vocals and bass treatment

[downonthestreet]

Just when I thought I was on top of everything, back I must rush to the good folk of this excellent forum. If you will indulge me yet again, I would be grateful. So...

1. I'm having some problems getting a nice, clear vocal sound in CEP without sounding obviously processed. I want the vocals to cut through wall-of-sound guitar a la Joey Ramone. I want a touch of reverb, but not as much as in the preset settings in CEP (these all sound a bit too echoey and seem to detract from clarity and edge). Also, I want to add a touch of high frequency to give the vocals a cutting quality and some real clarity, but without sounding 'unnatural'. Any ideas on how to do tweaks like this in CEP?


2. Any tips on getting a good, deep, even, thumping but clear bass sound, again a la Ramones? Dunno if it's my cheapish Ibanez Roadster 2 bass guitar, but the volume on the thick E string is louder than on the higher strings, and I'm not sure of the best way to bring up the lower volume notes/sections played on lighter strings to sound even in vol with the notes played on the E string. Have tried normalising, but this wasn't terribly successful. I added some Thump Bass Comp in Dynamic Processing, but am not thrilled with the result - seems to make the bass indistinct.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

[lpdeluxe]

A lot of muddiness comes from the room you are recording in. You can record the bass directly, by plugging into a direct box and then into the board, and that will avoid the boomy sound you get from micing the bass amp in an untreated room.

For vocals you can try several tricks for starters. The first one is to compress the vocal track so the lower parts of the vocal come up in level.

Then, in Edit View, you can go to Effects/Filters/Scientific Filters and set it to highpass everything above about 100Hz. This will clean up more mud. You can also tweak the reverb predelay and the frequency response, if I remember (I use Waves, so I'm not up on what CEP does). The fact is, my room has a nice natural reverb, and I have pretty much stopped adding the artificial kind.

To EQ, if you have one of the later versions of CEP, you can right-click on the control area for the vocal track in Multitrack View, and a parametric EQ window will come up. You can use the mouse to move the center frequency points around while it's playing, and hear how the results work with the other tracks. On the older versions you must go to Edit View, tweak the EQ (Effects/Filters/Parametric) and then go back to MV and listen to how it works.

It is important to EQ each track as part of the entire mix: if you EQ each one until it sounds right by itself, they may very well not go together in the final mix.

Of course, this is not exhaustive: a little exploration into the Effects menu may uncover something that works very well.

[downonthestreet]

Thanks, as always, lpdeluxe. Just a couple of areas of your response I'd appreciate some elaboration on...

1. Re: "You can record the bass directly, by plugging into a direct box". What do you mean by a "direct box", pls? I'm using an old Tascam 244 as a line amp, and DI-ing bass and guitars via that. I assume this is approximately what you refer to?

2. Re: "For vocals you can try several tricks for starters. The first one is to compress the vocal track so the lower parts of the vocal come up in level." Would you mind briefly explaining where and how I'd do this in CEP, and your recommended settings?

Cheers!

[lpdeluxe]

1. I believe the Tascam acts as a direct box when you use the 1/4" inputs...at least, my old Porta-Studio did that. A direct box is a device that takes a low-level unbalanced signal (as from a guitar or bass cord) and converts it to a balanced one. This allows you to use mic cables, run longer lengths without signal loss, and gives you another level of gain at the mixer (mic levels are very low, and the mic inputs are amplified accordingly). Going direct into the Tascam is just as good for your purposes.

2. Go to Edit View/Effects/Dynamics Processing. To start with, use the Traditional tab, which has a menu of presets for various purposes. This is a good place to start. I am sure there will be a few specifically for vocals (I now use Waves, so I don't remember the details). If you want to experiment, which is what you should be thinking!, use the Graphic tab which allows you to change the parameters easily. Check out the manual: it's pretty complete.
http://www.alfors.com/Ruzne/cep2man.pdf