Gain More Atmos Vocal Punch With Revoice Pro – Chris Heil

When growing up, Chris Heil learnt the guitar, flute and bass before playing in various bands. After assisting his cousin running front-of-house for a local samba group, he soon took his newly acquired knowledge back to the rehearsal room and started making demos. By the time the 1980’s swung around, he became competent at running a studio and that marked the end of school and the beginning of his working life!

“I was lucky because the studio owner didn´t wanna do a black metal album that was scheduled to happen six weeks later. So he told me I could do the album provided I could operate the equipment by the time the band came through the door. It was a Trident Series 80 desk, a Lyrec 532 2” 24-track tape recorder with Lexicon and EMT reverb’s. The album was great fun to make although I´m sure it sounded like hell!”

Heil has worked with the likes of David Bowie, Bryan Adams, Faithless, Cliff Richard, BB King and many other great artists. But he didn't get into the recording industry for fame and fortune.

“If you wanna get into this game for the girls, you´ve come to the right place - although the industry is largely about dedication, precision and being meticulous. It is an extremely physical business. You work insane hours on your toes, plus it takes a long time to get half-decent at the job and there are no guarantees you even will. If you´re planning on having a family or a lasting relationship, forget it. If you care for any form of social life, forget it. Prepare to be disassociated from society for the most part of your career. If that sounds acceptable to you, then welcome to the real world of record making!” 

In 2014, Heil was asked to mix an album in Dolby Atmos. He hadn’t tried this before but relished the challenge.

“Mixing music in 3D is a very intense matter since you have to learn to listen in ways that you´re not used to. I had learned to pay attention to what´s happening to the left and right in front of me, so listening to what´s happening up above and to the left is something I had to get acquainted with. The routing and operation is also rather complex and takes some getting used to.”

But did he decide to completely abandon mixing in stereo or surround, and how does he integrate tools such as Revoice Pro into the vocal editing process?

“Once you´ve worked in Dolby Atmos, you don´t wanna go back to listening to music in such a crippled way, which stereo seems in comparison. 3D space makes you hear every detail, and all the little mistakes in timing and tuning that get washed away in stereo become painfully apparent. Also, when you have hundreds of backing vocal tracks, the differences in timing and phrasing make you go nuts. I'm really thankful that ReVoice Pro came onto the scene. Before starting the actual mix, I now use it to make sure all tracks are nicely aligned, and the same goes for lead guitars or brass. I would even go as far as saying that fixing the timing of your tracks makes a bigger difference in punch than the choice of any equipment you´re using. Go to Revoice Pro, then everything will be alright!

I used Revoice Pro recently on Michael Schenker’s Temple of Rock ‘Live in Madrid’ release - specifically to tighten the two guitarists as well as for vocals/ backing vocals on Lichtmond’s ‘The Journey’ album - both mixed in Dolby Atmos. I always use the APT when aligning 2nd or 3rd voices (leaving their original pitch untouched) or, when using tightly-timed unison vocals (stacked choirs), because when you have 100+ tracks of choir, you wanna get them super-tight. As for the actual process, I just round-trip my tracks to Revoice Pro, get them tweaked in the necessary fashion, and then back into Pro Tools they go!”

Find out more about Chris Heil here. 

For downloads and more information on getting the best from using Revoice Pro, click this link and select your DAW.