Echo, E J Rios

[Roy]

I will say as far as Pop effects and reverbs and delays part of it is just not having them so obvious. Partially by pulling them back and partially by filtering or using a 'thinner' reverb. Or using delays as the reverb sound. Or all the above. A lot of it is tricking the ear and tricking the listener.

This track has a lot of naked areas so just the slightest effects will stand out. But you can use that to your advantage. The occasional reverb or delay hit can influence the listener that there's much more going on. And don't forget contrast. A dry vocal in the verse can make a listener that a chorus vocal sounds huge.

As far as vocal automation, I dunno. I've always been of the mindset that really digging in and comping and automating to the syllable level was mostly to add to the billable time. I was never sure the end result was better, just a decision. To be fair, It's been a long time since I was around Pop mixing but I've seen enough people comp on tape and convince themselves that all that time and effort was worth it. I the end that's all that matters though. If you are content wit the final product it's easier to sell to the artist.