Al Calderon Pop Mix

SpeakerSonic

Al Calderon came in just over a week ago to sing his parts for his first cover release, Sarah Smiles by Hall and Oats. We captured a pretty exciting performance from the young pop star and now its time to mix it down and make it sound just right.

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The reference materials I received were also pretty sparse in production. One was a guitar and vocal Alicia Keys - Brand New Me (Carly Rose Sonenclar Cover), the other a piano and vocal "Breakeven"- The Script (Max Schneider (MAX) and Kurt Schneider cover). I'm really glad we went with the Wurlitzer electric piano sound, as I find it to have so much more character than those other single instruments. It also has kind of a nod to my favorite style of music, Soul music. 

I went thru Ben Pagano's smooth Wurlitzer performance and evened out the levels a bit. I added a pinch of compression and a small amount of delay on one side of the stereo image to give a bit of depth and to leave room in the center for Al's voice.

Soft Vocal on Top/Louder Vocal on Bottom

On Al's voice, I went in and literally drew up the dips in volume and drew down the peaks of his vocal performance. You'll always want compression on a pop vocal to bring up those quips and characteristics that the singers have. The problem with compression is that if you use too much it takes away the dynamics. So you compress some and then ride the fader a bit to bring up the soft, and bring down the peaks. Here's a pic of the Waveforms with and without the automation. As mentioned before, I split the vocal onto two tracks in order to effect them differently.

Vocal Volume Automation

Effecting the vocals is always tricky on such a clean and sparse track. You want the singers voice to be upfront and you don't want to hear any artifacts. Artifacts are fake sounding reverberations or reflections. I chose a Warm Vocal Plate and messed around with the characteristics until it felt just right. I noticed in the reference material that the vocals were very effected but the effect didn't last with the decay of the singers voice. It ended to leave some open space in the performance. I deduced that this was most likely a gate that quickens the decay without changing the tone and shape of the reverb. I had never used such a thing on a singer before but once I put it after the reverb on the bus channel, it worked like a charm. The reverb swelled in and out with the loudness of the performance and that was it! I also automated a touch of Hall reverb on two long spaces where it seemed a little reverb tail was needed. It sounds natural, and gives a roundness to the overall vocal.

Al and I spoke about it this morning. We're both happy with the outcome. The best part is his performance. The song has an arc and tells a story not only with the great lyrics, but also with his terrific vocal performance.

I fully expect this track to get about a million views on YouTube. Can you imagine? I also expect this track to get listened to by industry folks making big decisions on Al Calderon's career. He's on the move. He's currently shooting a movie with some big hitters which I'm not privy to tell you about, but it's kind of a big deal.