Double-click the desktop icon for the digital audio workstation to which the vocals were recorded.
Click the “S” icon on each of the vocal channels. “S” stands for “solo.” By soloing the vocal channels, you mute all of the instrumentation, enabling you to better analyze the vocals.
Hit “Play” so you can your mix adjustments in real-time.
Move the virtual fader dial for the lead vocal upward. When the red volume units meter light begins to flash, stop moving it. The light flashes when the level is too high and it is creating distortion. For the lead vocal, set the level as high as possible before distortion.
Set the level of the backing and harmony vocals to approximately 70 percent of the level of the main vocal. Naturally, the exact level is a matter of preference, but backing vocals must not be as loud as the lead vocal.
Click on the lead vocal channel to highlight it. Click the “Send” tab on the channel strip and select “Bus 1.” In audio mixing, a bus is a group mixer channel.
Send each subsequent channel to “Bus 1.” By routing all of the vocals to the same channel, you can control their collective volume relative to the rest of the audio using a single slider. You can also add effects to the group, rather than the individual vocals for a more cohesive sound. This process is called submixing.
Click on “Bus 1” to highlight it. This assigns subsequent edits to this channel only, rather than the mix as a whole.
Open the “Equalizer” effect. Exact methods vary slightly according to which digital audio workstation you use, but this is typically located in the “Effects” menu. The equalizer enables you to boost and cut frequencies in the vocal to enhance the overall tone.
Click on and drag the equalizer curve. The curve is superimposed on a grid. The vertical axis represents amplitude and the horizontal axis represents frequency. By dragging the curve around, you can enhance or mute certain frequencies. Once you hit a “sweet-spot,” where the position of the curve makes the vocals sound good, stop moving and double-click the curve. This sets the selected frequencies at the select amplitude. Repeat this process three or four times to tease out the most pleasing frequencies in the grouped vocal recordings.