itsmesnooze23]

Isn't the EQ ideally put after a compressor? Due to the compressor boosting certain frequencies?

[@GafynLloyd]

it is

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Nah... It all depends on what you're trying to do. Compressors act more complex then just boosting frequencies. If you feel like you need more EQ cutting AFTER the compressor, GO FOR IT! No rules.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@GafynLloyd I would disagree here. There is no "always" when it comes to where you should put an EQ

[@Squidaniel]

It's situational. For instance, you could put an EQ before a compressor and do dramatic boosting INTO the comp and the comp will control it while you get your sweet sweet boosts still

[@JonDeth]

A compressor doesn't boost frequencies, it does what the name implies which is compresses portions of the signal that are significantly higher in magnitude than other tonal ranges that compose the whole. As someone else said, it's situational. You try pre and post then go with what is obviously the right one and potentially it can be both. Compression is ultimately best in very small doses anyway *and why pursuing flat frequency response has been the industry standard longer than I've been alive.* If you have flat frequency response through the sheer dynamics of your equipment, you ideally don't need to use compression whatsoever. Today, too many people are amateurs or they're pros lost in technology and new age concepts in audio processing so it's no longer very common. If you can attain flat frequency response for quite literally everything you record, you will definitely be using compression after EQ'ing if you do end up needing it and best of all it won't be audible in your mastering. The concept here is cheap vs expensive though and in this regard, I literally have 40 cent mics that I can easily produce edits of so it sounds like it cost 4 grand! Aside from being a musician, I'm also a college educated electrical/electronics engineer so I understand the complicated science side of electronic music equipment right down to the quantum physics of it.

[@sevchyk]

Can anybody show me where you can purchase a Shure 48 for forty dollars? It's like saying that you can buy a Lamborgini for some five thousand dollars...

[@real_Nadventures]

Perhaps he was pricing it from when he got it and that was a long time ago?

[@sevchyk]

@@real_Nadventures That microphone never costed 40 dollars, even in one’s dreams…

[@wreckage-vs5jv]

why not just record a sweep sound with the cheap mic and apply a Neumann fingerprint?

[@hichamsawme]

No you cant make sheep microphone by using waves or uad or plaging alliances werever its impossible but thanks fir trying

[@BukanIbuMu]

It's good for retro vibe vocals but might not be working for drake type very ultra bright airy vocals stuff.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Well, I think this is the most obvious comment ever made. In the video I'm not mixing or recording "Drake type" vocals... I assure you I could get a very good Drake type vocal rap chain with a cheap mic as well, obviously not PERFECT, but much much better than what you'd expect.

[@moisesherreraa]

The problem is not the mic level... is the music level....

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Easy fix, just change the level however you want...

[@rootvalue]

Expensive? We have lost the plot.

[@FriendlyAudio]

There are alot of free resources out there, atleast for eq stuff (Matched the microphone on the samsung zflip5 phone to a lauten ls 208, studio microphone) without the need of them side by side, just corrections based off of the frequency response

[@bnjmnwst]

I know what he meant.

[@AudiophoolDeBunkHunter]

"Make a microphone sound expansive".................................................. the stupidiest sentence i've read for a long time.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

Yea, you're right, if it said, "expansive" that would be stupid... ;)

[@KingYahuchanon]

Calm down.

[@AudiophoolDeBunkHunter]

@@KingYahuchanon thanks dad for the advice, i'll ring you when i need, till then, why don't you keep your mouth closed ? 🤣

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

@@KingYahuchanon For real. It ain't that serious... haha

[@josephotte]

You can polish a turd but a turd is still a turd. Shame on you for trying to teach these people it ALWAYS STARTS AT THE RECORDING NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY BRO. I'm not saying it don't sound better, because it does. I just think telling the people the correct way to get a great sound is the correct thing to do.

[@RadiumRecordsHollywood]

You're not my Dad.

[@real_Nadventures]

Polish?