Original subtitles

I do my name is Lu Diaz I'm a mess

engineer producer based out of Miami

Florida I've been mixing and producing

for 25 years and I'd like to show you

some tips and tricks on doing some

hip-hop vocals

so Tony mics vocals for the song that he

provided which is called paradise they

were recorded in South Jersey and then

some of them were also recorded in

actual studios which were in right now

and the rest of his project was done

also in Miami let me play this session

for you guys so you guys get familiar

with the song and get to know when I mix

to me like the main thing is control so

anything that's bothering you out of the

vocal like when you listen to a vocal

you open up a session first thing I do

is listen to the vocal and just listen

to frequencies that are jumping out at

me that may be you know hurting my ears

so believe it or not I will actually

turn the vocal really loud and listen to

it a really really loud level and see

and listen to the things and areas are

better they're bothering me first thing

I'll do is run like for example like

this is email q4 and it's just to take a

little bit of that say from like 50

Hertz all the way down mainly because

you may be on a system idea so parent

understands or you may be mixing at home

and you're not hearing 40 Hertz or 30

very low sub frequencies and then you

may let the mix go and then you go to a

club and suddenly you hear this

slaughter or something that's because

that was happening in the vocal you

never know where these vocals are

recorded and you just assume that you

know what let's just wipe those

frequencies out and get them out of

there and then the next thing I do is

the c6 obviously is to target all these

little frequencies that bother me about

the vocal and I'm able to sort of get my

first wave of getting that vocal under

control so here's the c6 bypassed I hate

to talk but I'm never affected I'm deep

in my pockets lucky for me I just came

here to eat I don't feed in the gossip

back so when you listen that vocal you

have to start hearing what's bothering

you about the vocal the first thing I do

is use a c6 to tailor the sections that

bother me

so what I love about it is I'm able to

trim back

and I have the choice of having you know

a baron with the choice of the natak Tom

have a choice of a release not just for

that one frequency and the envelope I

can actually make it a wider compression

and so what happens is for example here

I'm gonna solo real quick so you can

hear the frequency I'm trying to pull

back now the great thing about it is

you're able to you can sort of go

fishing for it sweep across to find the

frequency you want so for me that's the

problem in that vocal right around that

above 2 K maybe 3 K and I'm able to also

zero in even more on the frequency by

changing the cue and then I'll go and

now you see the reduction that's

happening right so let's hear it with it

on I'm gonna bypass the first I hear to

talk but I'm never affected I'm deep in

my pockets

lucky for me I just came here to eat I

don't feed in the gossip back of my

owner it's a very subtle thing but as

you start adding EQ as you start adding

effects as you start adding compression

these freaker's are gonna jump out at

you so for me that's what's so important

and same goes for the low end so here at

the low end part I'm actually doing the

same thing that's controlling all that

boxy feel that you give with vocals so

this is why the c6 to me is essentially

I usually like literally on every every

vocal that ever worked on after that I

follow with Manny's Triple D which I

love because it's again another sort of

c6 but it's a catch-all so you can see

that the harsher part which is basically

this frequency I'll solo for you I'm

hitting that frequency again I hit it

with the c6 but I like to have Manny's

come after it to just to catch a little

bit more same thing with the the boxing

area I also use that and then I'll even

go further and how to c1 and I put it in

a lot of the de-esser preset and the

same thing I'd go through the

frequencies that bother me and you can

listen to him

fact that I'm deep in my pockets very

subtle at that frequency that I'm

hitting around 250 and then the last

thing I do is usually my DSA now granted

every vocal has you know a different

need for de-essing but you always want

to have a DSR there just in case

and that de-essing for all those you

don't know handles all the siblings all

the frequencies from 7 up not very

bright so I'll show you for example what

we're doing here basic is grabbing all

the esses and pulling all those SS down

and then after that here's where I'm

adding things to the vocal and I love

the APR I love the high end on the API

so if I want to brighten and give it a

little shine I'm giving it that shine

after I dust it right because I've

controlled it and I'm able to bring that

vocal up and give it that brightness

that it's lacking without it bothering

you I'll play it to you without and with

lucky for me I just came here to eat I

don't feed in the gossip back on my own

I to earn my respect in a trip right so

these things I do after I control the

woken that's why the chain goes the way

it goes and the very end like I said

before it's the our box and that's what

brings the entire group out to the front

and I'll play it to you without it with

it

[Music]

I could say your insanity you can see

what happens but you can't do this

without all the other steps first

because if you do this now without any

guessing without any banned target you

know compression all those frequencies

that just jumped out I thought I'm gonna

jump out and bother you even more and

when you you know when you bring all the

elements back in or the rest of the of

the track you'll be able to play and

pull that vocal forward and backwards

you know that that's where where the

sweet spot for me are for vocals and

that's that's really the the basics of a

walk with Jenny why I have them in the

order that I have my control first

everything I can and then I start doing

what's you know brightening things up

and adding things and then finishing

with a compressor but mixing like

eyelids and vocal stacks and overdubs

and all that stuff if it's if it's a

vocal that's supporting the lead vocal

so in other words just a double to the

local you want to treat it as a lead

vocal you want to keep in mono and put

it you know behind the lead vocal but

when it comes to eyelids and when it

comes to you know sweeteners is what we

call them to me I like pushing those on

to the stereo field I like to leave the

lead vocal as much as possible in the

middle unless the producer or the artist

specifically want them down in the

middle or close I spread them out as far

as I possibly can because it just opens

up the stair feel for one and it gives

that vocal room to sit by itself one

thing you have to keep in mind when you

do pants something out all the way like

for example in this particular song you

can see here in both these cases you see

how all my my ad libs are spread out

full stereo you have to be careful is

when you send something to stereo all

the way you're gonna hear a lot more

than you would if it was down the middle

with the rest of the track so when you

bring it out be mindful to pull that

bottom back so it doesn't overcome the

lead vocal but and in this particular

session if you can see I actually use

the doubler here which really helps with

spreading that well out right and in

this case yes whispers

[Music]

back on my own I was making a chip

so in this vocal I had to lead down the

middle and then there's only one whisper

track right I just went ahead and put

the doubler on it to give it that the

stereo field since I can't pan it out

and this is a whisper I'm able to boom

there's the are box and the are box has

squashed it to really get with the

energy really feel upfront and then push

it back a little bit and then it comes

on nice and clear here everything is

saying and it's not overcoming the lead

vocal in the middle of the group overall

after that you know after the vocals

controlled after I have the eyelids

panned after the are boxes on the group

bringing everything forward you still

have effects used to have delays you

have verbs you have flanges you have all

these things you can use to give the

vocal sort of depth or fit into the

feeling of the of the song and then a

delay is always your friend h delay i

like to have depending on the song a

quarter on ping-pong sometimes at eighth

and stereo whatever it is that sounds

good with the song and those are the

little touches you you you use to just

give all the vocal elements a little

sparkle a little shine you know and for

me I'm not big on giant effects I just

like the effect to feel like something

and not stick out of the track so much

obviously if you want to just delay one

word you'd want to you need to automate

that one word right if you leave it

static throughout throughout the

throughout the throughout the mix Union

every word is going to delay now in

certain senses you want to use a static

delay like I used for example here

[Music]

so I'm using this h delay and I'm using

it at a triplet and the reason for that

is just to the temple of it feels a

little different the rhythmic miss of it

feels a little different and it's very

low in the in the mix it's just there to

create air to create a mood just the way

of a verb would be used but if I were to

turn that send up it would sound

ridiculously loud you don't I mean so

what you want to do is when you do a

throw they lie when you're highlighting

something yes in that case you'd want to

automate them but a static delays

usually for me is used to create an

effect to create a mood to create a feel

for them for the for the vocal I'm gonna

show you just real quick a little delay

throw that I used on this verse so that

means you automate the actual scent I

have a delay sat at a quarter 145 BPM

and a little bit of a high pass a little

bit of a low pass so it has a little

radio effect so just only the word

milady was sent to the delay on the

actual vocal if you wanted to do that

whether they cute it's super simple it's

the same principle

you sweep everything out from the low

end and everything off from the high end

and maybe you know 1k maybe to 3k you

you might want to bump up that and give

it that that radio effect so I'm using

the req and you see I'm sweeping

everything from 500 down and I'm

boosting a little bit here around 2k so

I said before and that gives you the

radio for all solar for you and then

we'll play with with him without that's

with it and this is without it right so

the other delay has that same radio

effects altogether and then in context

of the song

[Music]

DJ crazy said he got a session so

there's a section in the song where we

wanted to use the that out of that

t-pain effect and we plugged in waves

tuned and you can see right here I'll

play the section real quick it's pretty

self-explanatory you know we just slam

in the slam in the settings you want the

correction all the way up you want the

speed to be as fast as possible and you

know we're just we're after that

t-pain effect and with the waves tune

retune we're able to do it super easy

super quick I'm going to show you the

effect we used waves reach them to do it

and obviously you've got to find the key

of the song in this case is a major and

then your speed and your correction got

to be slammed but it's fairly simple you

get to hangover really Greg I'll solo

one vocal real quick so you can hear it

without it I'm a city where you need to

strap up but didn't know long - every

time I I'm a city where you need to

strap up but didn't know long - every

time I hit it right or run in doing

wrong that's how you do it I was raised

by the shade and see them snakes in the

garden another change I'm more than

doing drills in the garden and the hills

god no the kid in the garden no names no

talking make some medicine