Trouble with Vocals

DKRecords

DKRecords

New member
Hey Everyone!

I'm working on mixing a Christmas song my friends and I recorded. One of my band-mates said it sounds to him like the lead vocals and backing vocals are competing with each other in the mix. (Male lead and female backing vocals). I'm not quite sure at the moment what to try changing to get them to sit better with each other. Do you have any ideas for what I could try or what the vocals need? An MP3 of the song is attached.View attachment 10-15_Home_For_The_Holidays_CurrentMix.mp3

Thanks for any suggestions and feedback!

Dan
 
The placement of the main vocal is a bit dry and not fitting the honestly quite good instrument mix. I think the disconnect is that the vocals sound out of place in the mix. On top is a good thing for vocals but not if it sounds like a book on tape with a metal background.

I would suggest making the main vocal sit right first. Maybe give it some space (verb). Go from there.
 
Hi-hat sounds a little weird so far left. The rest of the crashes sound decent though. Toms and snare sound pretty good.

Lead vocal is a tad dry, could use a tad more reverb, or a nice tucked slapback. I don't think the lead and backgrounds are competing too much, they cover completely different frequencies, and it seems she is panned a little to the right?

I usually like to double my backgrounds (two separate takes/performances), put one hard right and one hard left. Can really make it sound huge, and since they are panned so far right and left, they stay out of the way of the lead vocal pretty good. And then you wouldn't have to have them as loud individually. This method depends on the song, of course, but I think it would sound pretty good here.

Also, high and lo-pass the backgrounds pretty aggressively, much more than the lead. It won't really have an effect on her tone, but will separate it better from the lead and prevent build-up. It also seems a 2 or 3db dip on her somewhere between 800 and 1800 would help them sit better together, maybe even another small dip around 4k. Hard to tell exactly where without the tracks in front of me. Then give your lead vocal a tiny bump, exactly where you cut hers.

How did you eq the tracks?
 
The vocals are well-balanced with each other in this mix.

What's throwing me is that the drums are incredibly robotic, especially that high-hat crash on the left. If you repeatedly wail on the hats a) every hit won't sound identical and b) it won't cut off as abruptly after the last hit. The snare hits are also all pretty identical, but that matters most on the rolls.
 
Thanks for your replies and suggestions!! I appreciate it! I worked more on the mix this evening and tried out your suggestions, and I think it helped the harmonies sit just a bit better in the mix.

I recorded a double-take of the backing vocals and have one panned 75% left and the other panned 75% right.
I have the backing vocals eq'd as follows:
- High pass rolling off below 100Hz
- 3dB cut at 200Hz
- 4dB cut at 440Hz
- 3dB cut at 900Hz (just added this this evening)
- 3dB cut at 4kHz (just added this this evening)
 
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