CompressionДЇor example, the instrumental may be highly compressed, and your vocal may be very dynamic. The idea is to make the vocal sound like it belongs with the instrumental. Once the vocal is in a good place on itвЂ™s own, there comes the game of вЂњmatchingвЂќ it to the instrumental. Since the information on vocal treatment is covered elsewhere, IвЂ™m going to focus on working the vocals with the instrumental, and treating the instrumental. There are some great tutorials for this right here on the site. Get the vocals sounding the best you can on their own. We need to approach this mix with the forethought of compensating for whatever quality the instrumental is coming in as вЂ“ highly compressed, mp3, possibly in mono, the list goes on.Д«ut first thingвЂ™s first. By this token вЂ“ the louder the instrumental вЂ“ the quieter the end mix.

In fact, the first thing one has to do is turn the instrumental down in volume significantly in order to make anything work. The issue is that if the track is exceedingly dense, there is no room for the vocal. After a certain point, loudnessВ can only be achieved by increasing the density of the record, rather than the volume. The challenge here is that loudnessВ isnвЂ™t as simple as turning the level up. The InstrumentalДЄ pre-mixed instrumental is probably somewhat compressed (or, sometimes highly compressed). Because Hip Hop producers mix their tracks with this intention, thereвЂ™s a unique set of skills that comes into play for throwing vocals into the mix. On rare occasion that vocal and instrumental would be released as the actual song.В In Hip Hop, this is fairly common, and comes with the intention of the combined vocal and instrumental being the final release. The idea of recording vocals to a mixed down instrumental has been around for decades.

Mixing vocals to pre-mixed instrumental is an issue that just about every engineer will encounter.

How to mix vocals with instrumentals