Vocal Presets — What Are Those?!

I want to start by explaining what these vocal presets are, what they consist of and why you should or shouldn't use them.

Funny thing, I actually started writing a different post. A long article about mixing and mastering your own vocals, but it failed to save and I didn't make a backup. I'm stupid like that. But I guess I'm gonna have to write it again some other time.

So without further ado, let's get into these presets.

Vocal presets are mixer chains or mixer states, filled with plugins that have already been tweaked to get the desired result. You can simply load them up into your preferred DAW, open them and apply the effects to the raw vocal.

These are usually divided into 3 categories: vocal processing preset, vocal effects preset, adlibs preset.

Vocal processing does exactly what it sounds like it does. A list of plugins meant to process the raw vocal with mainly eq, compression and saturation to make it presentable, so to say. It has to be one with the mix and at the same time stand out.

Processing or shaping the vocal is usually the hardest part. Especially in modern day rap, where overcompressed vocals are the end goal. Because if you apply hard compression on a vocal, it stops playing nice with the song. So now you have to find a way glue it all back together.

That's where vocal effects can help. These are mainly reverb, delay, stereo imaging, chorus, flanger, phaser etc. You can use reverb and delay to sort of merge the vocal together with the atmosphere of the song. One option is to use the same or similar parameters on other instruments. Or you can play with the chorus and create a stereo effect for the hook.

The Adlibs preset is virtually a variation of the vocal effects preset. Not much can be said about it. But I'd like to add that I use a lot of automation when it comes to adlibs. Pan to the left, pan to the right, mono, delay 1/4, then delay 1/8 — automating that kind of stuff throughout the song.

The adlibs usually go through the same processing chain as the main vocal (with some adjustments). I personally like to eliminate the low end boom from adlibs to keep the spotlight on the main vocal.

These are the main points that define the presets. At least in my work. But often there's another question that pops up and it is a very common one.

How can the presets work if each persons voice is different?

I love this question. Especially because I had the exact same question before I first got into vocal mixing. And it's a perfectly normal concern. But let me put your mind at ease.

From a strict engineering standpoint, the basic methods for vocal mixing stay the same regardless of an individuals voice. When it comes to modern trap & hiphop — cut the lows, boost the highs, medium to heavy compression and hard de-essing. A very, very rough description, but essentially correct.

However, the devil is in the details and the order in which all of this is applied. Using parallel compression, applying mid-side EQ correctly, knowing where the muddyness and the boxyness is most prevalent etc.

Do you know the different between me making a custom preset for a client vs a similar preset on my website?

Narrow-band EQ notching. That's it.

If we leave aside things like special requests or different genres, that's the only thing, really. Adjusting the cuts with surgical precision to eliminate the most prominent anomalies.

You could say it's the cherry on top of a delicious, already finished cake.


But I think that's it from me today. 
I hope you found this useful and I'll see you in the next one.