Help a wack producer, please:D

[tyghe]

So yeah what's up, long story short, me and my friends recently formed a band (or more like a group of singers 'cause we don't play any instruments) and the issue is of course music production, vocal mixing to be specific. I'm the one that's the closest to this stuff out of all of us - and that's sad because I suck at it. The top of my experience is just messing around in fl studio. Let's just consider me an absolute beginner.
In the future, we'd like to work with a professional producer but for now, there's no option but to produce our vocals ourselves. Here's my question(s):
Any advice on what to work with? I know I should probably do some tuning in case of off-tune sounds, then play around with eq and compression, then maybe some effects like distortion, reverb, delay and stuff? Do you know any decent plugins, preferably free or reasonably priced?
Also, is there any trick on how to make the vocals fit to the beat better or do you just have to achieve it with the steps above, one by one, listening to what sounds best with the music?
 

I'd be happy to hear your advices if you got some. If you don't, I'd prefer you don't just go criticizing that I can't make good stuff as a beginner. 'Cause I believe that when you make a hundred attempts, the 99 might fail but there's still gon be the one successful. That's the reason why I'm asking for help on here in the first place.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE GUYS!

[Mahesh]

An important aspect for all instruments to sit well in the mix is using a good room reverb. Room reverbs are very short reverb effects with small decay times generally used to give a color to the entire mix. Basically it's a digital way to mimic the sound of all the instruments being performed and recorded in the same room at the same time as if it's a live performance.

 

With vocals,

 

• Make sure it is recorded nice and dry with not much ambient noise or reverb from the recording space itself. It helps to have a clean recording to as much an extent as possible but especially when you are in a home studio situation.
• Handle the noise generated by the plosives and hard consonants like P, T, S etc with a good pop filter but also a good clean up process using a de-esser plugins and compressors (EQ compressors with parametric filters can basically compress certain specific frequency ranges, you can choose to handle it that way as well if you can get handy)
• If you have multiple vocal layers, double tracking every vocal harmony can add a nice lush quality to it that works great on harmonies that use lighter vocal registers.

 

With respect to plugins

 

• First off, explore other DAWs. FL Studio is a powerful beast but it might not be the most suitable choice for recording and producing unless your music is heavily influenced by electronic music. (Now, I know that some would disagree with me on this and I would concede to someone who is very experienced in using it to make that case).
• Reaper is a great start! I personally do everything on Logic Pro X. I'm a fan of Studio One too. So there's a lot out there that might serve to be more intuitive and easy to learn, you've just got to submit yourself to the exploration process. Think of it as an investment for the long run
• The reason for my previous point is for the plugins. Generally, the stock plugins that come with these DAWs are very solid! Whether it be compressors, EQs, reverbs, delays or even pitch correction tools for those needing it, the stock plugins on all the DAWs I mentioned work pretty swell.
• I would start here. Yes. There are many good plugins out there but I would explore that out of necessity instead of "just seeing if it'll make my track sound good". This re-orients your understanding of why the plugins are being used and how they work. Believe me, if you're someone who's looking to stick around with this music thing like many of us here, this advice will save you a lot of time. The kind of musical pallet out there is just over saturated and many have lost the idea of what 'clean' is supposed to sound like.

 

With mixing

 

• Be very open to having one or more reference tracks that sound similar to the vision you have for your song. This could be specific tracks that could be the kind of drum sound you're looking for or the vocal texture. etc. It could also be a song or more that describes the larger vision for the overall production. I'm not suggesting you copy the exact sound (besides, trying to with the limited tools we generally have might end up in failure). Instead it gives you an idea of why something sounds good to your ears. It expands your vocabulary of what sounds good and what doesn't. It also keeps you informed of what's out there.
• Be organized. Color code your tracks. Vocals can be violet, guitars can be green and so on. You can set up your color code. Some tend to laze on this but you know, I look at productivity as a means to save up time and mental effort. These habits for example, color coding the tracks unleashes a very visual way of interacting with your song which simply speeds the process things up.
• My advice - all the fancy plugins and the DAWs are merely tools used for the actual goal, a great song! The more efficient you are in using these tools, the less you will be tied to it and the better off you'll be as a musician.

 

I hope that serves you in some way. Good luck!