voice not powerful enough.....

[jwfort]

I'm just a beginner at recording, I have audacity, and Adobe Audition 9 but it has a glitch. I'm using singstar microphone, from the video game. I don't have money for a professonal microphone, the singstar mic is a good one I think considering it's from a PS2 video game. But the problem I'm having, it when I'm recording my singing the instrumental song overpowers my voice when I play it back. and when I try to increase the volume on the mic, well....I get distorted. what can I do to have a good balance of the instrumental track and then my voice?

 

[WhiteStrat]

You have to bring down the level of the instrumental track.

 

[jwfort]

You have to bring down the level of the instrumental track.

Is that normal to do?

 

[frederic]

Two balance to tracks, vocals and instrumentals in your case, you have to turn the vocals up or the instruments down, or sometimes both.

You want to turn the vocals up as far as you can go without distortion, to have the most headroom to record your voice.

Then adjust the instrumental part accordingly.

Yes, it's normal.

The singstar mic does not have a lot of gain so since you're stuck with it for now, you need to adjust things accordingly

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Is that normal to do?

Yes. If there's no more room to make something louder then make the other things quieter.

I bet the instrumental track is a mastered recording, so it has been processed to sound loud. Your vocal recording has not been processed in the same way so you have to lower the instrumental to match the perceived loudness of the vocal.

 

[skunktree]

I'm just a beginner at recording, I have audacity, and Adobe Audition 9 but it has a glitch. I'm using singstar microphone, from the video game. I don't have money for a professonal microphone, the singstar mic is a good one I think considering it's from a PS2 video game. But the problem I'm having, it when I'm recording my singing the instrumental song overpowers my voice when I play it back. and when I try to increase the volume on the mic, well....I get distorted. what can I do to have a good balance of the instrumental track and then my voice?

to get more out your vocal...copy and paste the performance of the vocal to a different track or two (make 2 or 3 copy's)...keep it perfectly inline with the original...this will give you more vocal "audio" to work with...adjust the volume of the vocal tracks to your liking...this way you can get a better mix from a low recorded performance...

 

[bouldersoundguy]

to get more out your vocal...copy and paste the performance of the vocal to a different track or two (make 2 or 3 copy's)...keep it perfectly inline with the original...this will give you more vocal "audio" to work with...adjust the volume of the vocal tracks to your liking...this way you can get a better mix from a low recorded performance...

No. This is effectively the same as pushing the fader up which the OP already tried, and he ran out of headroom. The problem is that the instrumental is compressed/limited and boosted to a high RMS level but the vocal recording is not. The options are to lower the instrumental or limit and boost the vocal.

 

[moresound]

Also be sure to have everything in it's place.
Just as an experiment put the vocals dead center and hard pan the instruments left and right to give you a sense of space ....just to hear it, not that it's the right thing to do but you will hear how things should fit in a mix if you place them just right.

 

[Supercreep]

I'm using singstar microphone, from the video game. I don't have money for a professonal microphone, the singstar mic is a good one I think considering it's from a PS2 video game.

You do realize that eventually you're going to have to buy an actual mic, right?

 

[skunktree]

No. This is effectively the same as pushing the fader up which the OP already tried, and he ran out of headroom. The problem is that the instrumental is compressed/limited and boosted to a high RMS level but the vocal recording is not. The options are to lower the instrumental or limit and boost the vocal.

i disagree...bringing down the instrumental to the levels of a very low vocal will leave him with a very low and unbalanced instrumental/vocal mix...he needs to create balance to the mix...so....( i assume he knows how not to clip )...he needs more vocal to help balance the hot instrumental...by duplicating the vocal tracks there is more "vocal" audio for use...now...bring all faders down...slowly bring up all faders until an acceptable mix is achieved (without clipping)...the vocal will sit much better in the final mix if its front and center "so to speak" this will result in an over all hot mix (by the sound of the instrumental that's what he's looking for) ....use the force...

 

[MISTERQCUE]

You do realize that eventually you're going to have to buy an actual mic, right?

..........besides earlier suggestions, this here is the next logical solution.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

i disagree...bringing down the instrumental to the levels of a very low vocal will leave him with a very low and unbalanced instrumental/vocal mix

The real problem is that it's a vocal with a high peak-to-average ratio that he's trying to balance with an instrumental track with a low peak-to-average ratio. The instrumental track is probably compressed/limited and mastered to be just short of 0dBFS, so it's average is higher than the vocal's even if the vocal peaks are also just short of 0dBFS. The options are to lower the instrumental so its average level is more like the vocal's, or compress/limit the vocal so its average level can be raised to balance with the instrumental.

he needs to create balance to the mix...so....( i assume he knows how not to clip )...he needs more vocal to help balance the hot instrumental

He already tried more gain and got distortion (by exceeding 0dBFS). There is no headroom left for more vocal without lowering its peaks.

by duplicating the vocal tracks there is more "vocal" audio for use

There is no difference between this and simply moving the fader up except that moving the fader is convenient and rational whereas having two or three or four copies of a track just for the gain is not.

now...bring all faders down...slowly bring up all faders until an acceptable mix is achieved (without clipping)...the vocal will sit much better in the final mix if its front and center "so to speak" this will result in an over all hot mix (by the sound of the instrumental that's what he's looking for)

This will not be much different from simply lowering the instrumental until it no longer overwhelms the vocals. The channel faders aren't really a great place to try to get a "hot mix", they are better used to get a good mix.

 

[RAMI]

Sheesh...here we go again with the "duplicating tracks" garbage.

 

[moresound]

Sheesh...here we go again with the "duplicating tracks" garbage.

True RAMI tell them like it is ...if you want a good mix you have to quadruple the track.

 

[mattr]

i disagree...bringing down the instrumental to the levels of a very low vocal will leave him with a very low and unbalanced instrumental/vocal mix...he needs to create balance to the mix...so....( i assume he knows how not to clip )...he needs more vocal to help balance the hot instrumental...by duplicating the vocal tracks there is more "vocal" audio for use...now...bring all faders down...slowly bring up all faders until an acceptable mix is achieved (without clipping)...the vocal will sit much better in the final mix if its front and center "so to speak" this will result in an over all hot mix (by the sound of the instrumental that's what he's looking for) ....use the force...

This made me "lol".

 

[Joza]

Well, this was a good reminder about the importance of thinking twice who should you take advice from on this forum.

 

[gafadi]

they should close the newbie thread, older members here expect everyone to know everything and they expect them to be able to afford all stuff.

 

[kcearl]

one or two of them are complete cocks but not all of them

 

[Gizzmo0815]

This made me "lol".

You make me "lol".

It's really awesome that you understand the concepts behind why his statment is wrong. Truly it is. It says a lot about you that you feel the need to post this as a response though.

A better approach would be to explain why he's wrong, thus correcting his error and clearing up the confusion. Instead of laughing at him...

***

Skunktree,

Thanks for the input, but that's not really what happens when you copy and paste a track. Duplicating the same track will merely raise the overall volume, exactly the same as sliding a fader up, or using a gain plugin.

 

[RAMI]

A better approach would be to explain why he's wrong, thus correcting his error and clearing up the confusion. Instead of laughing at him...
.

Well, it WAS explained to him after his first post, but then he came back with his argument that made no sense. At that point, it's fair to laugh or do whatever one pleases. It made me laugh too, because he was insisting as if he was actually teaching us something.

Anyway, just for the record: Cloning or copying a track to another track does nothing but make it louder. It doesn't make it stereo and it doesn't give you "more vocal to work with" any more than turning up the one track would do.