Double-click your preferred digital audio workstation; examples include Pro Tools, Logic or Reason.
Open the required song session. The method for doing this varies slightly depending on which program you use, but you typically click “File,” “Recent” and then make your selection from the drop-down options.
Click the “S” icon on each channel containing vocals. This solos these vocal tracks, muting everything else.
Hit “Play” so you can hear the effects of mixing in real-time.
Adjust the “Gain” slider dials for each of the vocal tracks, using the mouse pointer. Set the lead vocal highest. If the red warning light flashes, this means the vocals are boosted too high and will be distorted. Aim for the loudest possible gain setting that doesn’t trigger distortion. This way you get a loud, clean vocal. The gap between the loudest gain setting and distortion is called “headroom.” Rock vocals are typically pushed to their maximum levels and therefore typically have little or no headroom. This makes them sound very powerful.
Set the backing and harmony vocals to approximately 70 percent of the lead vocals.The first step in mixing is to balance the levels of the different vocal tracks relative to one another.
Click on the first vocal track. In typical digital audio workstations, the tracks are laid out vertically, so start with the top one.
Click “Send To” and select “Bus 1." In audio, a bus is a group mixer channel. By sending all of the vocal tracks to a bus mixer, you can control them all with one set of controls. You can also add effects to the vocals collectively. This process is called submixing.
Send the remaining vocals to “Bus 1.”
Click on “Bus 1” to highlight it.
Open a reverb effect. The method for doing so varies slightly, but you typically click “Effects,” “Reverb” and then select your preferred reverb plugin from the menu.
Set the “Depth” setting to approximately 40 percent. Reverb is an echo-type effect that approximates the sound of an acoustically-rich environment, such as a cave or cathedral. Adding reverb to your vocals will give them ambiance and make them sound fuller. Rock vocals rarely lack reverb.
Open an equalizer plugin in the same way you opened the reverb plugin. Equalizers let you cut and boost frequencies to enhance the tone of a sound.
Cut all frequencies below 90 Hz by 1dB and boost the 12 KHz range by 1.5dB. To cut and boost specific frequencies, move the relevant slider dial up or down. The slider dials are marked so you can see which frequency ranges they govern. By cutting and boosting these frequencies, you remove some of the dullness from the vocal and can add a little “bite” by boosting the high frequencies. This will enable the rock vocal to cut through the heavy rock mix.