Vocal channel strip audio plugins promise to consolidate all the ingredients for the best sound into one place. With a number of big name mixers injecting their wisdom into this form factor, we look at one solution that gives an invaluable glimpse into the mind of its creator.

Building Blocks

A great vocal begins with a great performance, and ends with the right tools used appropriately. Like so many things in audio engineering, sympathetic production can involve a largely hands-off approach with the right artist, but nevertheless the gear exists to make any performance the best it can be.

Using a number of different processes to get a record-ready sound is nothing new. Beginning with basic filtering, shelving, and compression, the modern vocal chain has evolved into multi-processor workouts that enhance even the finest performances, with advanced spectral and dynamic processes available for forensic vocal surgery if needed.

In the pre DAW age, at its simplest this meant choosing the box or boxes as a chain and inserting them across the console channel carrying the vocal. If this sounds familiar, it’s because this is the MO on which the DAW workflow is now based, with insert choice, parametrisation, and order of operation all still there, except with recall and zero-maintenance!

Channel Strips

Hardware channel strips are available, derived from console or rack-based channel modules, with some units offering a vocal-specific flavour. While these can provide great value and compactness, they cannot offer the flexibility of the ‘building block’ approach favoured by pros who honed their craft in large-format studios.

Audio plugins lend themselves well to the channel strip form. Not only is it easy for the user to pick their ‘flavour’, but also it allows developers to work with ‘name’ mixers willing to share their wisdom. The best of these can distil many years of hard-won ways of working that would be largely impossible to recreate by others, even assuming access to the original equipment.

T-RackS Joe Chiccarelli Vocal Strip

IK Multimedia’s T-RackS Joe Chiccarelli Vocal Strip (JCVS) is the company’s recreation of a signal chain from the mind of its multi-Grammy award-winning namesake. Joe’s discography is testament to his commitment to getting world-class vocal sounds, and JCVS’ ability to recreate this is confirmed by his genuine enthusiasm for it in IK Multimedia’s promo video. It has been designed to provide an authentic way to replicate Joe’s unique method of combining compressors and optimising processor routing for a highly flexible approach to vocal production. When we asked Joe, he elaborated:

“The plug in is designed as a parallel processor with the Wet control in the full clockwise position. You could think of it as a Vocal on an analog console bussed out to three different compressors on channel strips, balanced to taste, and then blended back into the stereo buss along with the uncompressed vocal.”

T-RackS Joe Chiccarelli Vocal Strip features in full:

• Joe Chiccarelli’s complete vocal chain in a single plug-in

• Exact models of 3 iconic compressors working in parallel

• Unique analog parallel workflow offers incredible versatility

• Includes optimized De-esser, EQ and custom effects section

• Ideal for all music genres and vocal styles

• Includes a variety of presets designed specifically by Chiccarelli

• Offers controls that are easy to use and fully automatable

• Works as a single plug-in or inside T-RackS 5

Signal Flow

The GUI generally follows a left to right signal flow, with the exception of the three parallel compressors to the right of the input section.

1. At this point the signal is split three ways for processing before being summed into the EQ feeding into the effects blocks before the output stage.

2. The EQ pre/post switch toggles operation upstream or downstream of the compression block

3. The output stage’s Dry/Wet dial mixes between unprocessed and post-dynamics/EQ. The dry component is tapped post-input and pre dynamics/EQ, whereas the Wet component is tapped permanently pre-effects block for consistent reverb and delay levels.

The Ultimate Ear-Break?

All engineers would concede that a great vocal sound comes from the right performance, combined with appropriately steered mix processing to get results regardless of what it says on the tin. However, most have their favourite way of working, and for some that happens to involve some seriously revered boxes that are not always easy to come by.

No audio plugin, whether stock, paid, or big-name endorsed one-offs can be a magic bullet for a great sound. For the professional with a handle on what they want to achieve and how to get there, such tools could be considered redundant, however they can still serve a different purpose. That is to get an extra insight on another’s approach, in the spirit of looking over their shoulder as a way to evolve our own methods.

When the quality and MO of a tool is already taken care of, removing choice-paralysis and moving on is always preferable. Understanding tools such as the JCVS is to gain extra insight and to think differently from time-to-time, and that’s as good as an ear-break.