Music & Entertainment

Vocal Session, Part 3: Editing and Mixing

Armin van Buuren

Lesson time 16:52 min

Learn how Armin uses editing and effects to get a clean, powerful vocal track that still sounds natural to the listener’s ear.

Armin van Buuren
Teaches Dance Music
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- I would want to listen to the take without the music and without the auto-tune to see if I'm happy. And if I wouldn't be happy, I would ask him to go back and do a couple of takes more. But I think he did a great job. So let's listen to the takes, our favorite pick in one line without auto-tune. MAN: (SINGING) She woke up in the morning with the sunrise in her eyes. All that she sees is darkness, and she won't tell you why. - If you carefully listened, you heard he smacked a little bit with his voice, which is normal. But the DAWs are so-- you hear everything on a vocal performance. I don't remove all the breaths because it makes it feel unnatural. Sometimes I put the volume down on breaths and stuff. I do, however, want to remove the little click that he did with his mouth. And that was around here. You see? You hear a little smack going on there. And you won't really hear it unless you start adding compression. If you add compression to a vocal, which is something you normally do when you've finished recording and you've got auto-tune and everything set, and if you have a little click, the compressor will bring it up. And it will sound like something that could bother the groove a little bit. So that's why I always spend a little bit of time on actually cleaning the take and use fade-ins, fade-outs without making it sound unnatural. I would go in here, I would select this take, and I would say here, a little fade-in. MAN: (SINGING) She woke up in the morning. - Because I don't need to hear the other audio, so fade out here. But just be very, very careful that you don't make it too short. Because the human voice-- you hear when somebody is taking a breath. And it's actually part of the singing process for me. So I like to hear when he's taking a breath to sing a certain sentence. MAN: (SINGING) She woke up in the moon. - So I will remove that, then fade in on this one, fade out on this one. Let me say. MAN: (SINGING) She woke up in the morning. - And I would turn it up a little bit so I could really hear everything that's going on in the take. MAN: (SINGING) She woke up in the morning with the sunrise in her eye. - See? Now the S is gone. Where's the S? MAN: (SINGING) She woke up in the morning with the sunrise in her eyes. - See? I don't see the S, but I hear it, because the waveform is not showing it. But you do need to check. You need to be very, very careful when you're cleaning your vocal takes. MAN: (SINGING) With the sunrise in her eyes. - There's a little tick at the end. And we can clean that up with a fade out. MAN: (SINGING) With the sunrise in her eyes. With the sunrise in her eyes. - There's a little breath. I want to hear that breath. So here's the thing. This is where I also-- this is why I want the singer to be there when I'm comping the vocal-- because I think it's important to have a discussion. Some singers don't like their breaths, as some singers do. I...

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super great I'm so pleased that i have seen this class thank you so much armin :)

Amazing Masterclass. Armin is a great musical, composer, and orator. So much good information and insight was gleaned from the class.

Great Masterclass. Armin is definitely someone I look up to.

Really inspirational and Armin is just really likeable, straightforward and honest. I really enjoyed this course, worth every minute!



wonderful process. so in depth. most of my recordings are like, "eh. good enough". but admin gets every detail right, and that's why he's a world class producer

Henry P.

The way you treat any hired gun can make all the difference. Make them as comfortable as possible. As a vocalist I can say that some producers are better than others at this psychological game, but I find myself much more willing to comply with those that handle the communication with respect and professionalism. Solid lesson!

Marc T.

Great lesson! I was really looking forward to learn more about vocal editing and this was really helpful.

Michael D.

Tahini (sesame seed paste) is the worst for messing up a vocal performance. Clogs up the throat.

Mike B.

This was just gold. I wrote down all the plugin settings. It'll be a good place to start when recording my own vocal tracks. I'm also sold on many of the plugins Armin uses, especially the Arts Acoustic reverb. He mentions using a utility to get it to work on a mono vocal track. Anyone have any ideas on how he's doing this?

James M.

I watched this lesson and then went and bought FabFilter's compressor (very happy with it) and used Armin's simple vocal chain. Here is my mix—any ideas for improvement? Last time, I posted a mix I was so happy with all the feedback and it helped very much, so appreciate your honesty! This is a song I wrote (NOT dance music) and mixed in my home studio. I did all the instruments in Logic Pro X, except the bass and guitar which were recorded live.

Christian S.

Is there any problem with latency if I play my prodject with all synt´s running, and use direct monitoring to the vocal performer? My interface Antelope Orion 32 let me do direct monitoring, with reverb.. Logic compensate for the delay and place the audio in time? ..Right?

Nick C.

Can someone shed some light on what a de-esser does that's so important for vocals specifically, and why Armin uses it for all of his vocal tracks?

Jerry B.

"There are no rules in music" :) Excellent! I am amazed learning music the pressure by listeners and instructors to follow rules and am happy to hear from Armin that there are no rules!

James M.

I noticed that the vocal track is in mono? Why? And then i think he said he uses the reverb to spread into stereo. Can anyone explain further why he has the track in mono?