Professional Producer Palazzo explains his Vocal Chain
Music producer Palazzo went from teaching himself music programming to making beats for Young Thug, Lil Skies and many more. Growing up in a small town in Austria, he played drums and got into music from an early age. At age 18 he began teaching himself production, making beats in his bedroom and selling beats online. He quickly found placements for his beats and knew from then on, that producing music is what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Today, Palazzo is considered one of the most promising upcoming urban producers in Europe. “Hard work beats talent & the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” is the motto Palazzo goes after.
(source: electricfeelent)
In this Interview, he breaks down his Go-To Vocal Chain used in countless songs from Jazeek, Loredana, Gola Gianni and many more.
"I use this chain because it's very neutral and not CPU heavy at all. It is important to move fast in sessions and not be slowed down by technical factors."
1. Pro-Q
"I start my vocal processing chain with subtractive EQ, removing all the low frequencies that do not need to be there first with a low-cut filter. Then, I further remove some of the low-mid build-ups that are caused by recording in a less-than-optimal room or by having the singer too close to the microphone. It is very common nowadays to record in the control room next to the producer or engineer, and there are certain advantages and disadvantages that come with that. I have this exact EQ setting as the starting point and usually do not change anything unless the artist sings in a very high or low register."
"Next, I compress the vocal. I always aim for 4-8 dB of gain reduction, depending on how dynamic the signal is. Since I mostly record without any compression on the way in, I tend to go heavier here. I also use this to ensure my gain structure is correct, as this setting also rarely changes."
"I add a second instance of Pro-Q to boost the top end of the vocal. Sometimes, I switch to other more colored EQs during the mixing process, but the goal here is to make the vocal more present without adding too much latency and CPU usage. For the demo, this approach is sufficient."
"I love to add R-Vox because it brings the vocal to the front very nicely. It is incredibly easy to dial in and has a really good built-in gate. Sometimes artists bring their friends into the studio, and it can get noisy. This helps to eliminate some background noise in the recording when the singer is not singing, without me having to manually cut out a lot of silence in the take.
Little Tip: Try it on claps and hi-hats as well. Playing with the gate on these elements can have a similar effect!"
"I use the Waves De-esser to control the high mids. This range is crucial to manage because it holds both the intelligibility and a lot of the harshness of the vocal. I adjust the threshold slightly to dial it in perfectly, but this is my starter setting.
The German language, in particular, can be pretty harsh in this range, so be mindful of that."
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