
Nolly Getgood’s Periphery Vocal Power: Smart Vocal Rider Automation
Nail The Mix Staff
Getting that "in-your-face" vocal sound, especially in a dense modern metal mix like Periphery's, is a serious challenge. You've got layers of vocals, screaming guitars, and thunderous drums all fighting for space. So, how do guys like Adam "Nolly" Getgood make Spencer Sotelo's vocals sit perfectly upfront without getting buried or sounding squashed? Part of the answer lies in a clever approach to an often-debated tool: the vocal rider plugin.
Forget the "set it and forget it" mentality. Nolly leverages vocal riders not as a magic fix, but as a powerful automation assistant. Let's dive into how he tames Periphery's complex vocal arrangements and gets them consistently powerful.
The Modern Metal Vocal Onslaught: Taming the Layers
Modern metal, and Periphery is a prime example, often features intricate vocal arrangements. We're talking lead vocals, doubles, harmonies, gang shouts – all stacked up. While this creates a massive sound, it also presents a mixing headache:
- Volume Creep: As more vocal layers come in, the overall vocal level can skyrocket, potentially overwhelming the mix or hitting compressors too hard.
- Inconsistent Dynamics: Different takes and layers will naturally have varying levels, leading to an uneven vocal performance if left untouched.
Sure, you could spend hours manually drawing in fader rides for every single vocal track. Or, you could slap a heavy compressor on the vocal bus, but that often comes with unwanted compression artifacts and a loss of natural dynamics. Nolly’s method offers a more transparent and efficient starting point.
Rethinking the Rider: Nolly's "Vocal Flattening" Secret Weapon
Enter the vocal rider plugin (like the well-known Waves Vocal Rider). Now, Nolly acknowledges that these plugins sometimes get a bad rap. Some engineers feel they’re a crutch or can sound unnatural if misused. But, as with any tool, it’s all about how you use it.
Nolly doesn’t just insert it and hope for the best. He uses it primarily as a "vocal flattening device." The goal is to even out the overall level of the combined vocal tracks before they hit any bus compression, and to do so without introducing the color or artifacts of a compressor. It’s like having an incredibly fast assistant riding the fader for you.
Dialing It In: Sensitivity is Key
The crucial first step is setting the plugin up correctly. Nolly emphasizes getting the sensitivity just right. You want the plugin's virtual fader to hover around the 0dB mark most of the time.
- If it’s constantly pulling the level down drastically, you might get weird volume spikes when the vocals re-enter after a silent passage. The fader snaps back to zero during silence, and then takes a moment to react and pull the next phrase down, causing an initial loud burst.
- The aim is subtle adjustments, often just a dB or so, especially when handling those moments where vocal doubles and harmonies kick in, causing a natural volume boost.
He’s not typically using the sidechain input to make the vocal sit against the whole mix at this stage. Instead, it’s about internally balancing the vocal stack itself.
The Game Changer: Writing Automation, Not Just Riding Live
This is where Nolly’s technique really diverges from common vocal rider usage. Instead of leaving the plugin to react in real-time throughout the mix, he writes its fader movements as automation data directly to the track.
Here’s the gist:
- Place the vocal rider plugin on your main vocal bus or the track group containing all your vocals.
- Set the plugin’s output fader parameter to "Write" mode in your DAW.
- Set the corresponding automation lane on your track to "Touch" or "Write."
- Play through the song (or the section you're working on).
The plugin will now "draw" all its fader movements onto the automation lane. You'll literally see the automation curve being created in real-time.
Sculpting the Performance: Post-Automation Editing is Crucial
Once the automation is written, Nolly typically sets the plugin to "Read" mode or even bypasses it. The fader movements are now baked into the track's automation, no longer being actively generated by the plugin.
This is vital because the raw, plugin-generated automation isn't always perfect. Nolly then dives in to manually refine it:
- Cleaning Up Ramps: Plugins can sometimes create odd, swooping ramps at the very beginning or end of phrases. These often get deleted or smoothed out.
- Taming Breaths: Vocal riders can interpret breaths as quiet audio they need to boost. Nolly often goes back and manually attenuates these boosted breaths, as you typically want breaths to be quieter, not louder.
- Addressing Discrepancies: Sometimes the plugin might pull down a section too much or not enough. For example, if stacked doubles have a significant dynamic shift within a phrase (like going from soft to loud), the rider might overcompensate on the loud part, pulling down the lead vocal too much. These areas require manual tweaking of the written automation.
It might sound like work, and it is, but it’s significantly faster than drawing every single nuanced fader movement from scratch for multiple vocal layers. It provides an excellent, dynamically consistent starting point.
Layering On Top: The Freedom to Mix Creatively
With the foundational leveling automation written and edited, you now have a solid base. The beauty of this approach is that you can now make broader, creative mixing decisions without the vocal rider plugin fighting your moves.
For instance, Nolly mentioned that in one Periphery chorus, the rider, while evening things out, made the lead vocal feel a bit buried. Because the rider's "intelligence" was now just static automation data, he could simply automate the lead vocal track's main fader up by 1.5dB for that chorus. The previously written detailed automation would still play back, preserving the micro-dynamics, but the overall level of the lead vocal was now lifted as desired.
This method allows you to maintain the relative balance you’ve crafted between vocal layers while ensuring the entire vocal package stays pinned and present in the mix. It can even subtly enhance effects, like bringing up the tail of a delay or reverb at the end of a phrase as it tries to keep the level consistent.
Why This Beats a Limiter for Vocal Leveling
You might think, "Why not just use a limiter on the vocal bus?" While limiters have their place, using one for primary vocal leveling, especially on dense stacks, can quickly lead to a squashed, lifeless sound. A limiter will aggressively clamp down on peaks, altering the transient information and potentially introducing audible distortion as multiple vocal layers sum together and hit the threshold.
Nolly's fader-riding automation approach, on the other hand, is far more transparent. It's just volume changes – like a meticulous engineer riding the fader. This preserves the natural dynamics and character of the vocal performance much more effectively.
It’s a Process, Not a Preset
Nolly is clear: this vocal rider automation technique isn't a magic bullet. It’s a sophisticated way to handle one aspect of complex vocal production. As he pointed out regarding the Periphery III NTM session, these tracks, even when prepped this way, still require further detailed work—careful EQ to carve space and add clarity, compression for character, and all the other elements that go into a pro mix.
This technique is about creating a super solid, dynamically even foundation for your vocals, saving you time and allowing you to focus on the more creative aspects of mixing. It's a prime example of how pro mixers adapt tools to fit their workflow and achieve stellar results.
Want to see how Nolly Getgood and other world-class producers tackle these kinds of mixing challenges from start to finish? At Nail The Mix, you get to be a fly on the wall. Every month, members receive the actual multitracks from massive songs (like those from Periphery!) and watch the original producer mix the song from scratch, explaining every plugin, every fader move, and every creative decision. If you're serious about taking your heavy music productions to the next level, it's time to unlock your sound beyond presets and learn directly from the best in the business.
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