Sitting Soprano vocal in a dense mix

[zomig]

Hi there, first time posting in this forum=)
Right now i am mixing an alternative rock/hardcore song which the female vocal uses kinda Soprano singing style. I find myself have hard time to let the vocal cut through the instruments properly such as heavy rhythm guitars and strings with certain reverb. Either it is mixed too harsh which caused uncomfortable high end or too muddy compare to commercial tracks. I also quite confuse about the fx chain for soprano vocal such as eq, delay and reverb. One other goal is to maintain certain loudness for the track as it is kinda heavy rock song.
Can anyone share me some tips on processing soprano vocal in a dense mix? thank a lot

 

[Bobbsy]

Well, without hearing anything I can only make a few general suggestions.

First, I think you'll probably need a fair bit of compression on the vocal if it has to sit with a loud rock background. Without compression, the dynamic range of a typical voice is likely too much and either the quiet notes can get lost or the loud bits get too loud.

EQ is down to how things sound. Some tracks don't need any, others a lot. I'd probably at least go for a high pass to get rid of any LF mud and, if you think the higher notes are too harsh some slight cut in the upper mid/lower treble range would likely help. You'll have to experiment with what frequencies you need to play with.

Reverb and Delay? You don't want the reverb to be TOO dis-similar to what you have on your instrumental tracks. Vocals can often take a bit more but don't go over the top. Why do you want delay? Unless you have a specific reason, don't bother.

Back to EQ. Besides the voice, it can often help to apply some light cut to the music tracks just in the range of the fundamental frequencies for the voice. For a soprano try, say, 250-1000Hz but, again play. Make the cut small--3 or 4 dB--so you don't mess up the music but this can help the vocal to "sit" nicely. You don't mention what DAW you have but if you can use Buses or Groups, just put the instrumental on one of those and just apply the EQ once to the Bus/Group.

Finally...and this applies to every mix...don't be afraid to actually MIX even if this means small tweaks line by line or even syllable by syllable. This can really help the vocal work with the music.

 

[zomig]

Cheers! Unfortunately i cannot upload the track as it is restricted to disclose right now but still many thanks for your useful advice. I used delay to widen the vocal and also bring in some extra brightness to it, I alway have one reverb aux and one delay aux for my vocal tracks. And yes I find the dynamic range of the vocal is huge. I am not sure how to properly compress it. Maybe I will compress it two times with one high ratio and one low ratio to keep it consistent. Regarding the EQ you mentioned, I think I had boosted a wrong section of the vocal at around 1500-4000. will try to treak a bit and see if it works.

 

[Bobbsy]

Understood on the delay, though if you're finding the voice harsh the delay could be contributing to this.

By all means try compressing twice, but, if it was me I'd probably compress once (with some make up gain) to knock off the worst transient peaks then do the rest manually with an automation fader or a volume envelope to give total control of what part is dominant from bit to bit.

Good luck and have fun.

Hmmm...a further thought. A few days back I heard an alternative/prog rock band also with a soprano lead singer. They'd chosen a mic known to be good on sopranos but, to my ear (and this was on TV) the result was a bit thin and harsh. It occurred to me that even sopranos have some low mid and LF content which adds a bit or warmth--and a mic that actually accentuates this might work better with the sort of thing you're doing that the typical opera-style mic for a soprano. Dunno if there's any validity to this but might be worth a try when tracking.