Mixing vocal track

Here is how you can mix vocal track in your songs. before mixing, you will need to ensure that you have a clean and clear vocal recorded.

Step 1: Cleaning plosives

Once you choose your track. This would be a dry track, meaning no effects, EQ, FX or any other tweaking has been done. Firstly, you will need to minimize the problem of plosives in your recording. Plosives are typically P and B wind problems. When there are Ph, B, or F sounds in the audio track, a big puff of air may be emitted, hitting the microphone. You can use a wave editor to get a graphical impression of this problem. If you have puff, select it and apply an EQ that cuts by about 12db or so below 300Hz or whatever sounds the best. This will help you clean the plosives without cutting the low end from the rest of the track.

Step 2: Cleaning Silent Clips

To reduce noise level, you will need to clip out the silent part of the vocal clip. Although you may find that the results are not very significant, leaving it out will just increase the problem if you are adding other audio tracks.

Step 3: Smoothen the dynamics

When done with Step 2, you can smoothen the dynamics. There may be words sung more softly or loudly than others, making the wave uneven. You can even out the dynamics so that the vocal performance still remains full of life. One way of doing so is to use use volume envelope. Volume envelope can create level gain or level cut and visually easy to achieve. Alternatively, you can use easy level gain or cut function. This means that you select the softer part, boost it up 3dB or clip out the louder portions. Most audio sequencers come with this function. When you find the louder portion of the track, cut out 3dB and then smoothen.

Step 4

Apply fade in at the beginning of the clip and fade out at the end. Although this is not mandatory,

This step is not necessary. However, it may do wonders if you need to reduce glitches that may occur towards the end of the track.

Step 5: Tuning the tone deaf

Of course, this does not mean you can go ahead and record a tune deaf person. However, even the best of singers sometimes have out of tune moments. With advanced plug ins available, it is possible to overcome this problem. You may also use FX to correct the pitch.

Add Effects (FX)

Now that the vocal track is completely edited, the next step would be to set up the proper effect chain for the vocal track. This should be used sparingly.

Step 6: Add Compression

Compressor is an effect which is hard to master. It can help a vocal track stand out better in the mix by sitting better within the overall mix itself. By compressing, you are ensuring that the loud and soft parts of the vocals are even. Without it, the soft parts will get buried in the mix, and the loud parts will overpower the mix. Compressing brings out the tone of the overall vocal sound better, allowing it to make a better impact.

Step 7: Equalizer or EQ

There are two types of EQ. One is subtractive, where you remove a frequency to help others stand out better, and then there's additive EQ, where you boost frequencies to help the overall mix. Different vocalist need different EQ. Do note that any EQ more than 6dB will sound odd. However, you are free to be adventurous.

Step 8: Reverb

Record the vocal as dry as possible in an isolated room. However, natural voices are usually filled with delay and echoes, known as the natural reverbs. Make the dry vocal sounds more natural so that you can add some subtle reverb.

Generally, the two most important parameters are the "mix" level, and the predelay. Normally it is set to 10-30% wet. The pre-delay should be more than 100ms so that the reverb will not blur the wordings. You can reap good results by using a reverb algorithm where the early reflections level can be adjusted independently of the reverb tail. Subsequently, turn the level of the reverb tail down by around 6dB.

Finally, you can compare the unedited clip to the edited and FXed clip
You are most welcomed to share whatever you know or pinpoint any contrast opinion about my approach. Thanks!