Vocal Recording/Mixing Advice

S

StormsofVogue

New member
Hello,

I'm struggling recording my vocals for an original song. I could really use a set of unbiased, experienced and honest ears:



I'm very new to all of this (I mostly play live). I think some of the issues are just my needing to improve as a vocalist (feel free to offer pointers on that subject), but I've listened to this thing so much that I can't really tell anymore what's me, what's bad use of eq/effects or who know what else.

My signal chain Shure Beta 87c --> Behringer X32 Rack --> Ableton Live. On the vocals I have two compressors (probably over compressed), eq and reverb (the vocoder is a second track run in parallel):

ScreenShot2014-12-16at93149PM_zps379b4b28.png


ScreenShot2014-12-16at93159PM_zpsbfc8444d.png


Any critiques or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!
 
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For my tastes the sections with the vocoder/doubling going on are too much, but that's just my preference. Overall the mix sounded good, but I think you may have flattened out your vocal dynamics with compression too much. I try to avoid much compression on the my lead vocals unless I want to squash them, but instead I automate the track as needed to remove too-loud spots.
 
Yeah, so these vocals are pretty squashed, which is great in pop and lots of rock music. But this is a sparse song that would benefit from some of the natural dynamics. The tone of the vocal track is pretty flat and uninteresting. Is your EQ in between the first and second compressors? You've got a huge EQ boost in the 5k range, but I don't hear that brightness in the track at all. It makes me think that that the second compressor is squashing your boost right back down! Usually you want to use subtractive EQ before compressors, and additive after them.

I would allow some of the natural dynamics back in, and then automate for general dynamic fluctuations.
 
Kick the threshold up and the range down (you've got that sucker dimed) and you'll get a lot less squash... Do you have a plug in for Cakewalk's RE-2A or similar? Great for vocal and fairly transparent. Also one knob simple. :)
 
You say you're very new to this.

Does the vocal really need all that jazz added on to it? Less is more a lot of times and sometimes none is better. How did it sound before you added all the compression and eq?

You might find all that is need is a slight compression to tame the peaks and a touch of reverb to help it sit in the mix.

I thought it sounded pretty good :thumbs up:
 
Heard an edit at :45.

Otherwise, I don't have as harsh criticisms as the others. I thought things sounded pretty good. I really liked the harmonies. I will say however, like Brian mentioned, you had a big presence boost but I didn't hear a ton of presence in the vocal. That was a bit surprising. But whatever it takes.
 
It sounds rather nice. Loved the falsetto "hiiiiiihiiii"!

An intimate piece of music with a sparser arrangement doesn't require much compression in general.
 
Thanks guys. I think I'll pull off all of the plugins and start from scratch. As suggested, I'll aim for less compression. The EQ thing is an interesting point, I too thought it a little weird to boost the highs that much, but I've been struggling with my recordings sounding dark. I'll do some experimenting to see if my plugins or my signal chain is the culprit.

Another question: Any thoughts on the songwriting side of it? My biggest uncertainty are the opening lines of the first verse. You'll notice the later verse lines have fewer actual words. I tried to sing it in such a way that it didn't sound like was trying to talk too fast, but I'm wondering if it's noticeable or not?

Thanks again!
 
I couldn't say that I pay attention to lyrics much in general, so no, I had no gripe with them. The mood of the overall sound captured me more.
 
I love the first line. The words really grab your attention. I think the song could build. Get away from the three note arpeggio and grab sum gusto in the verse and then drop it off to the "awake you old soul" part. Something like

View attachment Lullabye.mp3

Sorry it's sloppy, just did one take and never played your song before...
 
BroKen_H said:
I love the first line. The words really grab your attention. I think the song could build. Get away from the three note arpeggio and grab sum gusto in the verse and then drop it off to the "awake you old soul" part. Something like

View attachment 90866

Sorry it's sloppy, just did one take and never played your song before...
Click to expand...

I like the added bass movement stuff. Originally, I messed with adding a little more complexity in the bridge, but opted for a more simple approach because it seemed to fit the song better. Still, I'll mess around some more and see what turns up.
 
I like the song; it was interesting and unusual. A few of your line endings had that particular quirky thing that Elton John does. I echo the comments that others above have made about over-compressing and a bit of a lack of sparkle in the voice.

A couple of other observations I would make:

1 I think the vocal needs to occupy the same kind of space as the instruments. They are very ambient and spacy, so you can afford to sprinkle a bit more reverb on your voice and drop it back into the frix a bit more (which would be about the first time I've said that; I'm normally pushing for more vocals).

2 I'm not sure what you're intention is for the harmony vocals. They clearly reflect their origin, i.e. vocal processor. If you don't mind this, and you are aiming for that Laurie Anderson (O superman) effect, then that's fine. If you want the listener to be convinced that they are not processed, then you will have some difficulty unless you actually do the harmonies yourself. But you can also make use of the effect more subtly by pulling them right back. That will have people wondering.
 
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