Vocal Verb Setup
Before we jump to the fader ride though, let’s set up the ambience and time based effects for our current lead vocal. This will help us keep our vocal ride in it’s proper audio context with the rest of the mix. Let’s create a couple of Aux Input tracks for our Vox Verb and Vox Delay tracks. Name them accordingly. Next, go into your IO setup and name the next two free stereo buses to Vox Verb and Vox Delay as well.
MPM017 - Make 2 new Stereo Auxes
MPM018 - Rename two stereo buses in the IO setup for vox verb & vox delay.
Now, let’s solo safe these returns using the same Cmd-click/Ctrl-click you used previously, so that when we solo our lead vocal, it’s effects returns will not be muted. Route the outputs of both the Vox Verb & Vox Delay tracks to the Vocals bus we set up earlier.
MPM021 - Set both track outputs to the Vocals bus.
Now lets pick our plugins. Really, despite the bad rap it gets from so many people, Digi’s DVerb plugin really doesn’t sound bad for just adding a touch of ambience to a variety of different instruments. Since it doesn’t take up too much CPU, and just to prove to you that mixing is more about properly using the tools you’ve got, rather than having to have the best of everything, we’re going to put it on the Vox Verb Aux track. For the Vox Delay track, let’s drop on Digi’s Extra Long Delay. Much like the differences in various headache medications, a simply “long” delay will never do when you have the option of “extra” available. I’m really holding out for a “maximum strength” delay in a future release.
MPM022 & MPM023 - Adding DVerb & the Extra Long Delay