Shadowing Practice: How to Get Smooth, Bright Vocals - Learn English Speaking with Video

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So the goal of this video is to give you a technique for a super controlled, crispy, high -end vocal sound.

A lot of us have had clients, and I know sometimes we get that note of, I want my vocals to be bright.

I'm going to give you a technique to kind of accomplish that.

Let's do it.

Okay.

So right now what I'm gonna do is let's play the raw vocal.

This is a raw vocal without the technique or the plugins that I'm using for it.

Cool.

So I hear a little bit of sibilance and things of that nature.

Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bypass the technique back and forth.

Check this out.

That was the raw sound.

That was without.

This is an unmixed song by the way.

So check this out.

I'm gonna bypass it back and forth without first.

So a controlled, but super more high -end, high -fidelity a bright sound in the vocal and at the same time controlling some of those Ss and Ts.

Now this is an unmixed vocal.

This is me just showing you the technique, but I'm going to take you plugin by plugin

and show you the plugins that I use to get this sound and get those vocals to be super crispy, but still very controlled and something usable that you can have in your session.

Please do not overuse this technique and please follow me in how I set it up and the ideology behind it.

That's the most important thing is so you understand how to approach it.

Okay.

So first plugin within the chain is Speccraft, love Speccraft to death, resonance suppressor, dynamic EQ, whatever you wanna call it.

What I'm doing with this, particular plugin is this.

I am listening to the vocal and I know deep down in my heart, if I want to get these vocals really bright or really crispy, what I'm going to have to do is also be mindful of,

are there parts in the high end that are already pretty sibling?

Meaning is 9k really peaky?

Is it a lot of energy at that one spot?

Well, if it is, then that means that when I add more high end, I'm also accentuating more high end at that 9k spot that is accentuated and is very peaky.

So What I want to do with this first plugin is I want to get the high end under control.

Before I add anything as far as EQ or any saturation and stuff like that to the high end, I want to get control over what is there from a semblance standpoint

or where the abundance of energy is coming from sizzling.

And I want to control that first.

So let's get some control on the high end.

Let's catch those S's and T's and that stuff that's up there that's hot.

Let's get a more consistent and even high end before I bring anything in.

So subtraction first.

All right, without first?

solo the vocal Thank you.

So you hear those sizzles, you hear those S's and T's in the siblings.

Now let's put it on.

Every time you pull up, I don't know what's up, you'll be in your moves.

Play my part, keeping it cool, tell me what to do, it's like, I don't know, I'm getting the day.

So just got a little bit of control just on those S's and T's.

Again, noticing that there's an abundance of energy in that particular range, in the high end, and I want to get some control on it.

Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to solo this

and hone in on that sound by itself so you can kind of hear how it's attenuating that sound.

Let's solo it.

Every time you pull up, I don't know what's up.

You'll be in your moods.

Play my part, keepin' it cool.

Tell me what to do.

It's like, I don't know what I'm getting today.

Bad mood in a good place.

You don't want nobody talkin' on your face.

It'll be.

So basically with this particular plugin, we are catching those initial sibilant moments and just getting some control on them.

So all I'm looking for with this first plugin is for our setting up dynamics, EQ or resonance suppressor is honing in on the abundance of sizzle

or sibilants that I'm that I'm hearing and attenuating that stuff,

getting control over the high end and making the high end a little bit more even from a dynamic standpoint.

That's very important.

That is probably the most important part of this technique.

Before you add any high end, control those sibilant moments in the song as far as the vocal is concerned.

All right.

Next thing I'm going to open up, shout out my guy Ryan Schwab.

I'm gonna open up high fall from Schwab Digital.

And it's the same kind of concept.

I'm trying to catch peaks.

So I'm using another step of subtraction to really catch those

high end peaks as far as the sibilance to really get a more consistent and controlled high end.

So I'm getting the control and evening of the dynamics of the high end.

That is my initial goal before I do any boosting.

Again, control.

This is the secret weapon to me.

So without first, Every time you pull up, I don't know what's up, you'll be in your moves.

Play my part, keeping it cool, tell me what to do.

Every time you pull up, I don't know what's up, you'll be in your moves.

Play my part, keeping it cool, tell me what to do.

I don't know, I'm getting the day.

for the peaks in the audio.

when it comes to the high end.

Now, granted, if you're not familiar with high fall and stuff like that, you can check out Ryan's content and stuff like that on it.

But long story short, I'm taking this slider

and I'm bringing it down until I'm catching or hearing those peaks of reacting in the plugin.

And I'm not afraid to be heavy handed with this, but yes, that's kind of how I'm setting it up.

So again, with those two plugins you just saw, high fall and spec craft,

I'm using them to when it comes to the high end.

I'm evening out the dynamics of the high end first.

Okay?

Thank you.

All right.

Now, that I feel like I got a little bit more of a consistency when it comes to the high -end, I am going to boost.

This is one of my favorite EQs when it comes to boosting.

Shout out my guy, Prizzy.

Shout out TZO.

Shout out all the amazing and talented mix engineers I see using this strictly for a high -end on vocals.

It is phenomenal.

There's something in this plugin that I love.

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It's amazing.

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check it out for yourself.

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It's the UAD Pultec specifically as well.

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So right now what I'm doing is I'm going to take and put the Pultec at 10k 10 kilohertz.

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And I'm gonna boost it about 3 dB within the plugin.

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I'm also gonna compensate for the volume a little bit and turn it down.

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Shout out to the person in the comments on my last video

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that finally showed me that that's my knob to turn it down and turn it up.

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Thank you so much.

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Shout out to my comment section.

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Teach me something.

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Now I'm gonna bypass this back and forth.

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So without first.

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This is me, my first boost of everything.

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Every time you pull up, I don't know what's up, you be in your moves.

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Play my part, keepin' it cool, tell me what to do.

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It's like, I don't know, I'm gettin' today.

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In a bad mood, in a good place.

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You don't want nobody talkin' out on your face.

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It don't matter, 'cause I'll still be on your body.

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Oh, sometimes I feel like you taking advantage of me It really don't matter cause nothing is making me leave.

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I love this plugin when it comes to boosting high end.

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Again, this vocal is not fully mixed or anything like that, so please don't kill me for that.

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I'm just showing you this technique on a pretty much unmixed vocal

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and just give you an idea of just how to add it.

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When I'm adding that 10K boost with this, it's super clean.

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It just opens the vocal up so much.

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And this is really a lot of the heavier lifting is coming from as far as that initial boost in it.

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So to recap, what just happened?

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What we did was before we boosted anything, we use subtraction.

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With the subtraction, what we did was we said, I want the peakiest or I want the transients inside that high end spectrum.

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And I want to control that.

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When I control that, now I get a more even kind of high end that is a little bit smoother.

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So that when I boost overall, now I'm not boosting that peakiness.

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there.

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before I add anything.

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So I want to control those peaks and transients before I add an overall boost to the entire high end.

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So that's that kind of setup so far.

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Are you trying to fix a beat or two track but you don't have the stems?

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Meet the two track surgeon.

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It lets you shape the vocal pocket, low end, width, energy, soft clip, and even more right inside the stereo file.

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Use code HMD20 for 20 % off your purchase at HelpMeDevon .com.

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I'll leave a link in the description.

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Now this one, please don't overuse this.

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I'm gonna open up a multiband compressor.

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My goal with this multi -band compressor is to get more of the nuanced high end out of this vocal.

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What do I mean?

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Long story short, this multiband compressor is at the about

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6 kilohertz range and what I'm looking for is to just attenuate again S's

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and T's but I'm boosting the overall range on this particular our multiband so that

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even the slightest sounds of the vocal are going to have a bit more lift in its high end.

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So basically, the stuff that is sizzling and has those kind of consonant sounds, S's and T's, are going to get attenuated,

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but the stuff that is is going to have a little bit more of the air lifted

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because we're just using pretty much multiband compression to say, compress the high stuff or the loud stuff, and I want you to bring up the quiet stuff.

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So once again, getting a little bit more consistency and leveling out

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the high end but we're also using this to control the sizzly stuff

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so that we can keep that stuff tight so Just listen to what this sounds like.

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Check this out.

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I noticed this a lot in the sexy drill drama, drama, genre in particular with those bright high end vocals that I hear with those guys and girls all the time.

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Check this out, With and Without.

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Every time you pull up, I don't know what's up You be in your moods, play my part, keepin' it cool Tell me what to do, it's like, "I don't know, I'm gettin' today" In a bad mood,

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in a good place You don't want nobody talkin' on your face It don't matter, 'cause I'll still be on your body

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Sometimes I feel like you taking advantage of me It really don't matter 'cause nothing is making me leave Yeah,

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something about you I'm feeling like nobody sees No matter your mood,

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I'm where I wanna be We fuss and we fight, but...

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So you see even in that moment where it's "we fuzz" and "we fight," you notice, oh, it feels a lot brighter even in that subtle moment.

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And it kind of lifts the entire record.

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As far as the vocal is concerned in that, again, I do hear sibilance and we are getting more control over that.

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But you can tell that when I'm actually using this, I'm still trying to catch those S's and T's to say, chill out.

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Just my peak stuff.

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Just hang out for a second.

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Don't go too crazy.

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And then the subtle stuff is getting a big, big lift here.

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The stuff that doesn't have those or its consonants.

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It's more of that nuanced stuff I'm trying to raise up to get

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that whole vocal to just overall sound more open sounding.

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Okay, last plugin is my pretty much kind of like my final catcher.

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And this final plugin is another Speccraft.

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Now with this Speccraft, what I'm doing is, it's that final kind of smoothing of the high end.

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This is my high end smoother.

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I've actually seen Jason Joshua use something similar in Oaksound Soothe.

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You can try this too.

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Where what I'm going to do is, I'm going to put my Speccraft point at the high end.

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But the difference is, I'm going to set a much slower release.

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What you're going to notice with this slow release in the

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high end is you're going to notice the high end get

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so much smoother because it's going to hold the compression of that high end a lot longer.

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So it's going to really, really make the high end feel a lot smoother.

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And this is the secret weapon at the end of this entire chain.

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So, without first, and then I'll put it on.

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And this is really gonna get those S's and T's and similar things in control.

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And then the high end is just gonna feel a lot smoother in that regard.

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Every time you pull up, I don't know what's up You be in your moves, play my part, keepin' it cool Tell me what to do, it's like, I don't know,

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I'm gettin' the day Bad mood in a good place, you don't want nobody talkin' on your face It don't matter,

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'cause I'll still be on your body Sometimes I feel like you taking advantage of me

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It really don't matter 'cause nothing is making me leave.

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Yeah, something about you I'm feeling like nobody sees.

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No matter your mood, I'm where I wanna be

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So you notice the S &T's were popping out and peaking when I didn't have it on.

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And then when I put it on, you notice the S &T's just felt a lot calmer and a lot smoother.

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And thus, it leads me to a sound or this sound.

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Without first.

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Again, vocal is absolutely far from perfect, but I'm just showing you a way to add some crispy high end to a sound,

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but also being mindful of you want it to be useful and not rip people's ears off in the process.

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forgot to mention

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that I do want to bring up is I want to bring up the multiband compressor

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and how I have it set up as far as the settings.

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I am really a big fan of a soft knee with this particular multiband compressor.

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To me, the soft knee just feels a lot smoother and gradual as far as how it's compressing that high end,

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which I think adds so much character and just smoothness to the top end in this process, as opposed to a harder knee.

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It feels a little bit too aggressive for me with compressor.

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multi band and stuff like that that you're using, perhaps a softer knee just feels a little bit more gradual and a little bit smoother, which is what I was going for.

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So I hope you enjoyed that.

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Please leave your comments, questions and concerns.

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And yeah, I had a lot of fun doing that.

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And I hope that it made sense.

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Again, there's a million ways to do a million different things.

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And I totally understand that this vocal is not mixed.

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I appreciate anyone that if you caught anything from this, cool, you can let me know in the comment section below.

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We can have conversations.

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I'm all for it.

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I hope you enjoyed that.

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And yeah, you can go to helpmedevon .com if you want some goodies.

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And until next time, y 'all.

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134 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Get Smooth, Bright Vocals”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: vocal, plugin, sound. This video has 223 sentences and 2728 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:19. The speaker talks at a natural 178 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
compressor noun	/kəmˈpɹɛ.sə(ɹ)/	A device that produces pressure, such as a gas compressor that produces pressurized gas.
multiband adjective		Having or employing multiple bands, especially frequency bands.
shout verb	/ʃaʊt/	To utter a sudden and loud cry, as in joy, triumph, exultation or anger, or to attract attention, to animate others, etc.
attenuate verb	/əˈtɛn.juˌeɪt/	To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.
crispy adjective	/ˈkɹɪs.pi/	Having a crisp texture; brittle yet tender.
sizzle verb	/ˈsɪzəl/	To make the sound of water boiling on a hot surface.
subtraction noun	/səbˈtɹækʃən/	The process of subtracting a number from another.
peaky adjective	/ˈpiːki/	Sickly; peaked.
sibilance noun		The quality of being sibilant: a hissing quality.
sibilant noun	/ˈsɪb.ɪ.lənt/	A consonant having a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.
unmixed adjective		Pure, not mixed or combined.
bypass noun	/ˈbaɪpæs/	A road that passes around something, such as a residential area or business district.
abundance noun	/əˈbʌn.dn̩s/	A large quantity; many.
dynamics noun	/dɑɪˈnæm.ɪks/	The branch of mechanics that is concerned with the effects of forces on the motion of objects.
accentuate verb	/əkˈsɛn.t͡ʃu.eɪt/	To pronounce with an accent or vocal stress.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pull up verb	/ˌpʊl ˈʌp/	To lift upwards or vertically.
bring up verb		To mention.
open up verb		To open.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
pop out verb		To appear on the screen as a temporary window or menu.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I'm gonna bypass it back and forth without first.
What I'm doing with this, particular plugin is this.
You'll be in your moods.
It's like, I don't know what I'm getting today.
You don't want nobody talkin' on your face.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have had · I've actually seen
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is let · is accentuated

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 117 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shout /ʃaʊt/, subtraction /səbˈtɹækʃən/, transient /ˈtɹæn.ʃənt/, compression /kəmˈpɹɛʃ.ən/, speculation /ˌspɛk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: attenuate /əˈtɛn.juˌeɪt/, accentuate /əkˈsɛn.t͡ʃu.eɪt/, consistency /kənˈsɪs.tən.si/, phenomenal /fɪˈnɒmɪnəl/, speculation /ˌspɛk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like compressor, multiband, shout.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How to Get Smooth, Bright Vocals - Learn English Speaking with Video

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