What Order Should Vocal Plugins Go In? My Real Chain

Real Answers · Meshplugins.com

A vocal chain is simply your vocal processing in a specific order — and the order is where everyone goes wrong. Here's mine, step by step, and why each stage sits where it sits.

Everything here depends on your source — the mic, the room, the performance. But let's take the averaged, battle-tested skeleton. First though: learn what signal flow is. It's the foundation this whole article stands on, and it's covered in depth, with settings and short processing videos, in my Vocal Chain Bible.

Stage 1: manual work (the stage everyone skips)

Before any plugin: edit by hand. Cut out noises and clicks, add fades, trim the silence so it doesn't jump out later when compression brings the floor up. This is unglamorous and it's what separates clean sessions from muddy ones.

Then clip gain — manually leveling the vocal so the whole take sits at roughly one volume. While you're there, pull down the harsh sibilants by hand: every “s” you tame with clip gain is work your de-esser won't have to do later.

Stage 2: tuning

After the manual pass comes the melodic side — Melodyne or Auto-Tune to straighten the pitch. Tuning goes early, before the tone shaping: you want every later plugin reacting to the corrected note, not the wobbly one.

Stage 3: the eternal debate - EQ or compressor first?

My take: cut the junk first, then even it out. I cut the unnecessary low end and any frequencies I don't like, and if the recording needs it, I'll engage a de-esser — gently, never squeezing so hard the esses turn into a lisp. Then comes compression, working on a signal that's already clean. Compressing first means the compressor slams hardest on exactly the mud you were about to cut anyway.

Stage 4: bring it back to life

Compression takes something — so after it I add saturation, which compensates the lost energy and colors the frequency response a little. Then, if the voice needs air, a coloring EQ to lift the highs. This cut-squeeze-saturate-color sequence is the heart of nearly every chain I've collected.

Stage 5: space - on sends only

Reverb and delay live on send channels (aux), never inserts. Sends give you real control: over the effect amount, and over the effects themselves — you can EQ, duck or distort the reverb without touching the dry vocal.

And that's the honest answer to “what order”: there's a skeleton, but Travis Scott's chain is not Dua Lipa's chain. If you want the actual 88 — original settings, presets and the exact processing from the engineers behind Travis Scott, Drake, Christina Aguilera, Dua Lipa and many more — that's exactly what the Vocal Chain Bible is.

Steal the exact chains

I interviewed 100+ Grammy-winning producers and engineers and collected 88 real vocal chains — exact plugins, hardware, signal order and settings, from the people behind Travis Scott, Drake, Christina Aguilera, Dua Lipa and many more. Presets and short processing videos included.

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Get the Vocal Chain Bible →

FAQ

What order should vocal plugins go in?

A proven order: manual cleanup and clip gain first, then tuning (Auto-Tune or Melodyne), then subtractive EQ, gentle de-essing if needed, compression, saturation, a coloring EQ for air - and delay and reverb on send channels at the very end.

Should EQ go before or after the compressor?

Cut the junk first, then compress. If you compress first, the compressor reacts hardest to the exact frequencies you were about to remove. Cut lows and problem areas, then even out the dynamics.

Why use clip gain before compression?

Manually leveling the vocal so everything sits at roughly the same volume means the compressor works gently and consistently instead of slamming the loud phrases. You can also manually lower sibilants so the de-esser barely has to work.

Where should reverb and delay go in a vocal chain?

On send (aux) channels, not inserts. Sends give you separate control over the effect level and let you process the effects themselves without touching the dry vocal.

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Who's behind this

Ivan Meshcheriakov · IvanFromRnD

5+ years ago I moved to LA with zero connections and started building from nothing — 14-hour days, meeting people and interning at studios. It took me 5+ years to meet and interview 100+ Grammy-winning engineers — then I turned it all into the Vocal Chain Bible.

Read my full story →