First time mixing with vocals

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zipline7020

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So this is my first time mixing with vocals, I have both a scream as well as high rock vocals in it.

I seem to have a lot of trouble making the vocals sound forward enough, but I think that could be due to the concrete industrial style of my apartment, and the echoes there of.

Anyway, if theres any tips on compression, eq, mastering, etc, I would appreciate it!
 

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  • First Full Demo Voice.mp3
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btw, can someone explain to me why when I uploaded it on here, and redownloaded it, the guitars were suddenly louder than they are on the original?
 
That might be a side effect of turning it into an MP3. It's lossy and may lose some detail, making especially the highs and lows less audible and thus making the guitars and the whole midsection sound like it was thrown through a maximizer.
 
The growls are muddy - maybe scoop out some mids and they definitely need to be more low and compressed. There also seems to be too much reverb on the growls.
The screams are off pitch and should be higher?

Missing a lot of bass in your mix, overall.
 
intGod said:
That might be a side effect of turning it into an MP3. It's lossy and may lose some detail, making especially the highs and lows less audible and thus making the guitars and the whole midsection sound like it was thrown through a maximizer.
Click to expand...

Yeah exactly, and considering the file size is only 798kb it's probably a low bitrate mp3 like 128k or so.
If doing MP3, OP, use 320k
 
Im using a 332k conversion. But it is a free program, so theres no telling if thats true.

And really? I thought the bass was almost too loud. I guess it has to do with my room again, I need to fabricate some paneling soon.
 
Guitars sounded good to me, drums too, but I would probably have to hear a longer clip to get a better idea. I honestly couldn't even pick out the bass, but i'm using some crappy ear buds at work.

Vocals were awkward, at best. Pitch issues, spatial issues (verb), and clarity. Is there any EQ on the vocal tracks? How is the reverb applied? If the reverb is natural and no plug-in is applied, I would consider moving into another part of the house or getting treatments, or both. The clip sounded like a demo for a decent heavy thrash band, but then the vocals kicked in.
 
i know now what you mean by its pitchy and confusing, I wrote this in 30 minutes and tried to do the high C after midnight haha. As my voice professor always says, needs more support.

But excuses aside,

as far as eq, theres just a low and high pass, as well as a little bump on 10 k (the guy on pensados place said its essential, idk) and I have a scarlet reverb plugin, but thats it. I tried scarlet compression too. But I'm completely at a loss as of what to do for vocals. I think the problems with left out bass and non focused mic sounds could be tied to my mixing/recording space. its an industrial loft, so a large open space made of concrete with high ceilings.

Any tips on general vocal processing?
and room treatment in a place that echoes like a small cave?
 
zipline7020 said:
its an industrial loft, so a large open space made of concrete with high ceilings. Any tips on general vocal processing? and room treatment in a place that echoes like a small cave?
Click to expand...

You're saying that you are recording your vocals in a large, open room that echoes like mad and then, on top of it, you are adding more reverb? I would consider recording the vocals in another part of the house. somewhere smaller with much less echo, or make some type of booth with heavy blankets or treatments. but see what some of the other guys say about that. i record in a small bedroom with very minimal echo, so i don't have this problem.

I can't recommend processing until hearing something better at the source. You're asking to clean up a mess rather than enhance a good track. If you absolutely cannot do anything to improve the source, i would attack this recording with EQ, lots of compression, less reverb, and Melodyne. That's honestly what I would do if this is what I was working with and could not improve the environment.
 
zipline7020 said:
So this is my first time mixing with vocals, I have both a scream as well as high rock vocals in it.

I seem to have a lot of trouble making the vocals sound forward enough, but I think that could be due to the concrete industrial style of my apartment, and the echoes there of.

Anyway, if theres any tips on compression, eq, mastering, etc, I would appreciate it!
Click to expand...

kinda hard to tell on the vocals with a short sample. drums sounded good, needs more bass guitar. the solo vocal was not too bad, really got muddy on the backups. you can use EQ to boost the gain and compression to fatten it up.:D
 
Agree with most of what has been said. The guitars sound pretty good. The drums are ok.

The growl vocals have too much distortion. They also have too much high end rolled off. The result is they're mushy and muffled.

There is only a couple seconds of a lead vocal, so it's really tough to give advice. But I think the delivery/performance is the bigger issue right now. It sounded rather tentative and there were some pitch issues. I'd work on that first.

Or maybe put up a full song for review?
 
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