I regularly revisit all your Cakewalk by Bandlab videos to re-emphasize what I have learned. Being a novice to digital recording, You have a gift of conveying your video material in a logical and easy-to-understand manner, making my learning experience a delight, and for that, I am most grateful!
There is a wealth of information here. I've seen many presentations on this and other issues, but none as clear and concise as yours. Also, the graphics are very helpful, in that they highlight the pertinent things and remain on screen long enough for things to be easily identified and understood. I don't know why or how I didn't come across your channel before, because I've been watching audio recording and mixing tutorials for 8 years. And even though much of this information wasn't new to me, somehow it feels like it is. You have a way of dispelling much of the confusion and myths that are put forth by people who may know their trade, and may even be very proficient at it, but don't necessarily have a gift for teaching, or are conditioned by sponsorships and such. The fact that, other than Cakewalk, which is a DAW that does more or less what every other DAW does, your sponsorship is not gear or software-related makes it all the more transparent. You remind me of some of the best teachers I had in high school, and those were few and far between. I will be following your channel more regularly from now on.
For the reverb, I tend to have a fairly lush reverb and have a very aggressive compressor right after it with the vocal feeding it as a sidechain. What it does is compress the reverb so we don't (or almost don't) hear it during the main vocal and it does come on with the lush tail after the vocal is finished. It's "ducking" behind the vocal. So, a ratio of 20:1 (or more if possible), the fastest attack possible, and then I play with the threshold and the release. After that, I add it to taste to the mix. It's not a typical setup, but I find it works in many situations to have a nice reverb while avoiding washing the vocal away and burying it in the mix. For the delay, I set it to 1/8 the song's BPM (sometimes more, sometimes less) and usually feed it into the reverb. And then I see if I also need it dry or only through the reverb.
I have the AT 2020, been using it for about 3 years, and i have to say that for the amount of money I paid for it I am extremely happy with the results
Just discovered you and I must say that I am grateful I did! Knowing the material is one thing. Being able to logically and clearly relay that information to other people is a talent that is not very often seen, unfortunately, on RUclips. I see many many hours ahead of me watching your videos! Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us!
For parallel compression where the backing is full, I go narrower on the EQ to get closer to the presence frequency of the vocal because it's no longer about increasing the solidity of the vocal, it's about preserving the intelligibility of the quieter words over the wall of sound.
As always, I hope you're well. Great stuff, it's a lot! Remind people that this might take a while to digest, try out all the different steps and give it time. Thanks again, Mike
Brilliant video. Your explanations are so clear and professional. Thank you. My ears/headphones couldn’t pick up on much of the subtle changes you were making.
Thank you very much for this video. I have used Cakewalk since 1995. But have struggled to get anything to sound good. The poor misguided folks who produced the official instructional videos (particularly when under the control of Gibson), absolutely failed at offering anything useful. They were too fast, too vague, and tried to make it sound so easy, they would simply gloss over exactly how to do it. The result was predictably unhelpful. Conversely, you have explained very clearly how to set up and use Cakewalk features plainly. Brilliant 😎 I will try this out tomorrow in my home studio on a current project. I will also be sure to watch more of your content.. Thanks again.
Hard not to make it all the way through. Very interesting and useful video. I'm still kind of new to this, and am absorbing all I can find. Keep coming back to your channel, because of all the practical tips. Many thanks! Cheers.
By Far This Iz My Favorite DAW Channel!!! Mike I've Used Cakewalk For Years (started with like 3.0 waaayy back when)..., But Until I Watched UR Channel I Never Dug Deep Into It Or Unlocked All The Creative Things You Could Do With It!!! I Was Basically MIDI Driven & Never Used Live Audio Clips. I Was Using Sonar X1 Producer & Immediately Switched Over To The Bandlab Version You Use So I Could Follow Along!!! In My Haste I Released My 1st Solo Project, But I Sure Could've Benefited From Utilizing All The Tips I've Now Learned Along The Way!!! I Can Hear All The Warts & Mis-Steps I Made Along The Way..., So I Know My Next Project Will Be Soooooo Much More Thought Out As I Hear UR Voice Ringing In My Head!!! I Love The Way You Teach As Itz Thoughtful, Well Laid Out, & You Xplain Why You Make The Decisions You Use!!! Where Were You 10 Years Ago My Man??? I Wudda Been That Much Further Along!!! LOL!!! I Watch UR Videos Like I'm In The Theater Watching A Mega Block Buster Release!!! Keep Up The Great Work, You Have A Big Fan Man!!!
I have my own "band"... it's just me doing everything... and I have a pretty terrible voice and mediocre recording room. That said, I needed some serious help to move my music further into more creative areas, and found this tutorial INCREDIBLY helpful. Thank you!!
Great video as always Mike, one thing I would like to mention, you were using a reverb with built in EQ. For those that don't have this plugin or prefer another one, you can achieve the same effect by placing an eq something like the Nova for example before the reverb on the buss. I often use it for reverb on acoustic guitars to get rid of that boxing boominess that tries to creep in sometimes.
Thanks for mentioning this Michael, great reminder and tip! Especially when you have many tracks using reverb, a low end muddy build up can occur. Thank you!
I'm a beginner with CW by BL. Your tutorials are great!! I learned so much in short time about the mature and extensive program. Thx Mike!!! I've subscribed an liked!
Of course I watched until the end. Excellent tutorial again that was focused but still managed to contain a lot of important information and was just the right length. Have a Merry Christmas.
Hi Mike, great tutorial, you really have a knack for this teaching thing! I just wanted to point out that the manner in which you manually enter nodes when automating clip gain, or any envelope, is very labour intensive. To obtain a similar move simply click and drag the region you want to edit and then move the pointer to the top of the clip until the 'move automation envelope' icon appears (a line with up/down arrows) then click and drag. This adds nodes at selection automatically, it is very easy and with only two mouse moves very efficient, it will speed up your workflow. I recently bought the Arturia Fx and also love the Pre TridA and the Pre 1973, especially when you raise the input gain to around the 2 O'Clock position to get some harmonic distortion. Actually I pretty much use similar methods and tools as you except I also often use parallel saturation with my one of my favourite plugins Decapitator from SoundToys. Thanks for your awesome content! Cheers!
Useful as always Mike! Just a quick tip on clip gain. There's a couple of shortcuts I use to do what you did but much quicker. I use alt and A to cut the clip into the section I want to adjust. Then hold ctrl and left click (and hold) in the middle of the clip and move up or down to change the gain. The advantage of this method is that you can see what you are adjusting as well because the waveform changes.
Yup that's a way I've done in the past. And in some ways ots easier. But since they now change the waveform with clip automation now, I like that way too. Whatever ways gets it done best for you!
Great vid, good info. Just want to make the point that dynamic vs condenser mic is a complex issue! Personally, I absolutely love my Beyerdynamic M99 large dynamic (broadly similar to a Sure SM7). However to say a dynamic will pick up less of the room is a little misleading --- this is true to some extent if you're right up close to the mic (although with a dynamic this might give you far too much bottom end) -- but, in the end a dynamic's signal level is lower, which means you will have to give it more gain to achieve the same db level as a condenser... which effectively puts you back to square one with room sound! Treat the room as best you can, the smaller the space the better (up to a point), fill it with cushions, blankets.. do what you have to to break up the reflections and reduce bass re-inforcement in corners.
Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holiday! I'd just like to echo or add to the suggestions at the beginning of the video.. The biggest step toward a great track is to start with a great recording of a good performance. You don't want to start out fixing problems with levels, tone, plosives, mistakes, etc.. Take the time to get it right at the source! If the raw tracks are good takes and recorded well, you'll be able to bring up levels and find a balanced mix quickly. Now you can use your tools to create and polish a great finished mix instead of fixing all kinds of issues. That's the end goal. Make it easy to get there from the start!
Mike: not to be critical but for bussed/aux reverb (around the 34 min mark), you'll want to make it 100% wet (0 of the dry) -you'll notice funky phasing otherwise. That said, I love your vids.
Great video as always! Very well explained. I have always compressed the vocals first to help even out the levels and aid in easier mixing. I will of course try your method to experiment. Superb content as always especially for us cakewalk users. Thank you from a grateful subscriber!
Very informative and well done video (and instruction). I'm enjoying all of your videos. Binging, currently. New to Cakewalk, and you've explained it well. Thanks! Oh, and I like your music too!
That's usually why you would use a noise gate or something like that instead. Although, a noise gate on a soft vocal could cause more problems than it solves. I usually mix rock and metal, so it's generally not a problem and the noise gate also cuts the ambient noise (ventilation and such).
Hello Mike,sorry been away for abit but im back... Yet another GREAT VIDEO man...GOOD STUFF!!! Happy Holidays and a safe and Happy New Year to ya mate!! Cheers and lets hope 2021 is BETTER than 2020 with this COVID stuff going on!! Stay Safe... By the way man,Cakewalk has released an update (yes im behind LOL) Now,do i need to download and install a whole new Cakewalk,or does it just Update it for ya???? Just wondering before i jump in and end up wih 2 DAW's of Cakewalk ...hopefully it'll Update it for ya and NOT HAVE TO REINSTALL,Then delete(hopefully the right one) LOL,,and if ya do gotta delete...What about all your work in it??? Dont laugh at me too hard now ok mate...my Dad always said the only dumb questions are the ones that never get asked LOL LOL...PEACE MATE!!!
Watched it to the end, and I think I learned a lot. I have found it difficult to keep the right sense of presence in my vocals. Looking forward to trying the high pass trick on the reverb as well as the subtle delay. Thanks again 🙂
Mike thanks for all the great info . My question is I know how to set the gain on my channels . But my bus seems to be a little hotter than i want when the channel is where i would like it .. It seems i need to turn down my channel input gain to get the bus down but it puts the gain on the channel lower than I would like . How do I get both to ideal gain levels . I shoot for -12db on my channel and -10 on my bus . Thanks .
Hey Bill, if you are referring to the parallel compression bus, just adjust the send level from the channel. You are correct, you should not adjust your main channel. Depending on the DAW, you may also have a gain on the bus.
Very interesting video, I'm a bit surprised by two things: 1 - The vox delay is *very* subtle here (listening on headphones); does it work well in mono without chorusing effects anyway? 2 - I would have expected at least a small pre-delay in the reverb, have you tried to see ("hear") how it worked with it? Thanks!
Hi Mike, thanks for the video, very clear and useful as usual. Just one question... Once you get the track as desired, Do you Solo export Vocal track within the project including all the FX (and then mute the original track with automation, FXs, etc.) or keep using the original track for the whole mix ? Many thanks, All the best !
Hi mike......i really like your vocal processing approach. I'd like to know that should a de-esser be also added after the reverb on the reverb channel, as the reverb tend to bring back the ssss sounds again or should we go for high cut filter on the reverb signal. Which one would you rather go for ??
Mike, awesome work here and in the Studio One Project vid. I'm on my 3rd pass of this vid, taking notes. I'm in a master class! For your vocal routine, can you give me a run down of your favorite plugins for Studio One? I have pro as well as the Waves Gold bundle... I'm sure you too have at least that. What are your favorite gems there?
I had to stop using cakewalk as it just refused to accept midi input (really annoying) and had loads of crackle while playing back. Moved to Studio One Artist edition as I got that with my audio interface and have to say I prefer it
Oh yes!!! There are also something helpful in the year 2020..😁😁 (corona😐now coming back with new updation of version 2.0..!!!🤔😬)🤣 do you need a copy of it?😅
Great video as always. Quick question for you. Do you know of a good online DAW. I want to use it to collaborate with my team. An online DAW that has at least the following: EQ, Compression, Reverb. And the usual: gain, volume, solo, automation, etc.
Thanks Mike. I'll risk wishing you a festive solstice celebration and I used www.paypal.me/creativesauce to offer a bottle of Irish to help yourself and Susie (Suzi/Xiouxy? - that seraph anyway) have a pleasant segue into 2021. [Whoever thought we'd wish for the day when 2020 would be hindsight?] Bookmarking this one for sure. (Along with all the others.) You've saved by lock-in mind with your generous outpourings.
Thank you! Much appreciated:) A few days of rest now, then moving into the new year with hope in our hearts for those who suffered, that they may have a much better 2021! Best wishes:)
Hey Verdi. Thankfully, I have a decent spec machine, so it doesn't ever hinder me. However, you are correct, especially with the tape machine plugins. If I had to however, I'd be happy to render it, so I could remove the plugin. Thanks for watching and happy new year:)
Hi Mike! I see you added the EQ, saturation and De-essing directly onto the original track. I thought I had to add a seperate bus for those or is it okay to do it the way you did in this video?
Hey Willie. There are several reasons to use a bus. Often to add effects that we want to process and blend with the original, or sometimes to group several channels together. In this case we want to effect the vocal directly, so it's the best way. Sometimes though, for example we may record the verse part and chorus part on separate tracks, then bus them together. In that case I'd add these effects to that bus. I hope that makes sense :)
@@CreativeSauce Makes perfect sense because I usually have my verses and chorusses in seperate tracks. Thank you! And thank you for all your videos. You have no idea how much my mixes have improved in the past year because of your videos!
Hey Simon, the lighter colour just shows its the actively shown plugin. It goes grey if switched off. It should be subtle, in this case, so perhaps hard to hear.
hi I have a question, I’m a beginner who loves to make covers and I’m working on my first project. But.. I recorded everything and I’ve watched the tutorial about vocal comping and I have flatten all my vocals. But now I literally can do nothing with the recordings, I can’t split and am not able to clip gain (I haven’t tried the other things yet). and splitting is essential because I have to fix something in the middle of one of the leads but Cakewalk won’t let me :( sorry if my english is bad, but I hope you can help me because I am lost
I get frustrated with automation. Sometimes I want to undo all automation on a track or bus. How do you do that in one click? BTW I bought Melodyne because of your tutorials. Merry Christmas
Lol, I'm pretty sure you are right! I actually use both (not much between them), but slightly prefer the Arturia. I'm just glad people are paying attention!
Can we set that loud transient low in the cakewalk process tab through the clip gain function ? You had showed that trick couple of months ago in your vocal recording tutorial in cakewalk.
Yes absolutely. In fact anything we do in s compressor can be done with gain automation, manually. Very time consuming, but a super level of control. Ultimately a compressor is just an automated volume/gain control.
Hi Mike, this is great stuff. Quick question though (and I've encountered this on volume automation before), if you put gain automation on, is there any other (better) way of gain staging than selecting the whole envelope and dragging up or down?
Having just watched the next bit (d'oh!), the implication is that the gain control affects the overall gain, and any variations created by an envelope. I think this is different to volume automation envelope?
If your looking for a free alternative to the Arturia plug-ins, have a look at Analog Obsession's plug-ins www.patreon.com/analogobsession. He has a few different preamp plug-ins simulating analog gear that should give similar results. Speaking of, what are your thoughts on his plug-ins Mike?
I believe you could use Nova to accomplish deessing since it is a dynamic EQ but there is also the build-in vx-64 vocalstrip plug-in that you show in one of your videos to unlock that could also be used to accomplish some of the processes ruclips.net/video/CNX2TzX4nAs/видео.html
4:01 There must be a faster way of doing those envelopes. Manually adding those nodes can will lead to errors at some point. And it's time consuming. 8:45 - izotope has a similar free plugin called Relay that does the important stuff mentioned. 14:03 - Analog Obsession has free alternatives to those Arturia ones. Although, the Arturia plugins can be used for 20 minutes. One alternative is to get the sound you want, then print the effect into the track. - Something that analog style plugins teach you is mixing using your ears. We don't listen to music with your eyes and mixing visually only can be deceiving. 18:51 - A free alternative to T-Racks tape is ChowTape, Ferrox, FerricTDS. 20:48 - If you use compression before the EQ, you technically don't need to do the gain clip step. You can also use a gentler compressor, like the LA 2A, instead. 26:56 - You can accomplish a similar result to side chain with emphasis and de emphasis EQ. Boost the frequencies you want the effect to be on, put the effect, then have another EQ after it cutting the same frequencies by the same amount. If possible, link those eq parameters in reverse. 32:02 - In many instances, just the delay is enough.
In Studio One, you can just clip/clip and drag up and down, no drawing needed. I'm sure all DAWs will have similar ability. Nodes are really there for finer control.
Timestamps:
1:11 The Source
4:01 Preparation
8:45 Gain Staging
14:03 EQ1 (Preamp)
18:51 EQ2 (Tape Saturation)
20:48 Compression
24:52 DeEsser
26:56 Parallel Compression
32:03 Creating a Space
35:38 Automation
Thanks for this wonderful video! This is perfect!
I regularly revisit all your Cakewalk by Bandlab videos to re-emphasize what I have learned. Being a novice to digital recording, You have a gift of conveying your video material in a logical and easy-to-understand manner, making my learning experience a delight, and for that, I am most grateful!
There is a wealth of information here. I've seen many presentations on this and other issues, but none as clear and concise as yours. Also, the graphics are very helpful, in that they highlight the pertinent things and remain on screen long enough for things to be easily identified and understood. I don't know why or how I didn't come across your channel before, because I've been watching audio recording and mixing tutorials for 8 years. And even though much of this information wasn't new to me, somehow it feels like it is. You have a way of dispelling much of the confusion and myths that are put forth by people who may know their trade, and may even be very proficient at it, but don't necessarily have a gift for teaching, or are conditioned by sponsorships and such. The fact that, other than Cakewalk, which is a DAW that does more or less what every other DAW does, your sponsorship is not gear or software-related makes it all the more transparent. You remind me of some of the best teachers I had in high school, and those were few and far between. I will be following your channel more regularly from now on.
For the reverb, I tend to have a fairly lush reverb and have a very aggressive compressor right after it with the vocal feeding it as a sidechain. What it does is compress the reverb so we don't (or almost don't) hear it during the main vocal and it does come on with the lush tail after the vocal is finished. It's "ducking" behind the vocal. So, a ratio of 20:1 (or more if possible), the fastest attack possible, and then I play with the threshold and the release. After that, I add it to taste to the mix. It's not a typical setup, but I find it works in many situations to have a nice reverb while avoiding washing the vocal away and burying it in the mix.
For the delay, I set it to 1/8 the song's BPM (sometimes more, sometimes less) and usually feed it into the reverb. And then I see if I also need it dry or only through the reverb.
well done! Excellent presentation... clear concise and to the point .. much appreciated!!
I have the AT 2020, been using it for about 3 years, and i have to say that for the amount of money I paid for it I am extremely happy with the results
Just discovered you and I must say that I am grateful I did!
Knowing the material is one thing. Being able to logically and clearly relay that information to other people is a talent that is not very often seen, unfortunately, on RUclips.
I see many many hours ahead of me watching your videos! Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us!
Mike is da BOMMMMMBBBBBB !!!!!! CAKEWALK GURU!!!!
For parallel compression where the backing is full, I go narrower on the EQ to get closer to the presence frequency of the vocal because it's no longer about increasing the solidity of the vocal, it's about preserving the intelligibility of the quieter words over the wall of sound.
As always, I hope you're well. Great stuff, it's a lot! Remind people that this might take a while to digest, try out all the different steps and give it time. Thanks again, Mike
Brilliant video. Your explanations are so clear and professional. Thank you.
My ears/headphones couldn’t pick up on much of the subtle changes you were making.
Turns out I have soooo much to learn. Not quite back to square one, but certainly need to sharpen my pencil... Excellent tutorial...as always.
Thank you very much for this video. I have used Cakewalk since 1995. But have struggled to get anything to sound good. The poor misguided folks who produced the official instructional videos (particularly when under the control of Gibson), absolutely failed at offering anything useful. They were too fast, too vague, and tried to make it sound so easy, they would simply gloss over exactly how to do it. The result was predictably unhelpful.
Conversely, you have explained very clearly how to set up and use Cakewalk features plainly. Brilliant 😎 I will try this out tomorrow in my home studio on a current project.
I will also be sure to watch more of your content.. Thanks again.
Once again, perfect timing for this newbie!, just ordered a focusrite bundle, so havent yet started recording vocals, but looking forward to it
Well - the main thing is - do it lots, and be prepared to make mistakes. Oh, and have fun :)
Hard not to make it all the way through. Very interesting and useful video. I'm still kind of new to this, and am absorbing all I can find. Keep coming back to your channel, because of all the practical tips. Many thanks! Cheers.
This is super detailed explained!! Thank you so much!
By Far This Iz My Favorite DAW Channel!!! Mike I've Used Cakewalk For Years (started with like 3.0 waaayy back when)..., But Until I Watched UR Channel I Never Dug Deep Into It Or Unlocked All The Creative Things You Could Do With It!!! I Was Basically MIDI Driven & Never Used Live Audio Clips. I Was Using Sonar X1 Producer & Immediately Switched Over To The Bandlab Version You Use So I Could Follow Along!!! In My Haste I Released My 1st Solo Project, But I Sure Could've Benefited From Utilizing All The Tips I've Now Learned Along The Way!!!
I Can Hear All The Warts & Mis-Steps I Made Along The Way..., So I Know My Next Project Will Be Soooooo Much More Thought Out As I Hear UR Voice Ringing In My Head!!! I Love The Way You Teach As Itz Thoughtful, Well Laid Out, & You Xplain Why You Make The Decisions You Use!!! Where Were You 10 Years Ago My Man??? I Wudda Been That Much Further Along!!! LOL!!! I Watch UR Videos Like I'm In The Theater Watching A Mega Block Buster Release!!! Keep Up The Great Work, You Have A Big Fan Man!!!
Made it all the way thru...great stuff...thanks!
I have my own "band"... it's just me doing everything... and I have a pretty terrible voice and mediocre recording room. That said, I needed some serious help to move my music further into more creative areas, and found this tutorial INCREDIBLY helpful. Thank you!!
Great video as always Mike, one thing I would like to mention, you were using a reverb with built in EQ. For those that don't have this plugin or prefer another one, you can achieve the same effect by placing an eq something like the Nova for example before the reverb on the buss. I often use it for reverb on acoustic guitars to get rid of that boxing boominess that tries to creep in sometimes.
Thanks for mentioning this Michael, great reminder and tip! Especially when you have many tracks using reverb, a low end muddy build up can occur. Thank you!
I'm a beginner with CW by BL. Your tutorials are great!! I learned so much in short time about the mature and extensive program. Thx Mike!!! I've subscribed an liked!
Of course I watched until the end. Excellent tutorial again that was focused but still managed to contain a lot of important information and was just the right length. Have a Merry Christmas.
Hi Mike, great tutorial, you really have a knack for this teaching thing! I just wanted to point out that the manner in which you manually enter nodes when automating clip gain, or any envelope, is very labour intensive. To obtain a similar move simply click and drag the region you want to edit and then move the pointer to the top of the clip until the 'move automation envelope' icon appears (a line with up/down arrows) then click and drag. This adds nodes at selection automatically, it is very easy and with only two mouse moves very efficient, it will speed up your workflow.
I recently bought the Arturia Fx and also love the Pre TridA and the Pre 1973, especially when you raise the input gain to around the 2 O'Clock position to get some harmonic distortion. Actually I pretty much use similar methods and tools as you except I also often use parallel saturation with my one of my favourite plugins Decapitator from SoundToys. Thanks for your awesome content! Cheers!
Im full of get up n go after that, gained a lot, just need to put in the mileage with it now. Cheers Mike 😎
Useful as always Mike!
Just a quick tip on clip gain. There's a couple of shortcuts I use to do what you did but much quicker. I use alt and A to cut the clip into the section I want to adjust. Then hold ctrl and left click (and hold) in the middle of the clip and move up or down to change the gain. The advantage of this method is that you can see what you are adjusting as well because the waveform changes.
Yup that's a way I've done in the past. And in some ways ots easier. But since they now change the waveform with clip automation now, I like that way too.
Whatever ways gets it done best for you!
@@CreativeSauce I didn'e even notice it changed with automation as well now. I probably learnt my way from one of your older videos 😂
Most likely! I think it was only a few months back that they changed that.
Great vid, good info. Just want to make the point that dynamic vs condenser mic is a complex issue! Personally, I absolutely love my Beyerdynamic M99 large dynamic (broadly similar to a Sure SM7). However to say a dynamic will pick up less of the room is a little misleading --- this is true to some extent if you're right up close to the mic (although with a dynamic this might give you far too much bottom end) -- but, in the end a dynamic's signal level is lower, which means you will have to give it more gain to achieve the same db level as a condenser... which effectively puts you back to square one with room sound! Treat the room as best you can, the smaller the space the better (up to a point), fill it with cushions, blankets.. do what you have to to break up the reflections and reduce bass re-inforcement in corners.
Great tutorial! Going to try it on a new female vocal today!
Thank you!
Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holiday!
I'd just like to echo or add to the suggestions at the beginning of the video..
The biggest step toward a great track is to start with a great recording of a good performance.
You don't want to start out fixing problems with levels, tone, plosives, mistakes, etc..
Take the time to get it right at the source! If the raw tracks are good takes and recorded well, you'll be able to bring up levels and find a balanced mix quickly. Now you can use your tools to create and polish a great finished mix instead of fixing all kinds of issues. That's the end goal. Make it easy to get there from the start!
AMEN TO THAT!!!!
Mike: not to be critical but for bussed/aux reverb (around the 34 min mark), you'll want to make it 100% wet (0 of the dry) -you'll notice funky phasing otherwise. That said, I love your vids.
I made it all the way... your vids are great! Thanks!
Thank you for this video. So clear and straight forward
Thanks Mike, made it all the way to the end. As ever 5his is a great video.
Cheers David!
Long video but worth it. Thanks alot Mike.
Good morning Mike. Great to watch some one who knows what he's talking about. Coffee made, and now you have my complete attention. lol. 🎈🎈🎈👓
Hey Steve - take regular breaks - this one is loooonnngggg!
@@CreativeSauce I'm all ears Mike. 🎧 🎙🎤🎶
Great video, Mike, as usual
Thanks. Watched the whole thing and gleaned some good tips.
Excellent and Helpful!
Just the video I was waiting for✌😊
Great video as always! Very well explained. I have always compressed the vocals first to help even out the levels and aid in easier mixing. I will of course try your method to experiment. Superb content as always especially for us cakewalk users. Thank you from a grateful subscriber!
was waiting for this video for a long time. Thanks a ton sir ❤
Very informative and well done video (and instruction). I'm enjoying all of your videos. Binging, currently. New to Cakewalk, and you've explained it well. Thanks! Oh, and I like your music too!
Excellent tutorials
I really enjoy your tutorials because you make them easy for me to understand.
Thanks
Thank you, Mr. Sauce!
Thank you for this Mike!!
Really helpful video. Thanks!
Great tutorial and complete for beginners!
great tutorial
Great tips
I was surprised that you didn’t make cuts and fades at the beginning and ends of each vocal phrase. Is it only me who does that?
That's usually why you would use a noise gate or something like that instead. Although, a noise gate on a soft vocal could cause more problems than it solves. I usually mix rock and metal, so it's generally not a problem and the noise gate also cuts the ambient noise (ventilation and such).
Great tutorial once again!
Hello Mike,sorry been away for abit but im back... Yet another GREAT VIDEO man...GOOD STUFF!!! Happy Holidays and a safe and Happy New Year to ya mate!! Cheers and lets hope 2021 is BETTER than 2020 with this COVID stuff going on!! Stay Safe... By the way man,Cakewalk has released an update (yes im behind LOL) Now,do i need to download and install a whole new Cakewalk,or does it just Update it for ya???? Just wondering before i jump in and end up wih 2 DAW's of Cakewalk ...hopefully it'll Update it for ya and NOT HAVE TO REINSTALL,Then delete(hopefully the right one) LOL,,and if ya do gotta delete...What about all your work in it??? Dont laugh at me too hard now ok mate...my Dad always said the only dumb questions are the ones that never get asked LOL LOL...PEACE MATE!!!
That was really usefull. Thank you.
This is great👍. Love your content 🙂
Thank you - as always, my pleasure :)
Watched it to the end, and I think I learned a lot. I have found it difficult to keep the right sense of presence in my vocals. Looking forward to trying the high pass trick on the reverb as well as the subtle delay. Thanks again 🙂
@@HenningOKlejs well done! Yeah, I find its a combination of many things.
im using sonar x3, when i use clip gain automation the waveform size doesnt change. where i can configure this?
Very well done!
Good set there!
Thx Mike.
Thanks!!!
You are THE man!
Mike thanks for all the great info . My question is I know how to set the gain on my channels . But my bus seems to be a little hotter than i want when the channel is where i would like it .. It seems i need to turn down my channel input gain to get the bus down but it puts the gain on the channel lower than I would like . How do I get both to ideal gain levels . I shoot for -12db on my channel and -10 on my bus . Thanks .
Hey Bill, if you are referring to the parallel compression bus, just adjust the send level from the channel. You are correct, you should not adjust your main channel. Depending on the DAW, you may also have a gain on the bus.
Hi there which machine you are using. I want to buy new machine for my DAW. please suggest. Happy new year in advance.
Thanks so much
Good video thanks Mike. I assume the Arturia is based on the old Trident A series? Grew up using them back in the Uk, great sounding desks.
Very interesting video, I'm a bit surprised by two things:
1 - The vox delay is *very* subtle here (listening on headphones); does it work well in mono without chorusing effects anyway?
2 - I would have expected at least a small pre-delay in the reverb, have you tried to see ("hear") how it worked with it?
Thanks!
Hi Mike, thanks for the video, very clear and useful as usual. Just one question... Once you get the track as desired, Do you Solo export Vocal track within the project including all the FX (and then mute the original track with automation, FXs, etc.) or keep using the original track for the whole mix ? Many thanks, All the best !
Hi mike......i really like your vocal processing approach. I'd like to know that should a de-esser be also added after the reverb on the reverb channel, as the reverb tend to bring back the ssss sounds again or should we go for high cut filter on the reverb signal. Which one would you rather go for ??
Some engineers have a dEsser before the reverb, then Eq after the reverb, then side chain that to either the vocal or another element of the song.
Mike, awesome work here and in the Studio One Project vid. I'm on my 3rd pass of this vid, taking notes. I'm in a master class! For your vocal routine, can you give me a run down of your favorite plugins for Studio One? I have pro as well as the Waves Gold bundle... I'm sure you too have at least that. What are your favorite gems there?
I had to stop using cakewalk as it just refused to accept midi input (really annoying) and had loads of crackle while playing back. Moved to Studio One Artist edition as I got that with my audio interface and have to say I prefer it
Oh yes!!! There are also something helpful in the year 2020..😁😁
(corona😐now coming back with new updation of version 2.0..!!!🤔😬)🤣 do you need a copy of it?😅
Great video as always. Quick question for you. Do you know of a good online DAW. I want to use it to collaborate with my team. An online DAW that has at least the following: EQ, Compression, Reverb. And the usual: gain, volume, solo, automation, etc.
doesnt the gain and automation pretty much do the same thing? so confused now lol just when i thought i was understanding everything
Hi Mike, I hope you're well. In the section "Videos Mentioned" the video about Automation is missing ;)
Thanks Mike.
I'll risk wishing you a festive solstice celebration and I used www.paypal.me/creativesauce to offer a bottle of Irish to help yourself and Susie (Suzi/Xiouxy? - that seraph anyway) have a pleasant segue into 2021.
[Whoever thought we'd wish for the day when 2020 would be hindsight?]
Bookmarking this one for sure. (Along with all the others.) You've saved by lock-in mind with your generous outpourings.
Thank you! Much appreciated:) A few days of rest now, then moving into the new year with hope in our hearts for those who suffered, that they may have a much better 2021! Best wishes:)
Hi there don't you have a CPU performance issue with T-Racks plugins? Thank's in advance for response.
Hey Verdi. Thankfully, I have a decent spec machine, so it doesn't ever hinder me. However, you are correct, especially with the tape machine plugins. If I had to however, I'd be happy to render it, so I could remove the plugin. Thanks for watching and happy new year:)
Hi sir Mike. Good content as always. Thanks for this. I just bought the mv7. Is there any way to use the usb mode in cakewalk?
Hi - I haven't tried it as a ASIO device - I have to check! But I really am enjoying this mic :)
@@CreativeSauce yeah loving the mic too. Thanks again sir
Hi Mike! I see you added the EQ, saturation and De-essing directly onto the original track. I thought I had to add a seperate bus for those or is it okay to do it the way you did in this video?
Hey Willie. There are several reasons to use a bus. Often to add effects that we want to process and blend with the original, or sometimes to group several channels together.
In this case we want to effect the vocal directly, so it's the best way.
Sometimes though, for example we may record the verse part and chorus part on separate tracks, then bus them together. In that case I'd add these effects to that bus. I hope that makes sense :)
@@CreativeSauce Makes perfect sense because I usually have my verses and chorusses in seperate tracks. Thank you! And thank you for all your videos. You have no idea how much my mixes have improved in the past year because of your videos!
Hi Mike, TR5 Black is switched off during parallel compression (lighter colour), nor I heard compressed voc. Or is it me?
Hey Simon, the lighter colour just shows its the actively shown plugin. It goes grey if switched off.
It should be subtle, in this case, so perhaps hard to hear.
@@CreativeSauce thanks ;) another small detail I didn't know about and confused me :)
Ah, "Clip Gain" - the one thing I never remember where it is when I want to use it. Vocal-rider made me lazy :D
hi I have a question, I’m a beginner who loves to make covers and I’m working on my first project. But.. I recorded everything and I’ve watched the tutorial about vocal comping and I have flatten all my vocals. But now I literally can do nothing with the recordings, I can’t split and am not able to clip gain (I haven’t tried the other things yet). and splitting is essential because I have to fix something in the middle of one of the leads but Cakewalk won’t let me :(
sorry if my english is bad, but I hope you can help me because I am lost
I get frustrated with automation. Sometimes I want to undo all automation on a track or bus. How do you do that in one click? BTW I bought Melodyne because of your tutorials. Merry Christmas
You can right click on the automaton line and clear all. It will remove all automation
Hi Mike! You have switched from Arturia 76 to TR 76 on source vocal bus during the video or I'm missing something? [Love your input BTW :)]
Lol, I'm pretty sure you are right! I actually use both (not much between them), but slightly prefer the Arturia. I'm just glad people are paying attention!
Can we set that loud transient low in the cakewalk process tab through the clip gain function ? You had showed that trick couple of months ago in your vocal recording tutorial in cakewalk.
Yes absolutely. In fact anything we do in s compressor can be done with gain automation, manually. Very time consuming, but a super level of control. Ultimately a compressor is just an automated volume/gain control.
Good stuff as usual. I noticed you don’t use stacked compression on this track but is that something you would incorporate in a more dense mix?
Hey Mike. I've learned a lot from you. It's a christmas wish to see you making trap beats.
Pls give tutorials for making trap beats.
Hi Mike, this is great stuff. Quick question though (and I've encountered this on volume automation before), if you put gain automation on, is there any other (better) way of gain staging than selecting the whole envelope and dragging up or down?
Having just watched the next bit (d'oh!), the implication is that the gain control affects the overall gain, and any variations created by an envelope. I think this is different to volume automation envelope?
Correct :)
Its more like, making it as if the singer sang it that way :)
I made it through
If your looking for a free alternative to the Arturia plug-ins, have a look at Analog Obsession's plug-ins www.patreon.com/analogobsession. He has a few different preamp plug-ins simulating analog gear that should give similar results. Speaking of, what are your thoughts on his plug-ins Mike?
Thanks for the tip! I'm not sure I've tried them yet. Will take a look :)
I believe you could use Nova to accomplish deessing since it is a dynamic EQ but there is also the build-in vx-64 vocalstrip plug-in that you show in one of your videos to unlock that could also be used to accomplish some of the processes ruclips.net/video/CNX2TzX4nAs/видео.html
Thanks for showing me this amazing plugins!
👍🏾
4:01 There must be a faster way of doing those envelopes. Manually adding those nodes can will lead to errors at some point. And it's time consuming.
8:45 - izotope has a similar free plugin called Relay that does the important stuff mentioned.
14:03 - Analog Obsession has free alternatives to those Arturia ones. Although, the Arturia plugins can be used for 20 minutes. One alternative is to get the sound you want, then print the effect into the track.
- Something that analog style plugins teach you is mixing using your ears. We don't listen to music with your eyes and mixing visually only can be deceiving.
18:51 - A free alternative to T-Racks tape is ChowTape, Ferrox, FerricTDS.
20:48 - If you use compression before the EQ, you technically don't need to do the gain clip step. You can also use a gentler compressor, like the LA 2A, instead.
26:56 - You can accomplish a similar result to side chain with emphasis and de emphasis EQ. Boost the frequencies you want the effect to be on, put the effect, then have another EQ after it cutting the same frequencies by the same amount. If possible, link those eq parameters in reverse.
32:02 - In many instances, just the delay is enough.
See my comment above regarding adjusting the clip gains. Works really well for me 👍
In Studio One, you can just clip/clip and drag up and down, no drawing needed. I'm sure all DAWs will have similar ability. Nodes are really there for finer control.
Hello ^^