One hallmark of great songs is a killer vocal that always seems to cut through the mix.
There are a handful of ways to approach getting your vocals to seemingly sit on top of the mix, from mixing them last, to stacking compressors.
Today I want to show you another way get every element of your vocal to cut through the mix, giving you that up front sound, but still retaining all the naturalness of a dynamic performance.
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
So happy to see you using Reason!!!
Hey Graham, interested to see you on Reason rather than PT. Anything about Reason you prefer over PT. I just upgraded to Reason 8 because Reason 4 will not run in rewire in a 64 bit DAW like PT11. I have used Reason 4 quite a bit but it is not a full DAW. I have all the major DAW’s (Cubase,Logic and PT but work mainly in PT because it just feels logical to me and I don’t do much MIDI recording. Enjoy your posts. I’ve been engineering since the 80’s, started on an 80-8. I’m familiar with most of the techniques you talk about but sometimes its great to review the stuff you know. All the best
Brian
Graham is using an unfamiliar DAW (Reason), to break away from a familiar DAW (ProTools) so he can get inspired to spark creativity in his mixing of this EP. This is also why he is in Starbucks and mixing on headphones, instead of the familiar studio environment.
I am not familiar with Reason or ProTools. I am an FL Studio user, but I still follow Grahams teachings. His goal is not to show us how to use a particular DAW, but how to employ mixing techniques. You may have to figure out how you can adapt it for your specific DAW if it is unique in certain areas.
Just using the Creativity Switch: http://therecordingrevolution.com/2014/07/31/the-creativity-switch-and-a-brand-new-challenge-video/
I’m so glad Graham is in Reason. I use Studio One for my main mixing of vocals and stems. But I start out in Reason with the making of my music. Cool to see him going with Reason for everything. VOX, Music, start to finish…
I am also happy that you are using Reason! Graham how do you handle the de-essing? As a female vocalist I need to really address this in my mixes and find it hard to do in Reason.
Can’t speak for the man, but I’ve always de-essed manually. It takes time, of course, but it’s worth the effort; no plugin can touch the results, imo.
Hi Josephine,
You can do de-essing in Reason just be inserting an eq triggered compressor on the track, the way de-essing’s always been done (that’s been possible from R1). It takes about 20 seconds to set up, or you can download an already set-up combinator, from their site. If even that’s too bothersome, you can get specific de-essers from the shop, but they would do exactly the same thing a combinator does, for some money (and take up just as little space, except you wouldn’t see the routing in the back, in the insert window, when you open the combinator up). That is, unless you get the selig de-esser, which applies a different algorithm than anything else I’ve ever seen – it actually targets the `s`-es, instead of a certain frequency – leaving everything but the `s`-es unchanged – you can cut the ”s”-es completely from a word or you can leave nothing but the ”s”-es in the word. You can look it up in the shop, if you feel you can’t do with a ”traditional” de-esser.
One way to de-ess in Reason is to have your high & low pass filters sidechain the channel strip compressor. If you look at your EQ section, right under the filters is a button that says ” Filters to DYN S/C”. What you would do is isolate the high frequency of the “Sss” sound and use that to activate the compressor to tame it.
Cool song!
haha! I didn t see that comment – sorry for the repost 🙂 🙂
yeah i like what I hear of the song. where can I hear the whole thing? thanks
Hi Graham,
Very catchy line and writing from what I hear of the song so far! Love the technique –
Background noize at Starbucks is really annoying (uh how do I spell this!?), and soundquality (your voice) really sucks – but hey, if one is up for adventure you can t expect to sleep in a cosy bed every night 😉
Keep up the great inspirational work.
Carl
Gotta say, Graham- for some reason, watching your stuff, its AWESOME to see how even myself, an amateur, am using the same techniques as a pro recordist! I’ll be using this technique on an upcoming track. Thanks a lot!
Nice tips Graham. Mix knob is a must when using compressors! I also like to use either the classic Waves “Vocal Rider” or the (better and cheaper) Melda Productions “MAutoVolume” (as well as compressing to bring out the lead vocal or lead instrument). Don’t forget to de-ess your vocal track (unless you like the ssss effect). Keep up the good work. Many people (including myself) really appreciate your efforts.
Hey Graham – thanks again for the great insights! Do you ever have to worry about phase issues when duplicating tracks like you did?
Not in most DAWs
Will use of a lot of these techniques in my next set of recordings so that they don’t sound like mud. Thanks Graham, from a band all the way over in lil’ ol’ New Zealand.
You’re quite welcome!
This song you’re mixing is dope!!!
aNOTHER very useful technique. Nice song sound by the way.
Hi Graham,
Beatiful song! What is the name of song and Singer?
Dude that song sounds sweet! Cant wait for a new album from you.
Nice tune!
Hey Graham! Great track, wanna know who it is. Also, do you personally use this technique after fader rides or before?
It’s me 🙂 Upcoming EP.
Graham,
Your teachings have helped soooooo much. I thank you for all the time, effort and money you have invested to reach out and teach us how to make better recordings. In one way or another, I have integrated your suggestions into various songs. I only create Christian material now after becoming born again, and your teachings have helped us to use excellence to bring Him glory to the listeners of the music.
Rob Reid, Barrie, Ontario.
Glad to help Rob!
Great song! Can’t wait to listen to it in its entirety. Thanks for all the tips. I’m always stoked when you post a video. Cheers!
Thank You again Graham. Awesome! Love the song too man!
Great tip. And that song you are working on is very, very good. I like that a lot. Keep up the great work on all fronts!
Very cool video. I am a huge Reason fan also and love the Pulveriser for all kinds of things.
It’s also cool that this video proofs that you can mix on anything, even using earplugs in a crowded coffee bar. It’s all just a matter of imagination and knowing what you like and want.
Hey, Graham, collapse the modules you don’t use in the mixer – to save some on scrolling :).
Happy new year, man! And to everybody else!
Too bad I don’t know how to use Reason 🙂
Great Tutorial Graham Thanks