What did you try to cover with this collection of presets?
Martin: Long story short: everything. It has your typical bread and butter presets, but also more FX-heavy stuff. Since the first Lead Vocals EZmix pack came out a couple of years ago, we’ve also included a lot more plugins under the EZmix hood. It’s always fun to work with new gear, and you’ll inevitably come up with new and fresh results that way. We’ve tried to cater to as many genres, needs and mix-type situation as we could think of.
Ulf: Mixing vocals is often about body and clarity and bringing them forward. Then adding the effects you want depending on the style. I think this pack reflects that. It ranges from basic processing like compression and EQ to some problem solving and effect-oriented signal chains.

Was it hard to come up with 50 unique setting specifically for lead vocals?
Martin: No. There’s an infinite number of ways you can mix a track, and you usually end up with a lot more than 50 presets in the process of making a pack. The hard part is choosing what goes in the final product.
Ulf: On the contrary. I’d say it’s harder to narrow it down. We are constantly adding tools to EZmix and it’s fascinating how much it can do.

Tell us briefly how an EZmix preset is made. What actually goes into the process?
Martin: An EZmix preset contains pretty much all the typical things that goes into crafting a vocal sound. There are signal chains of EQs, compression, reverbs, delays and a whole lot more, within each of the 50 presets. Some presets are more basic with EQ and compression, while others are far more complex. A lot of attention goes into assigning the control knobs as well. If you have a knob that says “Compression”, it might not only adjust parameters of a compressor but also do things with EQ to ensure it sounds good no matter how much or little compression you decide on. For a “Reverb” control, we may for example make the De-Esser work a bit harder the more reverb you add. So there’s all that stuff that the user doesn’t see but that we spent a lot of time on in production.

You are both engineers and mix music on a frequent basis. How do you personally use EZmix 2 and how does it help in your creative process?
Martin: I am a frequent user of EZmix 2. The sort of presets I tend to gravitate towards are usually guitar amps, and also drum and master bus presets. It’s just so fast and easy. Using EZmix 2 helps me concentrate on the creative part of songwriting and production. Instead of getting stuck with comparing different amps, EQs and compressors, I get to focus on finishing my song.
Ulf: I’m also a songwriter and guitar player. When I’m composing and making demos, EZmix 2 helps me to speed up my workflow and lets me focus on the music. As a guitar player with an ever-growing selection of amplifiers, I still use the amp models in EZmix 2 a lot because it saves time, sounds like I want it to and gives me a bigger palette of sounds.