Metal Vocal Processing Techniques

Metal engineers have been using this "secret sauce" known as analog saturation, or emulation, to take every element of their mix to the next level. Here is how we can utilize it on scream vocals.

The plugin used in this example is Soundtoys Decapitator, one of the best commercial analog saturator plugins on the market. However similar effects can be achieved with Camel Crusher, one of the best freeware saturator/compressor plugins out there.

Any tube or tape style saturation works for this application, the trick is finding a good one that you can really push without having it sound like garbage. Always saturate screams, even if just a little bit to take some "digital polish" off of them, they will sit more naturally in your mix against the distorted guitars and bass.

Step 1: Record a good screamer. Step 2: Process the recording. EQ > Compression > Compression > Limiting > Secret Sauce > Slappy Delay > Short Reverb Step 3: Add decapitator. Step 4: Enjoy how fat and warm and round the vocals are.

Tip:

Camel Crusher is an awesome freeware tube saturator/compressor for this sort of application.Download link is in the video description Happy coloring!