Mixing vocals in Ableton using their stock, built in effects can yield some very good results if you know what you’re doing. With that in mind, I’ve put together this guide on how to mix Ableton vocals mostly using their stock effects with some optional free or premium third party options, so let’s get into it!
How to Mix Ableton Vocals
Effects apply left to right in your processing chain in Ableton Live, so let’s cover the processing you should be using from start to finish.
Here is a snapshot of my typical vocal chain order take from my entire guide to the best mixer settings for vocals which I’ll be drawing from and offering Ableton stock equivalents for:
Tuning
While the processing order matters for 90% of the effects in your mix, it doesn’t matter where you insert autotune. As such, I typically put it first or very early in the chain to get it out of the way, not to mention keep the vocal in tune while I’m applying the rest of the processing so I’m not distracting by pitchy vocals.
Ableton Live doesn’t come with a stock autotune plugin, so you’ll have to go third party. While I use Auto-Tune Pro from Antares, you can grab a great free option to use in MAutoPitch which has many of the same features.
Note that your vocal might not need much tuning up, and if it’s more of a one off word or note, then you should cut/isolate that clip and adjust the tuning on the clip level which you can easily do in Ableton.
Still, if you end up using autotune, refer to my tutorial on how to use autotune for a complete guide to getting natural results which keep your vocal in tune without sounding fake.
Gain
Whether you’re mixing vocals in Ableton or any DAW, the input level you “feed” into each plugin has an effect on the quality you get out of it.
As I mentioned in my gain staging cheat sheet, a lot of plugins including Ableton Live’s are modeled after actual analog hardware. You’ll find that you’ll get better results if you practice gain staging to feed an average level of -18dB into each plugin in the chain:
Not only does it make your audio sound better in the context of any effects you use, it maintains a healthy volume in that track and across your mix so that you have plenty of mixing headroom.
My basic mixing template which I use every time I begin a new mix has gain plugins on every track set to -10dB.
In Ableton Live, this is the “Utility” plugin. This plugin allows you to invert the phase of your track, set it to mono (you can use one of these on your master bus for mixing in mono), and in this case turn up or down the volume of the audio at that stage in the chain.
I like using a Utility plugin at the start of my vocal chain (before or after autotune) and one at the end which I’ll talk about later.
I adjust the gain as necessary to get the average volume of the vocal as close to -18dB as possible with it peaking at -10dB at the most.
Admittedly the vocal is very dynamic at the moment because we haven’t added any compression to control the dynamics, so just get it as close in that pocket as possible.
If your track is SERIOUSLY dynamic, you may want to automate the vocal on that utility plugin or use a vocal rider to help nudge it a bit more in the pocket.
This can be required when there’s a lot of belting combined with quieter notes in the same stretch.
This happens on a lot of vocals, so I put together an entire tutorial on how to fix an overly dynamic vocal, so use that to help get the vocal where it needs to be before we move on to EQ.
Vocal EQ
Typically when I’m EQing vocals, I’m taking away what’s not working which in turns boosts what IS working via subtractive EQ.
I did a recent overview on how to EQ vocals in Ableton, so I’ll refer you to that, but here is a snapshot:
I should also mention that I have specific guides on how to EQ female vocals and how to EQ male vocals, so you might check those out for tweaked versions of the above information as female vocal points tend to be a little higher than male and vice versa.
Essentially I recommend using a high pass filter around 100Hz (a little higher for female vocals) to remove unwanted noise and low end rumble which isn’t adding to the vocal. This also opens up space in the low end for the instruments which actually need these frequencies in your kick and bass (see my low end mixing tutorial).
Boosting at 150-300Hz generally adds body and warmth when the vocal is thin, so keep that in mind. Conversely if the vocal is too boomy or warm, a small cut here will add clarity.
Dynamically cutting at 500Hz generally adds to clarity, as well, as this is an unflattering region which most vocals always benefit from a small cut here.
Around 1k is where you can fix a hollow vocal with a boost or a nasal vocal with a cut.
3-5k is where the vocal can get kind of grating, so a dynamic cut works well as a transparent fix in that case.
Lastly, to bring out some top end sparkle and air in the vocal try a small shelf at 10k to boost, and as an optional final step I’ll typically low pass filter around 20k as a very conservative point where I know I’m not losing any of that air.
Note that Ableton Live doesn’t have dynamic EQ as an option. While there are some workarounds, I haven’t found any which don’t lead to unwanted artifacts in the sound.
While my go to EQ is FabFilter Pro-Q 3 which allows you to turn any band into a dynamic band on demand, you can also grab a free EQ plugin which I recommend which DOES have dynamic EQ as an option.
Alternatively, you can try using multiband compression which Ableton Live does have at those points to attenuate dynamically.
Speaking of EQ, don’t forget to check out my overall EQ cheat sheet for individual guides for virtually every instrument in your mix.
Multiband Compressor for De-Essing
Sibilance is the distracting harshness associated with an exaggeration of “S” sounds and certain other consonants which can crop up in the 7-10k range, depending on the vocalist.
It’s also more prominent with some vocalists or on some recordings depending on the microphone, placement, room, etc.
Sibilance can be distracting to the listener to the point that it takes them out of the mix, so I like to insert Ableton’s stock multiband compressor to specifically target and attenuate this range via compression.
There’s actually a “De-esser” preset which comes with their multiband compressor.
As the name suggests, a de-esser is a particular type of multiband compression which exclusively targets around 6-11k and smooths out the occasional surge in vocals which come from sibilance on those “S” and other specific sounds.
I put together a tutorial on how to make a multiband compressor a de-esser, but again, Ableton Live has a stock preset which you can find if you search for it.
A word of warning – being too aggressive or overcompressing in this range will over-correct the sibilance to the point that it sounds like the vocalist has a lisp.
Sibilance will cause the loudest jump in frequencies in that 7-10k range, so just locate and use an average “S” sound which jumps out to you when setting the threshold of the multiband compressor for the best results and over said lisp sound.
The result is that you’ll set the threshold such that the compressor will only engage when necessary on a sibilant sound on the vocal, leaving it otherwise transparent.
Vocal Compression
Whether you’re mixing vocals in Ableton or any DAW, I typically recommend using multiple compressors back to back on vocals (see how many compressors on vocals).
Known as serial compression, this technique is effective because it doesn’t leave the task of getting the dynamics of your vocal where you want to a single compressor.
By splitting the work between two (or more) compressors, you get more transparent results, meaning you don’t hear the compression working.
Typically I’ll reach for a FET style compressor followed by an optical compressor, but Ableton doesn’t have a dedicated option in either of these categories.
Instead, you can use two of Ableton’s stock compressors in a row, or alternatively you can use their stock compressor followed by their glue compressor which is more of a VCA style compressor.
Incidentally, check out my complete overview of every single one of Ableton’s stock plugins as I talked about each one, how they work, and what you could or should use each one for.
Compressor #1
Getting back to how to mix Ableton vocals and specifically compression, begin by dropping an instance of their stock compressor on your vocal.
We’re going to be driving this first compressor with harder settings as this will work to seriously tame the dynamic peaks.
Here is a snapshot of my compressor settings that I lead with before we talk about each one:
Threshold
Set the compressor’s threshold to 10dB below the peaks or the quietest practical part of your vocal, whichever is lower.
This ensures that you’ll be compressing all if not virtually all of the actual audio parts of the vocal to seriously smooth out the dynamics and impart energy to the vocal. This also helps to keep that vocal up front.
Ratio
The first of the compressors is again to tame the peaks, so I like a higher compressor ratio than average.
Specifically I typically begin with an 8:1 ratio with my first compressor when mixing Ableton vocals. This means every 8dB which exceed the threshold, they’ll be output to 1dB.
Attack
The attack setting on a compressor determines how soon the compression begins in milliseconds after the threshold is exceeded.
Leaving 10ms on your vocal allows the “punch” (see my overview on punch in mixing terms) of those initial transients of the consonants of the vocal to come through. This keeps the vocal present in the mix, even when there’s a lot going on around it musically.
Knee
The compressor knee controls the bend of the threshold.
With a softer knee, you’ll technically start compressing your vocal even before it hits the threshold, albeit at a gentler ratio. A soft knee generally yields more transparent/less noticeable compression which is preferable on vocals and really works well with any tracks with complicated dynamics which peak and drop at different spots from one bar to the next (like vocals).
Conversely and to better explain, a hard knee (0dB) is an all or nothing setting, meaning unless the threshold is met, zero compression is applied. This is better suited for reliable peaks like you get with a kick drum, snare, etc.
Setting the knee at 6-10dB works well for most vocals on Ableton’s stock compressor.
Release
The compressor release is the off ramp for your audio to return to its normal, uncompressed state. A little release eases up the compression rather than restoring the vocal instantly which sounds odd by comparison.
25ms is a good release to “release” that audio from compression, so it takes 25ms for the audio to transition from fully compressed to nothing.
Makeup Gain
I talked about gain staging earlier; it’s important that we output the same level that was coming in. The makeup gain setting on Ableton’s compressor estimates how much the gain is being reduced and adds that back in automatically.
I prefer to do this manually with the output gain slider, adjusting this until my vocal is averaging -18dB.
That’s it for the first compressor.
Compressor #2 (Glue)
I’m immediately following the first compressor with a second compressor for that serial compression I mentioned earlier.
Historically the “Glue Compressor” is most suited for applying to a bus, thus providing the “glue” to create cohesion between the many tracks being fed to that bus (like the master bus).
I like the glue compressor as the next in line on my vocal when purely working with stock Ableton plugins to give it a slightly different flavor and smooth out the remaining dynamics which are left over after the first compressor.
Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve got going on with the glue compressor:
Threshold
This time, I’m aiming for somewhere around 2-3dB in gain reduction on average, maybe a touch higher on the remaining loudest peaks. You may want to set the threshold after your ratio, attack, and get the right amount of compression.
Ratio
Like most glue style compressors, we’ve got a 2:1, 4:1, or 10:1 ratio to work with. I like a lighter ratio than we had with our first compressor as we don’t need this one to work quite as hard. That’s also not the point; we just want to smooth out what’s left for that 2-3dB on average in gain reduction, so a 4:1 ratio works well.
Attack
1ms is admittedly faster than the 10ms we had on the initial compressor, but that’s still plenty of time for transient punch to assert itself in the vocal.
More than that, the relatively less aggressive compression of this glue compressor isn’t pulling everything down as aggressively as the first one.
Release
Measured in seconds, .2 seconds is a snappy and responsive release time for the glue compressor which works well for our vocal.
Makeup Gain
Once again we’re just matching out what we had in via the makeup gain we’re setting ourselves.
Saturation/Exciter (Optional)
As I covered in my explanation of what does saturation do, saturation adds harmonic distortion to your audio. This is used to get a fuller sound in whatever audio you apply it to by adding in frequencies where they didn’t exist before.
I find this works well on vocals when we want to add a little warmth and fullness to the body and mids.
Ableton’s stock “Saturator” has been around since the earliest iterations of Live, and it still works well for filling out your vocal if necessary.
If your vocal wasn’t recorded in an ideal environment and is feeling a little thin, rather than boosting something which isn’t there to begin with via EQ, drop Saturator on the track after the compressor(s). Set the frequency to 200Hz and introduce a little drive to hear that vocal get a little thicker in that body section.
Be careful with the drive; crank this up and you’ve got some very apparent distortion on the track. Admittedly this can work for some aesthetic effects, and you might want a separate instance of this plugin on your vocal with the drive cranked up and the Dry/Wet down low but set to taste to get some of that angry vocal sound blended in.
At low levels, however, the drive is a subtle filler for vocals or anything which is lacking a little warmth which can’t be added via EQ.
Chorus (Optional)
While I generally prefer delays and reverb to add vocal width (which I’ll talk about in a moment), if you want a little more width from your vocal, you might try dropping “Chorus-Ensemble”, a chorus effect on the chain.
Chorus creates duplicates of your source and spreads them out, modulating the timing and pitch to make them sound like unique doubles. If you’re not using this as a send and inserting this directly on your vocal chain in Ableton, keep the Dry/Wet percentage low so that you can more feel the effect rather than hear it.
Setting the “Width” to 100% will spread those “doubles” hard left and right. Keep the “Rate” low and use the filter and blend in some “Warmth” to contrast those doubles with the lead even further.
That’s about it for inserts, and admittedly the saturation and chorus is optional. You may have effects you want to insert for a specific effect on certain tracks or something which suits the song, but for generally practical effects that’s about it on the inserts.
Vocal Harshness Taming
In the initial vocal chain graphic, I mentioned a plugin from my standard vocal chain called soothe2. This works to (among other things) smooth out harsh frequencies in that 2-5k region with transparency. This region on vocals can be grating for some listeners, depending on the vocal.
While Ableton Live doesn’t have a stock alternative which works well, you can grab a free dynamic EQ like TDR Nova to get a similar kind of effect.
Listen closely to your vocal in that 2-5k range, particularly on more aggressive, high energy notes and moments in the vocal. When you find something which sounds harsh, placing small dynamic cuts as necessary at those frequencies to attenuate that harshness only when it becomes an issue.
Like soothe2, this keeps your vocal relatively unchanged so that you’re not blunting the clarity for the sake of a smoother vocal.
Vocal Panning
I don’t need to say too much on the subject of vocal panning. When you have a single lead vocal, 99% of the time it should be right up front for consistency no matter where or how someone is listening to your mix.
Regarding backing vocals, I put together a tutorial on how to pan backing vocals, so check that out for more information but here’s a snapshot:
I talk specifically where and why we’re panning each of our various vocal parts where I recommend in that resource. Essentially the point is to make the most of your stereo field to create separation, avoid frequency conflicts, and make a bigger sounding mix.
Delay
I like delay on vocals for adding width without muddying up the vocal or mix.
Unlike the EQ and compressors we covered earlier, I prefer spacial effects like delay and reverb as sends. This allows me to use the same delay or reverb on multiple vocals at once, giving them a sense of cohesion like they’re coming from the same space.
This also saves mixing CPU because instead of having lots of delay plugin inserted on the many vocals in our mix, we just need one instance of it, making it easier to mix without lag.
Most delays feature the same delay settings, so here is a snapshot of how I like to use vocal delay between TWO different delays with different timings for different effects:
We’re syncing the delay time with our song’s BPM which keeps that delayed vocal tight within the track.
In Ableton Live, you might try using their Delay for the first, shorter delay send:
… and their Echo for the second, longer delay send:
As I mention in the above graphic, saving the longer delay for bigger moments in the song like the chorus vocal makes that section hit harder and sound larger.
I talk more about how to do all of this in my tutorial on delay on vocals, so check that out.
Reverb
Similar to the delays, I like two Return tracks for my vocal reverbs, one for a shorter reverb, one for a longer one.
Check out my vocal reverb cheat sheet where I covered the basic settings for these reverbs which you can apply to the reverbs in Ableton Live.
Here’s a snapshot of that cheat sheet:
Note the Abbey Road Reverb trick of filtering below and above 600Hz and 6000Hz, respectively, to keep the bottom and top ends of your vocal (and mix if you send these reverbs to any other tracks which you should) clean.
Ableton Live’s reverb features an onboard input filter, so you can create those “lo” and “hi” cuts accordingly:
While the reverb doesn’t have a syncing option, you can use this free calculator to input your song’s BPM and get the exact amount of predelay and decay time to use on each of your reverbs.
Simply double the time of the second reverb, add a little more size and stereo spread, and like with the delay, hold back this reverb or automate more of it when the chorus vocal hits.
Automation
Speaking of which, remember that one of your jobs as a mixing engineer is to keep the mix lively and the listener engaged.
An effective way to do this is to keep elements of the mix changing via automation.
In Ableton Live, you can automate virtually any parameter. Simply turn on Automation Mode in the top right of the DAW.
Then you simply click any parameter you want to automate to change the controller line in Timeline mode to control that parameter.
We can automate our sends up and down for individual vocal tracks by clicking on the send knob which makes the line control the volume level of that send. Automate delays and reverbs up at key moments when you need more size in the vocal.
The most common way to use automation is through volume automation to ensure the vocal is always on top of the instrumental. While compression does most of the heavy lifting here, when the instrumental builds during high energy moments, the vocal can get swallowed up. In this case, you need to automate the volume up to ensure the listener can still make out the vocal from the rest of the mix.
I typically recommend rather than automating the volume fader that you insert a Utility plugin at the end of your vocal’s processing chain:
Then, when Automation mode is engaged, click on the “Gain” slider so that the timeline controller adjusts the Utility plugin’s gain. With this being at the end of the processing chain, the plugin is now mimicking the volume fader.
You can now automate the level of the vocal while leaving the fader clean of automation so you can easily turn the overall vocal level up or down without having to adjust the entire envelope.
I put together a guide specifically on vocal automation for tips on why and how to automate your vocal manually on the timeline, so refer to that for tips on how to best use automation on the vocal.
That’s how to mix Ableton vocals from start to finish. Check out my vocal category here on Music Guy Mixing for a lot more tips on getting the most important element of your mix in the vocal sounding perfect every time.