General ?'s when recording/mixing. (Hip-Hop)

[Cash The King]

1.How far should the pop filter be set from the mic?

2.How far should the artist be from the pop filter?

3.What should the instrumental volume(dB)/level be at?

4.What should the incoming vocal volume(dB)/level be at?

5.What should the final mixdown volume(dB)/level be a

6.ALL vocals should be recorded in mono, correct?


Any information or opinions are appreciated, thanks!

 

[Nakatira]

1.How far should the pop filter be set from the mic?

2.How far should the artist be from the pop filter?

3.What should the instrumental volume(dB)/level be at?

4.What should the incoming vocal volume(dB)/level be at?

5.What should the final mixdown volume(dB)/level be a

6.ALL vocals should be recorded in mono, correct?


Any information or opinions are appreciated, thanks!

Dident you post this??;

The best artist on HomeRecording!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.soundclick.com/cashmusic

Prove me wrong if you beg to differ.



........................................................................................


shouldent you be teaching us...


one for the road I generally record vox in 5.1

 

[Cash The King]

I said artist not mixing/recording engineer. I come back home hours later and you are still nagging about one post. If you don't like what I say you don't have to be so tempted to come into my threads. I'm looking for constructive feedback, not to have a arguement.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

1.How far should the pop filter be set from the mic?

2.How far should the artist be from the pop filter?

3.What should the instrumental volume(dB)/level be at?

4.What should the incoming vocal volume(dB)/level be at?

5.What should the final mixdown volume(dB)/level be a

6.ALL vocals should be recorded in mono, correct?


Any information or opinions are appreciated, thanks!

1 - It depends on the artist..........
2 - It depends on the level the artist is singing at and the context of the song..........
3 - It depends on the song..........
4 - It depends on the levels of the other tracks..........
5 - Anywhere from -12dBFS to -3dBFS, but definitely not as high as 0dBFS
6 - That depends.... many vocals are recorded in mono, but it depends on the kind of sound you're going for..........

 

[Cash The King]

4 - It depends on the levels of the other tracks..........

So there is no general level that the incoming vocals should be at? Lets say its just the main verse without any double-ups or adlibs. Would it be different then?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

So there is no general level that the incoming vocals should be at?

Yes, that's right - there's NO "general level" except as I already noted in my post above.........

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

So there is no general level that the incoming vocals should be at? Lets say its just the main verse without any double-ups or adlibs. Would it be different then?

In general - and this applies to all tracks, not just vocals - you want to record your incoming signal at anywhere between (approximately) -14dBFS and -6dBFS on the digital scale (if you aren't familiar with the "FS" notation, don't worry about it for now; just think -14dB to -6dB digital on your software peak-reading meters.) The idea as far as this thread is concerned is that you want to have enough headroom in the digital tracks in your multitrack editor so that when you sum them (mix them together) you won't have to work too hard to keep the mixdown from clipping.

Put another way, don't worry too much about recording your different tracks at their final levels. Maybe you might waht the vocals to come in a little hotter just to mke your mixing "easier", but that's not really necessary. You really just want to get your tracks into the computer a levels loud enough to keep your signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible without having to worry too much about them being so hot that you'll wind up bumping into clipping when you mix down.

Typically these levels fall somewhere between -14dB and -6dB (give or take). In general, the greater the number of total tracks you are going to mix together, the lower you want the levels for each individual track. This will take some practice to figure out just what levels are optimal for you, but if you start somewher ein the middle (say, around -9dBFS), that might get you to a good start.

Then when you have all the tracks in at clean individual levels, that's when you can adjust the levels of the individual tracks in the software; maybe bringing bringing up the vocals a few dB, maybe dropping back the background instruments a dB or two, etc. Hence the name "Mixing"; adjusting the relative levels between tracks is a big part of what mixing is all about.

But unfortunately, no, there is no set easy answer like "set the vocals to x decibles and the bass to y decibels, etc. If only it were that easy , but it's not; it changes from song to song, recording to recording, arrangement to arrangement.

HTH,

G.

 

[Cash The King]

Unlike Blue Bear you were WANTING to help and understand the question I was asking. Thanks for taking the time, you hit my question right on the nail in your first two paragraphs.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Unlike Blue Bear you were WANTING to help...

You're lucky Glen has the patience of a saint when it comes to "How long is a piece of string?" questions, skippy...........

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

In Bear's defense, for the experienced regulars around here it does get a bit unnerving at times when the same questions come in over and over again because Western civilization no longer believes in trying to find the answer first before asking. (That will be our downfall, BTW.) And when the questions are not only the umpteenth rerun, but are actually the wrong questions - i.e. the answerer knows that the questioner is heading down the wrong path for knowledge because they didn't take the necessary first steps before asking - it has a tendancy to catch us the wrong way sonetimes.

Bear credits me with the patience of Job on this thread, but I have snapped a few times myself where Bear has persisted. It happens; it's part of the risk of frequenting forums like this. Sometimes I swear to creation that if one more person asks why their CDs aren't as loud as the latest drek they heisted from Sam Goody that I'm heading to the nearest bell tower with a rifle (j/k).

So why don't both you guys take a 10-count breather and cut each other a little slack before this turns into another silly forum shouting match that leads nowhere and accomplishes nothing except the wasting of time.

Or, deflect your stresses by dumping on me for trying to so blatently take a high road here. About all I didn't do was wrap myself in a flag. Jeez.

G.