Original subtitles

At what level should your instrumental

and vocals be in order to get a balanced

mix? In today's video, I'm going to be

showing you just that. Hi guys, welcome

back to the channel. If you're new to

this channel, my name is Jay. I make

music production tutorials on YouTube in

Cubase and FL Studio. So consider

subscribing, click that post notification

bell so that you get notified every time

I upload a brand new video. For quite

some time now, I've been getting this

question, at what level should the vocals

and the instrumental be in order to get a

decent mix? So before I show you this

trick that I'm going to show you now, I

want you to understand that a decent

balance between the vocals and the

instrumental comes as a result of

experience. You need to be patient with

yourself, give yourself time to gain the

experience, train your ears to listen to

what a great mix sounds like, what a good

balance between the vocals and the beat

sounds like. Listen to more music, listen

to different types of music and as you

get that experience, you'll be able to

tell whenever you balance the vocals on a

beat to say this sounds great, this

sounds like a good balance. Maybe you're

a producer, you already have clients, you

need to make money and you need to get

this done and you can't wait for that

time. So in today's video, I'm going to

be showing you this trick that will help

you get the job done now and as you go,

you keep on improving on the trick and

you keep on listening to what sounds

great. After mixing a number of songs for

quite some time now, I've come to realize

that there is a range in the balance

between the vocals and the beat where the

beat can be and where the vocals would

be. I'm going to be showing you that

range and it will help you balance your

vocals. Pick any point below zero where

you want to leave your instrumental. Once

you start adding the vocals on top of

that instrumental, make sure that you're

within a difference of 3 dB. What I mean

by this is let's say for example you set

your beat at negative 6 dB. When you

start balancing your vocals on top of

that beat, just make sure that you don't

go above negative 3 dB. So that's a 3 dB

difference. So from negative 6, that's

negative 5, negative 4, negative 3.

Another example would be you set the

maximum peak for your instrumental at

negative 9, balancing your vocals on top

of that instrumental. You're not supposed

to go above negative 6, which is a 3 dB

difference from negative 9, negative 8,

negative 7, negative 6. I hope you're

getting the idea from this. Let me show

you this right here in the project. I've

got a mix right here and I've bypassed

all the effects and plugins that I added

here. It's just the vocals in the

instrumental. This is the point where

you're supposed to balance everything

before you start adding any plugin to

your mix. Some plugins add some gain to

your vocals. It will be up to you now to

maintain those levels when the plugin

adds some gain. It's very important to

balance your vocals on the beat before

you add any plugin so that you know that

everything is balanced and as you add the

plugins, your job will be to maintain

that level that you got now. So you can

use your faders. If you balance this

using faders, it's entirely up to you. I

personally like to use this volume here

to balance everything. I don't usually

use the faders here unless otherwise.

This is just due to personal preference

and just making sure that whatever signal

I'm sending into the plugins will not be

distorted. So this helps me a lot to make

sure of that. Let's start with picking

the level of our instrumental. Let's take

it to negative 9 dB. Just reduce the

volume of your beat right here and make

sure that on your metering plugin here

it's showing negative 9.

So you can see now that the level is

negative 9 here which is my maximum peak.

So now I need to balance my vocals on top

of this beat. I'm going to concentrate on

this part of my vocals here. So this goes

for the entire mix. You need to balance

your vocals to make sure that like I said

there should be a 3 dB difference. So

since my beat is at negative 9 that means

when I start adding my vocals on top of

this beat I should make sure that I don't

go above negative 6. So I'll switch on

the vocal right here, play and reduce the

volume from here. So I've highlighted

everything here and I'll just reduce the

volume. The level at which you leave your

vocals in that range from negative 9 to

negative 6 it could be at negative 7 it

could be at negative 8 is entirely up to

you. Do you want your vocal a little bit

louder or to compete with the beat? So

that's entirely up to you. You can find

the sweet spot. So let me just play this.

(...) When it comes to the peak my maximum

is negative 4. So I'll reduce the volume

to make sure that it's below negative 6.

So this balance to me sounds great. I

don't know about you but I like it here.

There you go you balance your vocals. So

let's try another range. Let's say you

put your beat at negative 6 this time.

When you play your vocals a 3 dB

difference from negative 6 will now be

negative 5, negative 4, negative 3. So

meaning when we balance the vocals on top

of this we're not supposed to go beyond

negative 3 dB. And let's play the beat.

So the beat is at negative 6 here. So

when we balance the vocals a negative 3

dB difference will be not to go above

negative 3. That's from negative 6,

negative 5, negative 4, negative 3.

That's 3 in between. So we can be

anywhere between these two numbers.

Negative 3 and negative 6. I'll switch on

the vocal and let's just balance this.

So to me that's a great balance. That's

negative 3.5. So somebody may ask how do

you balance the backup vocals because

you're only balancing the lead vocal. Yes

one thing you need to know is that the

lead vocal is the lead vocal. That's why

it's called the lead vocal. It's supposed

to be louder than the backup vocals. Get

the balance between the beat and your

lead vocal. Go to your backup vocals,

switch them on and make sure you balance

and don't cross these levels that we've

talked about. Let them play lower than

the lead vocal. Alright guys thanks a lot

for watching. If you enjoyed this video

don't forget to give it a thumbs up

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there. See you in my next video. Peace.