Mixing In Pro Tools - A Beginner's Guide

Now bring the vocals into the mix. The first thing you'll notice is that the vocals sound very uncontrolled. This is where a compressor is needed.

Bring a compressor into the inserts. Select the "Vocal Levelor" preset. This preset is made to allow the vocals to remain lively and dynamic while still controlling them within the mix, and keeping them from dominating the overall sound.

Bring the vocals up until they're a comfortable level where you can hear them clearly. You'll notice that there's a lot of low-end build up (I recorded the vocals on a Neumann TLM 103, a bass-heavy microphone). Add the 4-band EQ again, and slowly remove bring down the low end around 88hz. You might also want to add a tiny bit of mid-range at 2khz to help with clarity.

Now that the vocals are processed, let's look at bringing the other instruments into the mix and balancing them all out to make a brilliant finished product.