Making vocals fit in the mix is a notoriously hard task. Sometimes it takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and a lot of processing to make vocals sound right. There are lots of tools available for processing the vocals, from standard dynamic processors like EQs and compressors, reverbs, delays and all the way to some creative effects like granular delays, various pitch shifters, doublers and what not. To use all these in the vocal processing chain can be time-consuming, but there are some multi-effect processors available today which greatly decrease the amount of time and effort for processing the vocals. Therefore in the next tutorial, we will present one such effect.
As usual, in the SoundBridge: DAW, we have already made a sequence that contains all the essential elements of the full mix, including the vocal. So let us hear how it sounds.
~Full Mix – Unprocessed Vocal
The mix sounds quite full while the vocal sequence is totally unprocessed. Let’s hear it solo.
~Vocal – Unprocessed
EZMix 2
As mentioned above there are lots of multi-effect processors out there that can be used to cut the effort and amount of time for processing the vocals. However, in this case, we decided to present to you the EZMix 2 designed by Toontrack. So let’s start by adding a fresh instance of it on the vocal channel.
EZmix 2 is a multi-effect plug-in that lets you assign professionally designed audio processing effect chains to any audio source. The EZmix 2 philosophy is as simple as it is complex. You only see the easy part – everything else goes on behind the scenes. It was designed to be as easy and intuitive as humanly possible but still, leave you creative leverage – hence the two rotary controls. These are the central pieces of the software. They let you dial in and customize each setting. However, they don’t simply add more or less of a specific signal chain, they control each setting’s sometimes a complex network of effects and allow you to tweak a creative take on each. In other words, each preset is much more than just one, plain setting.
Interface and main features
On the top part of the interface, we can see a preset browser. It lets you filter your selection by instrument, effect, EZMix pack, type or genre. Besides that, there is also a text search where you can type any word in order to narrow your selection and find what you are looking for.
What’s more, the lower part of the interface is reserved for two big knobs, which are called “Shape Controls”. Moreover, these control the shape and customize the selected preset. Next to that, there is a shape control info window, which gives a description of how the shape control responds. Finally, in this section, there are input and output parameters.
On the right part of the interface, there is a nice section representing the effects used in the selected preset. Effects like Delay, Reverb, De-Esser, Distortion, and Cabinet are just some of them. The effects used in the preset lights up, while effects that are not used to stay darkened.
Audio Examples
After a brief description of this multi-effect processor, let’s hear some presets on the vocal and finally hear the vocal processed with EXMix 2 together with all other elements in the mix.
~Vocal – EZMix 1
~Vocal – EZMix 2
~Vocal – EZMix 3
~Full Mix – Vocal Processed with EZMix 2
Feel free to download the project file here.
