so I got a dynamic singer and gotta even her out.

stonepiano

stonepiano

Member
Hey everybody,

I just posted a demo over in the mp3 mixing section and one of the observations I consistently got was, "this sounds live" without "much production." I got curious as to what aspect of my mix sounded "live" and it was explained that I was mixing things too dry and that I wasn't putting down the vocal well enough to be studio believable.

Now, adding reverb and some more instrumentation is fairly self-explanatory, but I came here for help in recording the vocals for a specific kind of singer.

The vocalist with whom I am currently working likes to stretch her dynamic range it seems with every other line. I get one quiet line and then one that nearly clips. I have not been riding the faders during her performances because I don't trust myself (I would be doing it in Sonar with a mouse).

What can I do to even her out after the fact? Or do I need to ride the faders in anticipation of quiet/loud sections?

I compressed with some gain in parts and compressed with some negative gain in others but I'm getting the "this sounds live" comments when I do this. Is there a better solution?

Oh, and here’s the referring discussion in case it helps to read what these guys were talking about or hear the song.
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65105

thanks guys,
stonepiano
 
Riding the fader definately can work if you can anticipate the changes. Compression can be your friend as well to even out dynamics and help get a vocal to "sit" in a mix. Are you working in a computer? If so, there's plug in compressors that can be had or you can buy a hardware compressor. Which one? Now that is a loaded question.
 
The first step is to teach her how to sing into a microphone. She needs to back off a little when she gets loud and get in closer when she is soft.

What is your equipment and how are you setting up the mic?
 
I tried to tell her that.. she doesn't like taking advice about singing from the guitar player. :rolleyes:

I have her singing into a Rode NT1 with a pop filter towards a throw rug hung on the wall. I have it running through my powered mixer with the dual rca's out to the analog inputs of a Hoontech DSP24value card. I'm running Sonar and recording mono tracks. This limits my options to one track at a time. I'm recording at 24/96 and encode the mp3's with the freeware CDex.

I want to add at least another source so I was thinking about the adding VTB-1 or possibly holding out for the VTB-2 if it's going to be two channel. Actually, it would be easiest to just buy something new to fix the original problem but I have a feeling it's not that easy.

Should I just pick up the preamp and see if it helps?
 
if youre using sonar and a decent mic then there is a fairly easy solution. its a bit tideous but yeilds good results(better i should say)

1. record the track as normal and have her "help" by controlling her dynamics as much as possible

2. use the alt select to highlight sections of the track and manually normalize the track the best you can while still keeping a smooth feel

3.use the eq to try and suck a bit of the frequency that tends to be too hot

4. apply a medium-fast attack compression if her vocals are really jumpy and dry reverb with a high decay time, this will help level out the basic track without taking up too much sonic space or sounding over done

if you use the fxreverb plug-in you want

-a small room
-about 65% decay time
-5%-15% wet signal
-highs rolled off

try this out and let me here what you do with the track, im excited to hear what you can do with the information

jon
 
Tell her it's not singing advice it's recording advice. I listened to the tune and the dynamics aren't too bad. A bit of compression should even it out.

Another preamp won't really make a difference for dynamics.
 
jono_3 said:
if youre using sonar and a decent mic then there is a fairly easy solution. its a bit tideous but yeilds good results(better i should say)

1. record the track as normal and have her "help" by controlling her dynamics as much as possible

2. use the alt select to highlight sections of the track and manually normalize the track the best you can while still keeping a smooth feel

3.use the eq to try and suck a bit of the frequency that tends to be too hot

4. apply a medium-fast attack compression if her vocals are really jumpy and dry reverb with a high decay time, this will help level out the basic track without taking up too much sonic space or sounding over done

if you use the fxreverb plug-in you want

-a small room
-about 65% decay time
-5%-15% wet signal
-highs rolled off

try this out and let me here what you do with the track, im excited to hear what you can do with the information
jon
Click to expand...

I'm going to try the comp and the fxreverb plug with jon's numbers. I always get into trouble when I go over 10% wet signal so I'm gonna back off there but I will post the results later today. Thanks for the advice guys.

stone
 
sorry a note to add to my "to do" list

after manually normalizing the track, do a "decrease by 3 db" one or two times if needed to give it some head room for the compression to work its magic

jon
 
much much better, i think the male vocals are a bit mid-y as well, maybe do a slight scoop. the female sounds good though now
 
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