Mixing Vocals onto Instrumental is considered a "no big deal" service. And many artists are surprised that the price isn't somewhat like a cup of coffee. Yet in reality, even such a “simple task” requires from engineer lots of knowledge and perfectly trained ears.
- Let’s start with the fact that Beats are a mass product that has never been meant to be mixed meticulously.
So they kind of represent the general idea and the producer never bothered to polish every element to a commercial level. Why? There are a few reasons for that. Including the option to gain some extra cash by selling trackout for further mixing to a proper level by someone else.
- Another fact - all of the Beats are mixed without any consideration of particular vocals to be put on them. That's why the balance and tons of other tiny things just can't be perfectly right.
Once the vocal is put onto beat you can find that levels of key elements (like Kick, Bass, Snare, any other actually) need adjustment. EQing and Compression are often need to be tweaked too – what was good in the context of an Instrumental mix not necessarily is going to sound as good when vocals there.
What it takes to mix Vocals onto Beat in case no individual instrumental tracks (so-called trackout) are provided:
- Splitting instrumental into stems via AI software
- Rebalancing the elements in the context of a new mix that incorporates vocals
- EQ, Compression adjustments to make the elements fit new production
- Quite often it’s a great idea to replace some of the drums with better sounding or to layer extra samples on top to add the missing characteristics like fullness and/or punchiness
- Having the separated stems it’s possible to add more space processing to the elements that might need it – Snare/Clap, or Keys, Guitars
- And finally, when the Instrumental has been transformed into a perfect bed for Vocals the Vocals can be mixed in.
At this stage Compression, Saturation, EQing, and Space processing are added to make Vocals glued with the music perfectly.
The next stage here is adding creative effects to spice up the vocal arrangement – Delays, Reverb throws, Filtering, Distortion, Panning automation any other. This stage is only limited by the engineer’s imagination and the artist’s vision.
