Five tips on how to make awesome vowels

Recording and mixing vocals is a process that many new producers dread. Firstly, it requires more equipment than just producing in the box. Secondly, it takes a lot of knowledge to make the recorded vocals sound good with the rest of the song. What you have to understand is that vocals take a lot of time and energy to get right. For many, it even takes more time to produce the vocals than it does to produce their track. But there is nothing better than producing a really awesome song and then getting equally awesome vocals. And to help you, we've collected some of our best tips below.

Shit in, shit out.

The absolute worst thing you can say when recording vocals is "We'll fix it later". If you want the vocals to sound good, make sure they do from the start. Make sure the vocals sound awesome without any effects or pitch correction. If it sounds good when you record it, it will sound magical after you've finished editing. Remember to use a good singer who knows what they're doing, and make sure that singer's voice fits the song you've made.

Be careful.

Editing vocals is a long process, first you have to record the song, then you have to choose the best takes, then you have to cut the vocals so they are nice and in perfect timing, and finally you have to pitch-correct them. If you mess up in any of these steps, you often have to back up the tape a long way. So be careful and take your time, it will make the result fantastic, and will ultimately save you many hours.

Invest in good software.

Being a producer is all about having the right tools for any job. Almost all programs have good plugins for editing vocals right from the start. Unfortunately, they are often not of the same quality as many of the external plugins available from other manufacturers. In some cases, the built-in plugins can work perfectly well, but if you are going to work a lot of vowels, it may be worth investing in some of the better plugins. The ones we are thinking of are Celemony's Melodyne and Antares Autotune. Both of which are used to pitch-correct the vowels.

Make several mixes.

Once the vocals are recorded and edited, it's time for the actual mix. Usually you use EQ, Compressor, De-esser, Reverb and Delay in the chain to mix the song. But here it can be worth trying out and mixing the song in a few different ways. Try different plugins, use more or less reverb. Try mixing the vocals higher or lower etc. Often you can get great results just by experimenting and giving yourself some different options. Once you've made a few mixes, compare them against each other and see which one you like best.

Make room for the vowel.

The most common mistake made with vocals is that they are too low. If you have actually decided to use vocals in your production, make sure they are heard. A good way to know how high you should mix your vocals is to reference listen. Find a song similar to the one you're working on and listen to how loud the vocals are in that song. You'll often be surprised at how loud the vocals are in professionally mixed songs.