A Challenge! Make this vocal fit.

J

JohnWatkins

New member
This girl is loud! And a little harsh when the pipes are really pumping. I've recorded her many times and cannot get a decent sound. I've tried all kinds of mics. I even bought a mic on this forum that I thought might tame her harsh high midrange. So, who thinks they can make it work? Warning; I've tried many many things. Hoping somebody here can polish it up and then tell me how they did it.

In terms of how this was recorded, it couldn't be simpler; she was about three feet away from a single Beta58, straight into the board at about -10db. I've bypassed all of the EQ and compression that I had applied to it, so what you hear is totally dry except for the automation (of which there is plenty).

The winner gets my sincere gratitude and the adulation of the general populous.

Now, hopefully I can attach a couple of files without crashing this thing. One is just the vocal, one is just the mix, and one is both so you can hear what you're signing up for. It's just one verse, one chorus of a Journey tune. Thanks!

View attachment julie vocal sample.mp3
View attachment mix sample.mp3
View attachment mix with vocal.mp3
 
Any opinions on how to avoid this in the future would also be appreciated. You can hear in the mix that on the backing vocals it isn't a problem. It's just when she really belts. It almost sounds like a phase problem, but it's just one mono track.
 
That's certainly a step in the right direction. What did you do? I'll take a guess that you notched it at 3k and shelved it around 7.5k?
 
John I hope you will forgive me in advance!

This is my first attempt to ever actually mix anything or think about making it fit. I am also doing this at work, on my laptop, using iphone headphones but if I don't start putting stuff out for people to hear and help me correct I'll never figure out how to do this properly.

 
JohnWatkins said:
That's certainly a step in the right direction. What did you do? I'll take a guess that you notched it at 3k and shelved it around 7.5k?
Click to expand...

Essentially - I just searched for annoying frequencies on some of those belted high vowels and started hacking away at the upper mids.

Screen shot 2013-07-31 at 10.41.56 AM.png
 
polarity said:
This is my first attempt to ever actually mix anything or think about making it fit.
Click to expand...

For a first try, I'd say you did a great job. It's actually similar to the result I was getting in my own efforts. It sounds great in the quiet parts, but that high-end gets a little harsh in the choruses.

guitarplayr82, Thanks for the info. I had done similar things, but my low-mid started to get very pronounced. Your's has a little of that, but not as bad as mine had. I don't think I did anything below 1khz except the HPF, so that's probably why. Thanks again.

Anybody else?
 
You're welcome, man. I also gave it a pretty decent amount of compression. 3.9:1 and -15 dB threshold. I'll admit this is a tough one.
 
I'll give it another go and see what I can figure out for the chorus. Feel free to post up any other critique, you won't hurt my feelings haha.
 
I'm at work too, so I'm limited in listening ability to the hi-fi speakers in my office. I've give it a proper listen when I get home and see if anything else jumps out.
 
Here's a shot at it. I used a VST plugin IQ4GUI which is a dynamic compressor/expander/limiter. I high peaked, and expanded down the vocal. I then made some room in the mix by EQ a small drop in the midrange and expanded this down also. I reduced the mix track gain about 1.2 DB. I reduced the gain in the vocal track about 2 DB right as the chorus kicked. I think this blended the lead and chorus fairly well.

View attachment Mix Challenge - Julia.mp3
 
Thanks for the effort, T-Guitar. Sounds good. I've tried IQ4GUI on her voice too, so great minds think alike I guess. I've nearly finished the mix now, taking everybody's suggestions into account. I'll post the finished product later today if anyone is interested. Thanks again for the help!
 
JohnWatkins said:
This girl is loud! And a little harsh when the pipes are really pumping. I've recorded her many times and cannot get a decent sound. I've tried all kinds of mics. I even bought a mic on this forum that I thought might tame her harsh high midrange. So, who thinks they can make it work? Warning; I've tried many many things. Hoping somebody here can polish it up and then tell me how they did it.

In terms of how this was recorded, it couldn't be simpler; she was about three feet away from a single Beta58, straight into the board at about -10db. I've bypassed all of the EQ and compression that I had applied to it, so what you hear is totally dry except for the automation (of which there is plenty).

The winner gets my sincere gratitude and the adulation of the general populous.

Now, hopefully I can attach a couple of files without crashing this thing. One is just the vocal, one is just the mix, and one is both so you can hear what you're signing up for. It's just one verse, one chorus of a Journey tune. Thanks!

View attachment 81107
View attachment 81108
View attachment 81109
Click to expand...

Hi.

I cant make a mix as my setup is the worst ever(concrete all over :( ) , but: You have to share some knowledge about the guitars...... best guitars I ever heard. Is this recorded pro, or....? share pls, share............

best regards
-einar høiland-
 
Einar, thank you for the compliment. I spend a lot of time trying to get the guitars just right. On this track the signal chain for all the guitars went like this;

Avalon VT737
Fractal Audio AxeFX Ultra
JDK Audio EQ-R24
1176

The only plugin used was a side-chain expander to roll off about 1db when the vocals come in.
 
JohnWatkins said:
Einar, thank you for the compliment. I spend a lot of time trying to get the guitars just right. On this track the signal chain for all the guitars went like this;

Avalon VT737
Fractal Audio AxeFX Ultra
JDK Audio EQ-R24
1176

The only plugin used was a side-chain expander to roll off about 1db when the vocals come in.
Click to expand...

hi.

I see..........way to expensive for my wallet.......:eek:

-einar-
 
Here is my attempt :-)

Kept it simple, slight cut at 1k and used Waves RVOX.

My compliments on the music, it sounds great.
 

Attachments

  • JulieMix.mp3
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