how do you get the voice up front in the mix..with verb in the background...

[motifsmusic]

I cant remember if its pre delay that does the trick..I remember an engineer telling me about that.....it just seems that my vocals dont pop out..they hide in the back of my mix .. I like the leaed clear and audible up front..but not dry in the back ground....Im using a 2480....and I got 8 effects...I use alot of em together...but was wondering if any of you gurus could take me to the root of my problem..thanks in advance...MOTIF

[BrettB]

First of all I am very discrete with reverb on my vocal mixes. There is nothing that puts a vocal more behind in a mix than too much reverb.

For me it works giving a lot of pre delay, and very little overall verb. The vocal is not too confrontational in that way and it doesn't sound too muddy then...

[Robertt8]

yup, brettb, know's what he's talking about. usually at least 40ms of predelay, and use a lot less reverb than you think you need. Reverb will do exactly the oposite of what you're to do. the more you use, the more track with it on will sit back in the mix

2480...what is that? a roland? if so, you know you can fine tune all those effects.

[lotuscent]

In some cases, reverb is not the answer, eq is. When you have created a good sonic space for the vox to sit, then the question of reverb can be about taste rather than function.

If your vox is not up front enough, go back to the source - mics, preamps, mic placement, then eq then finally effects.

It's worth it.

peace.

[willovercome]

i like the previous suggestions. you might also want to try making two copies of the vocal track. put good amount of reverb on one and drop the volume on it.

but, if the dry vocals don't pop out, reverb won't help much. eq, mic techniques, and remixing the whole song may also be options.

good luck.

[SmattyG]

Also, I'm not sure how you're doing it right now, but you'll often get a clearer sound from your original material if you use the reverb as a send instead of an insert... that way, the original source is being played back in it's original form with the reverb being sent straight to the master bus.... maybe you're doing this already

[regebro]

Skip the reverb, and put some delay on it. And duck the delay with the vocals, so that the delay is low during the singing, but loud when theres no singing.

Actually, that could work with reverb too. Haven't tried it though.

[Teacher]

Compress Compress Compress!!!..but not too much

[Tom Hicks]

You have left and right, front and back on the soundscape. Left and right you get from panning. Front and back you get from the wet/dry ratio using verb. The drier, the more upfront. The wetter, the further back the sound is percieved.
Listen to old Eagles records for a good use of front/back imaging with vocals. Their lead vocal was very dry by today's standards.