How to process vocals like Jaycen Joshua for artists like The Weeknd

Jaycen Joshua is a Grammy award-winning producer working alongside the biggest artists in the world such as Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Wiz Khalifa, Justin Timberlake, etc. His rise to the top can be specified as hard work for years until he reached the highest level. His experience in mixing & mastering, starting in 2004, is already being shared with the rest of the world through platforms like Mix With The Masters. Also, there are many podcasts & seminars where he explains his go-to processing tools for mixing & mastering. We’ve made a list down below of the plugins Jaycen Joshua uses while processing vocals when it comes to artists like The Weeknd.

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Kirit Nakka is a mixing engineer and producer who shares music production secrets on his Instagram page, called Mixedin4k, about artists such as Drake, Lil Baby, and of course The Weeknd. In these short tutorials, he explains which plugins are being used for a particular artist’s vocal chain. His source of information will probably be numerous podcasts and seminars from these artists. Down below, you’ll find a summary of the plugins Jaycen Joshua uses on Abel’s voice, in order:

• FabFilter Pro Q3: A High-Pass filter cutting off at 50Hz will be applied to remove unwanting low frequencies. A Low Shelf will be added at around 300 Hz that will control the rumble/muddiness. This will result in a vocal that’s more present. Perfect for Abel’s voice as his voice is naturally higher up in the frequency spectrum.
• RVox Compressor: Waves’ RVox compression tool will make sure that the vocal will be leveled out overall, catching the most prominent peaks. On the other hand, he probably uses the compressor as a gate effect to cut away any unwanting artifacts.
• McDSP MC2000 Multi-Band Compressor: This compressor is an emulation of multiple vintage and modern compressors. The MC202, MC303, and MC404 compressors will be combined and work together. The different parts of the vocal will be controlled separately through a total of 4 bands. He makes sure that every aspect of the vocal will be fully appreciated.
• Slate Digital Fresh Air: Set the amount of both the Mid & High air effects to minimal. This will add just a bit of reverb to the high end of the vocal.
• Waves CLA-76 compressor/Limiter: This compressor will be used as a parallel compressor, in order to compress the vocal in a certain way. He brings the original sound back which leads to a more thicker and prominent sounding sound.
• Waves H-Delay: Adding a delay at a certain rate will add movement to the vocal and it will fill in the gaps.
• Valhalla Vintage Verb: At last, he uses this reverb to smoothen out the delay effect and add a wavey shine on top of the vocal.

Have a look at all the plugins here.

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Image Credits: Mix With The Masters