Mixing vocals used to be a marathon. I'd spend HOURS stacking EQs, compressors, reverb, de-essers, saturation, and delays—then tweaking each one until my CPU begged for mercy. Every session felt like rebuilding the same engine from scratch.
That all changed when I discovered Vocal Marinade.
This plugin didn’t just speed up my workflow—it completely replaced my entire vocal chain.
My Old Chain (AKA The Chaos)
Before Vocal Marinade, here’s what my go-to vocal chain looked like:
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EQ (Surgical) – High-pass filtering, harsh frequency cuts
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Compressor 1 – Fast attack for control
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De-Esser – Tame harsh sibilance
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Compressor 2 – Slower glue compression
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Saturation – Add warmth or edge
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Reverb – Create space
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Delay – Add vibe
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Stereo Widener – Make it feel bigger
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Limiter – Final polish
That’s 8–10 plugins minimum, per vocal track.
nter: Vocal Marinade
Now I open one plugin—Vocal Marinade—and I’ve got all those effects baked in.
It includes:
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Dynamic EQ & Tone shaping
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Dual Compression Modes
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Reverb & Delay with dialed-in timing
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Saturation, "Marinade" effect
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Panning
The best part? It’s all wrapped in a simple interface with hand-picked presets from pros like Landon Tewers (The Plot in You), Waynewood, and myself (JavyDade).
Real-World Results
I tested Vocal Marinade on a recent track and compared it to my old chain. Here's what happened:
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Mix time dropped by 70%
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CPU usage was cut in half
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The mix sounded tighter, faster
Listen for yourself: [Insert Before/After Audio Clip]
Old chain = polished but time-consuming. Vocal Marinade = polished and painless.