John P is one of our associates and we recently had a discussion on mixing for voice… He offered some great tips…

First - Learn EQ and Compression backward and forward. That is the key to mixing.

When it comes to mixing its always better to take away then to ad. Also, learn your frequency range…usually males fall in the 2500-3200 range. Also, theres just many frequencies allowed in the spectrum, so if you have a song that peaks around 2800 and your voice is peaking in the same range you have to cut the frequency of the music in that range. Makes sence huh. So basically you are making a whole for your voice to fit in. That way you dont have to duck the music that much.

In the same respect, the human voice is only audible in the 150- 15k range ( any lower and your Barry White) so try cuting your voice with a high pass filter around 80-120, then compress it bit to even it out and your gold. It may sound thin, but remember the low end in the music will make up for it will cut through. Most TV spots are mixed exactly that way. Sometimes cutting it around 200 or even more. You have to play around with your voice to see what sounds best.

Second: Compression, the most over used tool in the industry. Compression if used right will make magic, wrong and you got crap!! Compression is more then setting a threshold and ratio. With the wrong attack and release time you can really mess things up. (TIP: Fast attack slow release for voice: Attack around 25-50 ms Release around 200-250. Mastering…attack 100 release 300) recently I have set up a templete in audition so I dont have to do much, I really like it and it has loosenup my work.

Just remember your work has to pass through the on air processing chain so if it sounds awesome in the prod room… chances are its too mastered or processed for air.

Compression and EQ–learn it, love it, live it. The rest is easy!

Another online discussion about audio production techniques brought up the following ideas for the BIG sound.

“While there are plug-ins for this, I find it easier to do it by hand. For certain key phrases like “Prices will never be this low again!”, I’ll make a copy of that phrase and run it in a second channel side by side with the original. I’ll run it a few milliseconds before or after the original and it seems to really boost the perceived volume and adds a bit of a tight reverb sound.”

Want to make it BIGGER and BETTER? Try panning the left channel with the original far left and the right channel with the copy far right. You want a huge sound, there you go. Most of the imaging guys I know use this trick.

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group

In a recent discussion with some associates, one mentioned that they had 2 favorite non-real-time filters in Adobe Audition 2.0.

1. Compander (in Dynamics Processing) and
2. Broadcast (in Multiband Compressor).

Here are the settings for the Compander… Try them out and let me know what you think…

Several of my associates have been passing tips around regarding some of their favorite production techniques. How many times have you tried to put a VO on music only to have the VO drowned out or the music too low to hear? Try a simple EQ technique to the music and/or FX (non-destructively of course). Ad0be Audition 1.5/2.0 has a preset called “vocal cut” in the graphic equalizer. That works. Or if you want to make your own, create a -6 to -9 db dip centered around 2k.