Dags
New member
Hi everyone
I have a technical mix-approach question. (Apologies if this has been covered - I couldn't find it doing a quick forum search)
From your experience with setting the overall level for lead vocals (ignoring small fader-bumps for words or small lines of the song) do you have the overall volume set at one general level throughout the song and adjust instruments around them or do you 'step' the vocal up in the instrument-busy chorus and drop it back again for the sparser verses?
I have been stepping the vocal as required to have it sit at the same apparent level above the instruments for each section but I am wondering if the more professional way to approach the mix is to get the vocal into the song early (say, after drums & bass have been balanced) and set the level of the rest of the instruments so that there's no real overall 'general' volume change to the vocals throughout the song.
Listening more carefully to commercially released songs I have been trying to determine where the vocal's apparent loudness is ignoring the instrumentation and it doesn't seem to change at all (or maybe it is just that the whole song is compressed based on the vocal level)
I'm wondering if doing general volume steps to the lead vocal is a bit of a mistake I have been making!
...or does it really make a difference how the vocal levels are treated when the song is going to be compressed a little more during mastering which will balance it all out anyway?
Dags
I have a technical mix-approach question. (Apologies if this has been covered - I couldn't find it doing a quick forum search)
From your experience with setting the overall level for lead vocals (ignoring small fader-bumps for words or small lines of the song) do you have the overall volume set at one general level throughout the song and adjust instruments around them or do you 'step' the vocal up in the instrument-busy chorus and drop it back again for the sparser verses?
I have been stepping the vocal as required to have it sit at the same apparent level above the instruments for each section but I am wondering if the more professional way to approach the mix is to get the vocal into the song early (say, after drums & bass have been balanced) and set the level of the rest of the instruments so that there's no real overall 'general' volume change to the vocals throughout the song.
Listening more carefully to commercially released songs I have been trying to determine where the vocal's apparent loudness is ignoring the instrumentation and it doesn't seem to change at all (or maybe it is just that the whole song is compressed based on the vocal level)
I'm wondering if doing general volume steps to the lead vocal is a bit of a mistake I have been making!
...or does it really make a difference how the vocal levels are treated when the song is going to be compressed a little more during mastering which will balance it all out anyway?
Dags
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