Vocals volume in the mix

[tntkemp]

I agree with both SouthSIDE Glen and jonnyc. I would start with the idea that SouthSIDE Glen started hinting at:

1. Bring some music from a commercial CD, preferably something similar in style and content to what you are mixing, into your mixing setup. I prefer to import the audio into my software, so that I'm basically comparing apples to apples. IE, the same hardware is producing the tonal qualities of the music for the commercial tracks as your own...no additional hardware to affect it.​

2. Play back this commercial music in order to hear what it sounds like. If you have the ability to do so with your monitoring output, adjust levels to your liking, such as EQ controls on an amp or mixer.​

3. Once you are happy with the sound, start mixing your own music without touching the settings of your monitoring output that you just set.​

The result should be more consistent across the board. However, if you took these newly mixed tracks to another studio..or a different set of speakers to check your mix, you would have to repeat the steps 1 and 2 above on the new setup before you check your new mix... Otherwise your results will be very scewed. Therefore, if you did take the time to get the initial sound of the commercial music to be as you want it, it's a pretty good bet that your mixes will sound decent on a CD in a stereo, as well.

However, in agreement with jonnyc, if you also had better monitors...not knowing what you are using at this point...If your monitoring system doesn't give you the full frequency range needed to reproduce the commercial music you configered to, then all that you can do is get as close as possible...much more room for error. Any speaker, and amp, for that matter, colors the sound in one way or another. Some much worse than others. True Studio monitors have a minimal effect on the audio passed through it, whereas your computer monitors and your computer's generic sound card would greatly color the output. Therefore, mixing with computer speakers is possible, using the above steps to prepare your system, prior to mixing your own music, but accuracy will also greatly improve as you upgrade to better quality speakers.

The way I'm understanding that you are doing it now, you are setting up your studio in a manner that sounds good to you there...without setting the parameters necessary to have it translate through other medium.

Good luck!

 

[HomeMadeHitShow]

You guys are funny I stopped name calling when I was about 12

 

[IronFlippy]

I think you're missing the point. I agree with everyone who said new monitors will help. They will, but not as much as a treated room.

Your room has peaks and null points at various frequencies. For example, you might have a null point at 100Hz. Now when you're mixing, you're going to turn up the gain at 100Hz to compensate for what you're hearing. Now when you go to another room, that frequency is going to stand out. To cure this, engineers treat their rooms so that the peaks and nulls are minimized. This, in combination with speakers that are accurately reproducing the sound, will do more for your mixes than any other equipment upgrade.