My new song 'Indiscretion'

randyfromde

New member
So I got a MXL V67 to try and make my vocals a little better sounding over a Shure PG57 dynamic. I also experimented with double tracking the vocals for the chorus, something I've never done before due to voice limitations! If you could listen and answer these questions, or make other comments, it'd be greatly appreciated!

1. How is the overall mix? Are the vocals too loud?
2. Does the double tracked vocal part work for the song?
3. Too much reverb?


 
Hey man, maybe the vocals are a touch too loud, not much though...I'm really thinking some harmonies would work in the chorus rather than double-tracking....especially on the did last night line.

Second listen, the vocals are a touch flat in the section around 2:15, I think this needs some percussion maybe coming in around the second verse...not sure what...maybe a shaker or an egg....just a thought.

Great job.
 
Nice Mic!

Your vocals sound very authentic.
I think I will have to look into a mic like that.
The guitar playing was very good as well
 
Thanks guys for your replies!

"Your vocals sound very authentic.
I think I will have to look into a mic like that."

I've never used any high dollar equipment, so I can't compare that mic to something more expensive, but I really do like the MXL V67. That mic, along with my Oktava MK-012 pair, got me more a much clearer and more accurate sound on this song over the Shure PG57 I used to be using.
 
Jazzy. Few intonation issues here and there in the vocals, I'm sure you are aware of them. Only a couple though, tricky sing over that stuff. Well done. The doubled vocals work, but sound kinda flanged for some reason. Backup vocals could be added for sure.

Nice guitar playing.
 
I bought a MXL V67 yesterday myself! Still tooling around with it to find the good sound settings (I use my triton studio for everything, basically).

You have a good clean tone from the mic...tell me more about the setup you used.

Nice tune, good singing; there was one place that seemed like your voice went a little off-tune.

Did you record the acoustic guitar using the v67 also?

-ben
 
I used a Behringer MX602a mixer with the gain about halfway up, all EQ set flat ------ > MXL V67 ------- > audiophile 24/96 soundcard. Then Cool Edit Pro 2 as my program.

To record the vocals, I sang probably 4" from the V67, using a windscreen/pop filter. Once the track was recorded, I used the CEP Noise Reduction filter to get out some of the computer fan 'whirring' noise and preamp noise as well. No EQ/effects on the voice except compression.

The guitar was recorded using 2 Oktava MK-012 mics 2 feet apart, guitar 8" away centered between the mics. No effects were used except noise reduction and hard limiting, the hard limiting threshold just used to reduce the volume of my hand muting the strings. The peak of the string pops was so far beyond the music, it was easy to set the threshold to keep the actual music unaffected.

Mixed the two together, used one of the mastering preset filters in CEP (don't understand mastering quite yet) until it sounded good to me.

That's it.
 
Frankly, I don't know what the filter does...maybe someone here can elaborate. All I know is that there are 4 presets, and I pick the one that sounds best!

In Cool Edit Pro, it's labelled FFT filter. Along the X-axis is "Hz" , the Y-axis is "%". There are preset graphs that change based on the preset. You have the choice of "passive" or "logarithmic" scale, FFT size, type of 'function' of graphs.

Suffice to say, I've just stumbled onto this and mess around until it sounds good. It seems to add a bit more stereo space and clarity through EQ of some sort.
 
I thought the guitar sounded real good. The vocals were recorded well too.

I thought the vocals were just a hair too far forward. A little pitchiness, as has been mentioned.

I thought the doubling was executed just fine. I love the doubled effect in general. But although it's well done, I don't think it works on this song. The transition to the doubled section is very obvious. It think that's mostly because it's a "bare" sound. There's just a voice and guitar. It's just too noticable in this case.

I thought the verb was very nice.

<edit> you might want to pull back one of the doubled tracks and see if things are smoother. As it is, both tracks are pretty equal in volume.
 
I ended up taking the lead vocals down about 2 db, the doubled vocal down far enough so that it just sounds "fat", not flanged like before. I think I used the same reverb setting, but slightly smaller room size and slightly shorter decay.

Sounds much more "authentic", like me just sitting in the room playing/singing at the same time.

Thanks for all your help!
 
Sounds nice Randy. Good advice preceding my post, so I will just say that the MXL 67 is a nice little mic and together with CEP you can really do it all for most intents and purposes, providing you KNOW what you are doing. I am now using the Delta Omni Studio and climbing the learning curve of using multiband compression on CEP using the frequency splitter function. Way kewl. Also have a 67 and CEP 2.1/AA. Good luck. Nice clarity in the recording I must add. ---Lee :)
 
Acoustic warm and bright. Certain voc issues at 1:21 & 1:57 that
could use addressing(tonal flatness), a small slap of simple room 'Verb might lend some enhancement. Lyrics were tight.

Minor adjmts on voc perf is all that's needed as the songs character and harmonic content is captured nicely!
 
Great, clean guitar work and recording.

I agree about the double vox. Would be better with a harmony in those spots.

Couple o' flat spots to fix too, as mentioned already.
 
Great stuff

Nice sound on the opening!! The vocals are very clear, maybe just a bit hot for this piece.(I can't believe I said that). I like vocals out front but this might be a bit much. Watch your tonality, a little off at points. You have a nice voice, it's just a control issue. Definitely NOT too much reverb for this piece.


Nice job. I like the sound of the mic--very clear.
 
"The vocals are very clear, maybe just a bit hot for this piece"

Hot as in too much gain when recording, or too loud in the mix?
 
Thanks for the offer. I think as a demo, I'm just going to leave it. If I ever get into a real studio, I'll think about doing it full band.

Thanks for all of the help guys, I really appreciate your comments!
 
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