Share your vocal FX chain! ?

[daveiv]

I'd love to see your vocal chains!
 

?️

My vocal chain (I know it's "meh", but whatever):

1. Waves Tune  (I don't always need pitch correction, but when I do, it does the job well)
2. Waves Vocal Rider  (when I feel lazy to do the levels manually)
3. Waves MaxxVolume  (upward compression)
4. Waves Butch Vig Vocals  (mAgiCaL compressor, de-esser, EQ, saturator)
5. Waves CLA Vocals  (mAgiCaL reverb, delay, chorus)
6. Waves Scheps Omni Channel  (final touches)

 

[Light Grenade]

My go to plugins are:

Inserts

• Melodyne
• Softube Tape
• Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser
• Softube British Class A / American Class A
• Acustica El Rey /Softube TLA-100
• A-Type Console Emulator 
• Oxford EQ
• Oeksound Soothe

Sends

• Boz Imperial Delay
• Izotope Neoverb
• Valhalla SuperMassive
• ACME Opticom
• FabFilter Saturn

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by Light Grenade

[Lord Tim]

Typically it goes something like this:

A pre-shaping EQ to highpass the vocal, and add anything I think is missing from the raw mic sound

Then usually a fairly hot compressor (although I might leave this out if I know I'm adding a fair bit of grit later, or I want the vocal to be more dynamic).

Then I'll usually have a de-esser next.

Then I like to split my vocal into 2 paths: one clean, and one where I can dial in a bit of grit underneath that clean vocal. That gives it hair but still retains the original clarity. On the grit path, I'll usually EQ it as well to not crowd or muddy up the main vocal sound. That then gets recombined back to the one path.

If necessary, I'll de-ess again if it needs it after all of that stuff (usually not necessary).

Then I'll do a final run of compression, usually something with a bit of character, and a final EQ to make it fit into the track better.

I usually don't gate anything to get rid of noises between phrases, I much prefer to use clip gain automation or cutting the gaps out manually. It's more work but much more predictable results.

Bluecats's Patchwork is great for setting up complex chains like this, but you can also do some great stuff with a FX Chain Preset too, so you can just drop the one thing in and make tweaks rather than trying to recreate it each time.

For sends, I'll typically have a global reverb that I use to make everything sound like it's in the same space, maybe about 1.2s, and EQ'd to both low and high pass it, to clean it up.

I'll usually run 2 or 3 delays of various times, not necessarily all at once, so I can automate certain words, or use it as sustain for long notes, or as an overall "fill" effect if the vocal sounds a little spiky.

And I'll usually have a Waves Doubler on there too to give things a little stereo spread and slight pitch shifting. This is usually pretty quiet though, so you don't notice it unless you bypass it.

But it's all song and genre dependent. This is flexible enough to use for both folk and death metal if you tweak it properly.

EDIT: Actually, give attached "LT Vocals.fxc" FX Chain a go - save it and drop it into your Cakewalk Content > Cakewalk Core > FX Chain Presets folder, and it'll appear in the Audio FX browser inside Cakewalk. This is a fair recreation of how I like to do my chains using only stock Cakewalk plugins, which needed a little bit of fiddling with doing split paths and de-essing, but it does the job. I've exposed all of the common controls to save you digging into each plugin, but it's editable if you need to do any fine adjustments. Yes, that *is* TH3 - the guitar effects package - in there. It's a surprisingly good channel splitter and grit-adder!

LT Vocals.fxc

Edited November 3, 2022 by Lord Tim

[whoisp]

Different every time haha i go where my ears take me, I see cakewalk as about 40 Templates in the FX chain for vocal channel and mastering etc but ive never used any of the cakewalk chain templates, however;

I honestly think they should do a upgrade on VX 64 vocal strip and do a nice VST3 version (make it there own)  

Really you should start with a preamp you like, pitch correction maybe, noise gate before compression so you don't make it worse, EQ with de-essing and some effects like delay reverb and maybe stereo width. This beat needs to be the VOX CAKEWALK STRIP.. get making it guys lol

[SVSX]

VX64 is still awesome. Deesser is meh on it, but the Compander is really good. I also dial a little bit of saturation on my mid EQ band witch gives it more grittyness and the Doubler/Delay is nice. Delay is on almost every project from me.

You guys know, that new Cakewalk users have to enable it on hidden plugins in the manager? Cannot recommend it enough. PX64 too btw.!

[Terry Kelley]

MEqualizer

MCompressor

Sonitus Delay

TL-64 Tube Limiter

Optional - MUnison depending on the desired sound

[Sidney Earl Goodroe]

Simple!! Brainworx Focusrite Channel Strip or SSL G Channel Strip, depending on song style. That's it! Has made my job a whole lot quicker and sounds fantastic!

[Larry Jones]

On 11/3/2022 at 4:08 PM, whoisp said:

I honestly think they should do a upgrade on VX 64 vocal strip and do a nice VST3 version (make it there own)  

Don't hold your breath. Cakewalk never owned the code, and the person who does (the developer) is in prison for some very bad crimes.

[whoisp]

19 hours ago, Larry Jones said:

Don't hold your breath. Cakewalk never owned the code, and the person who does (the developer) is in prison for some very bad crimes.

Doesn't stop them creating a vocal strip. Iv'e heard the scheps omni channel is a good vocal strip, tempting at £29 from £150 but i shall make do with what i have 

[SVSX]

On 12/4/2022 at 7:08 PM, Larry Jones said:

Don't hold your breath. Cakewalk never owned the code, and the person who does (the developer) is in prison for some very bad crimes.

The guy you are referring to, is the dev of VC64 not VX64, which was an inhouse developement. 

[Larry Jones]

14 minutes ago, SVSX said:

The guy you are referring to, is the dev of VC64 not VX64, which was an inhouse developement. 

You're right! My bad. Not reading carefully. Thanks for the correction.

[Alan Tubbs]

My channel strip is a Rupert Neve Design Portico II.  Get it just about right during capture and there is less question about mucking around with the mix.  Usually all it takes is some polishing.  Maybe a little eq, and I still use the cakewalk’s la2a to final fit the vox into the mix.

 Usually everything goes thru the Portico II unless I have multiple recordings during a session.  I don’t have a drum room at home so I usually don’t multi track a lot.

[bitflipper]

FabFilter Pro-Q3 and one (occasionally both) of these: 

Unfortunately, neither of these are available anymore. Yes, you can still buy FETpresser, but the version I use was the last rev that did not require a Pace driver.

[57Gregy]

MXL 990 or MXL 991 into an E-Mu 0404. Or both.
That's all.