The Cheat Code To Mixing Vocals In 2026

Here’s the problem...

The evolution of making music has drastically changed every decade and will continue to evolve. As a musician and an audio engineer at heart, I constantly struggle to find quality resources that apply to my skill level. Traditional educational institutions, though valuable in their own right, often struggle to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape of music production. Meanwhile, beginners are inundated with a sea of generic content on platforms like YouTube, where inexperienced content creators act as seasoned mixing engineers.

Like many, I started my mixing journey on Youtube and found myself quickly improving. For anyone who might follow this route, I think sitting and listening for the first few hours is a smart move. One creator might give a piece of advice that completely negates the advice of the previous video. This is a common recurrence within the music community. I have had to learn, unlearn, and relearn how to do several things due to misguidance on the internet. Most engineers that I talk to have a similar experience. People learn in different ways, so I hope this document acts as a valuable tool to someone’s learning process. This is a structured compilation of some of the most useful tools and techniques that I picked up the last few years of mixing audio professionally. The most important part of any song is the Lead Vocal. If your lead vocal is lacking in any way, it will deter listeners. Below is my method of resolving that issue.

My Background

I am a 21 year old mixing engineer from Chico, California. I am a Recording Arts student from CSU, Chico and an active member in the Audio Engineering Society (AES) as well as the School of the Arts Program (SOTA). I am the in-house engineer for Sierra Nevada Brewery and I work with major production companies (including North State Audio Visual and JMAX Productions) mixing live shows across Northern California. Most of the music I work on is Pop, Hip Hop, and Country.

1. ROOM ENVIRONMENT

Technically this isn’t really a mixing tip but it's too important not to mention. The most unfortunate realization that many come across when recording their own music is how much of an impact your room makes on your sound. If you have hardwood floors, it's even worse. Here’s some things to keep in mind:

1. Carpet and Curtains

Get carpet. Anything soft or porous can absorb a lot of high frequency content in your room. The thicker, the better. If you have windows, get curtains. There are plenty of curtains designed to deaden sound within the room. A cheap and useful example of this is the Nicetown Thermal Insulated Curtains on Amazon.

2. Parallel Walls

Resonant peaks occur because of parallel walls. Your room is most likely a box or rectangle that is perfect for resonant peaks and terrible for recording vocals. We fix this with acoustic treatment. It is important to note that your room does not have to sound completely dead. There’s a lot you can fix with today’s modern engineering. However, the more time you spend paying attention to each detail, the more of an improvement you will hear in the sound.

- ABSORBERS - Absorbers are typically flat square pieces that stick to your wall. These are nice to cover large surface areas. I try to put sound absorbers anywhere there are two parallel walls and nothing in between. If you are going to buy foam from Amazon, make sure the foam is at least 2in thick.

- DIFFUSERS - Diffusers don’t completely deaden the sound being captured, instead, they reflect sound off in random directions to avoid any particular resonant frequency. Diffusers work great to capture the sound that your monitors point directly at. I use diffusers on the wall behind the listening position where the speakers aim at, and within the vocal booth to give the recording some authenticity.

- BASS TRAPS - Bass traps are great for tuning up that low end of the vocal, which is the hardest thing to fix in post production. Although quality bass traps can be on the more expensive side ($60 per sq ft), the difference is noticeable. Sticking bass traps in the corners also eliminates space for parallel surfaces to occur.

2. MORE TOOLS WON’T HELP YOU IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE THEM

It is easy to get caught in the commercial trap of buying plugins and audio gear. Trust me, you can buy thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gear and still have terrible mixes. Buy gear after you have some level of mastery over the tools that you already own. Bryson Tiller recorded his hit single ‘Don’t’ on a Scarlet 2i2 interface and a Rode NT1 microphone in his closet - a $300 setup.

Here’s a quick list of things I would buy for a good beginner setup:

1. Microphone ~ $150

2. Mic Stand ~ $40

3. Isolation Shield ~ $40

4. Audio Interface ~ $150

5. Headphones ~ $100

6. Computer ~ $500-$2000

7. Acoustic Treatment ~ $200

3. RECORDING GOOD TAKES

Priority Number 1 = Good Performance. If the artist isn’t comfortable, they won’t perform well. Try to eliminate any pressure that might be on the artist to perform. A recording session should be viewed as a productive hangout, even if you don’t know that person. Recording should be a fun experience. The best recordings come from sessions with vibe and energy. Move the microphone around in your room to find a good spot to record in. Putting the microphone in different spots can give you different results so find the spot that sounds the best but also allows the artist to be comfortable. A strong performance should be prioritized over a clean recording.

Fitting the microphone in the isolation shield is also important. The isolation shield (depending on the size) should be covering 180 degrees of your microphone with a half circle. The microphone should not be sticking out away from the shield and it also should not be pressed against the back wall of the shield. The lead singer should be about 6in away from the microphone. A little bit closer and things start to sound a little harsh and the bass will increase. A little further and the vocal will start to lose some of its presence and the bass will decrease.

Singing is an exercise. To exercise you need to warm up. Vocalists should always do at least 15 minutes of warm up exercises to condition their voice for recording. There are several different techniques but this one works the fastest: Have the vocalist hum the melody of their song while holding their mouth in a “Z” position as if they are mimicking a buzzing bee. Doing this a few times over can bring out the articulation in the singer's voice in a matter of minutes.

Now everyone is ready to record, it’s time to heat up the mic... but not too hot. The goal here is to get your recording as loud as possible without clipping. I aim for about -8 dbFS on the channel when the singer is at full volume. This allows for 8 db of headspace if the singer jumps in volume unexpectedly, and it's loud enough to avoid any noise level from our system. Most microphone preamps create an unwanted buzz when they get pushed to the maximum limit. If you can keep your preamp knob below 80% while maintaining a hot signal, you're in a good place. Dynamic microphones are typically quieter and may require extra gain. In this case I would suggest a cloud lifter or gain boost. Allowing the artist to hear themselves through headphones with zero latency allows the artist to get better timing. Closed-back headphones are great for this. Open-back headphones can cause a lot of bleed in the recording setting but are great while mixing.

While recording, I like to use the LA-2A emulated compressor from Waves followed by the SSL G Channel. I’ve found that this combination of LA-2A and SSL EQ allows the vocal to sit in the mix with 90% of the heavy lifting being done by these two plugins. I sometimes bus out to a reverb depending on what kind of song I am recording. Don’t get complacent. Now is your opportunity to find the sound you are looking for. Recording doubles, record takes with a different tone of voice, do a higher octave, a lower octave, fill space with adlibs, add background harmonies. It's better to have too much than not enough.

4. MIXING

Alright, alright. Here it is. This is my step by step process for mixing lead vocals for a Pop song. This same ideology can be applied to almost any type of music. I start my chain the same way every single time I open a project: Heavy compression and heavy EQ. The key here is to listen in the mix. Try to avoid solo mode as much as possible. Today’s music is known to be over-compressed; so much so that music with lower levels of compression sounds unusual to the listener. You might find yourself turning the threshold knob further than you might expect and that’s okay.

1. Gain Staging

The first thing I do when mixing anything is gain staging. Adjust the clip gain on the regions so that you can leave your fader at 0. This will give you maximum control on the fader and allow you to balance the song quite quickly. I then try to get a quick level mix in a matter of 5 minutes. I use the pan knobs to hard pan background vocals and harmonies to give a sense of stereo during the chorus parts. At this point the smaller issues stand out more. You can start to hear the direction that your song is pointing in, now the idea is to chase that feeling. Figure out what about the song is enjoyable and captivate that part of the song.

2. Compression

Ahh- my good old friend, the LA-2A. This compressor works magic. It has a slower attack and a slower release time. Newer versions of the plugin have a mix and trim knob to give some blending options. I typically gain the vocal at about 40 db on the knob and end up happy with about 10 db of gain reduction. Yes, that’s a lot of compression and there is more to come.

If this is too much compression for you, there is an alternative I like to use with the compressor that comes with the SSL EQ. Allowing for just 2 or 3 db of compression of the LA-2A and using a 2-1 ratio on the SSL compressor with a very low threshold can make the compression a little more transparent. Making smaller moves with more compressors can sometimes allow the vocal to sit in the pocket without getting crushed with saturation.

3. EQ

If the song has a cleaner tone to it and I want crisp recordings, I will start out with a surgical EQ (parametric) and try to listen for resonant frequencies that pop out. When someone speaks, the frequencies that are amplified change depending on the way someone speaks. If you hear a resonant peak, you might only hear it on certain words or certain parts of the song. Use the RTA on the EQ to your advantage to find which frequencies are shooting out and cut them with a narrow peak. This is where solo is advantageous: when you’re hunting down that one frequency that sticks out of the mix.

Try to stick to only 2-4 cuts when making surgical moves (keep it minimal). I do 90% of all my EQ on the SSL G Channel. I am a fan of SSL EQs, I think they work great for any vocalist and most instruments I work with. Here is where I make the major adjustments. I bring the High-Pass Filter up to around 120 Hz and end up shelving off around 4 db at 250 Hz. I try to tame the low end first, then move to the mid range. Most of the time, a large cut in the 700-1000 Hz range allows the vocal to better sit with the mix. Too large of a cut will result in a thin vocal. I typically settle around 5-8db of reduction. If the vocal needs a boost in the high end, I typically boost a 3 db shelf at 10kHz, however, with my Neumann TLM 102, I get plenty of air and hardly boost the high end at all. Now is a good time to switch speakers. If you are using headphones, grab a speaker. If you are using speakers, put headphones on. See what airpods sound like. After about 30 min - 1 hr of listening to the same speakers, your brain will naturally tune out certain noises. Switching your listening device can give you a fresh perspective on the song.

4. Dynamic EQ

If you still can’t get that stubborn frequency out of the way without destroying the vocal, your next move should be dynamic EQ. The first problem area I typically hear is harshness in the high end. I use the Renaissance De-esser for every vocal that I mix. I like to put the De-esser in band mode and sweep a little below 6kHz till I find the sweet spot. This is best done with headphones on because the high end is very noticeable on headphones, especially airpods. As the song moves from one section to another, your problem areas might shift. This is best addressed with a multiband compressor. I like to use the C4 or C6 from Waves. This is great for controlling the low/low-mid section without thinning the vocal(s). I have found better results with this plugin by using a faster attack and release times for higher frequencies and a slower attack and release times for lower frequencies. If I feel the need to cut more than 5 db in any area, I try to go back and fix the issue with EQ or compression.

5. Saturation

Be gentle with saturation. There are a few good plugins that add some harmonics to the lead vocal without overdoing it: AVOX WARM from Antares, OTT from Xfer Records, and Vitamin from Waves are my go-tos. Depending on the vibe of the song, the saturation from the compressors might be enough. Putting Saturation plugins on a bus keeps the distortion in a parallel mix, giving you a little bit more control to blend in the saturation to taste. Hip Hop and Rap vocals tend to require more saturation. The upward compression on the OTT gets the job done.

6. Effects

Go crazy. Experiment. Try to find something unusual. Use Reverb, Delay, Phasers, etc. I always bus out to my effects to give myself more blend control. This also makes it easier to A/B test certain effects to see if they sit well with the mix. There are so many reverb presets that do quite well right out of the box. The few moves I always make on every reverb unit is: Cut the lows (<200Hz), cut the highs (>4kHz), and add pre-delay. Pre-delay can add a bit of separation between the vocal and the reverb. If the reverb seems to wash out the lead vocal, sidechain a compressor on the reverb to reduce the volume of the reverb when the singer is singing.

7. Automation

If you want your mix to stand out from the rest, learn how to use automation. It is popular to automate the volume of the vocals on the chorus to increase energy, but try automating different parameters within your channel strip like panning, filter sweeps, distortion level, reverb time, delay time, etc. This ends up taking some time because it often requires you to listen to each portion of the track all the way through to guarantee its cohesiveness. However, this is a great way to keep your listener listening.

Everyone has a different set up with different wants and needs. It is vital to take the pieces of information that work for you and use it to the best of your advantage. What works for me, might not work for you. But one way to guarantee better results is to build a workflow. Start with making a template within your DAW that has all your go-to plugins populated and ready to go. I use one of three templates every time I start a project: a recording template, a mixing template, and a production template. These allow me to move from one phase of production to the next while saving a ton of time. Also remember to listen. Turn it up until it sounds right, not until it looks right. Your listener has no idea how much compression you’re using or what the EQ curve looks like on your DAW. All they can do is listen, so mix from the perspective of your audience.

5. CONCLUSION

In my four years of mixing audio professionally, these tips and tricks have saved me countless hours and frustrations in my career, and I hope it does something similar for you. By no means do I consider myself a master in the field, but I feel there is value in sharing information. Audio is all about problem solving. Get creative with your solutions and develop an original sound that's pleasing to your target audience. Use your own musical tastes to guide your decision making. Make moves with confidence. Remind yourself... “If it sounds good, it is good.”