I recorded first, the guitar and vocals at the same time. The guitar player lays through three guitar amps, so I put a 57 on each.
The singer is going through I think a 57b, into her effects, which goes into her PA, and then direct out into the is428. This is her choice, because she switches on and off her own effects, and uses her PA eq's to get her sound. Although I feel like it might be better to go strait into the ISA preamp for another vocal track, which I'll try to work out next session.
What is the proper method for recording vocals like this?
What I find in the mix, is that the vocals aren't forward sounding enough. So my method so far is to duplicate the vocal track, and pan one to the left about 7 and the other to the right 7, and sometimes I will add a third center which I will experiment with various plugins like compression or reverb. The singer never likes any of the effects of my plugs so I end just leaving it un-effected.
The one thing that I get at times, are harsh, or a thin sounding mixes that I think could use some warmth and depth.
Also, sometimes it is hard to have the guitar and vocals forward enough at the same time if that makes sense. I think they kind of occupy the same space in the mix, and need to be somehow separated. I figure EQ and panning might help, but I have a hard time telling if it really helps, or just sounds different. The cymbals could use some more warmth too maybe, or be a little less harsh in certain places, and louder over all.
I was surprised at the quality of the bass sound we got going from bass to sans amp to isa428. I think I am pretty happy with it as is, but a part of me thinks that the guitar sometimes has a lot of the same range low end as the bass, and it gets a little intense and blurred together. Probably because the guitar player has 3 sounds at once, one bright and tingy, one warm and mellow, and one crunchy and distorted. Sounds powerful, but makes mixing and mastering more complex I think. Maybe could do better to focus more on one guitar sound, or maybe I should do some panning and eq. Maybe I should use filters. But for now our rule has been that unless it sound obviously better don't add it.
I just was kind of wondering if there are any plug ins that make undeniable enhancements which are simple enough for me to use effectively. I read about people buying wavs diamond bundles which cost megabucks, and the only waves plugin they use is the l2. Looking at the SPL plugins, the Vitalizer,
the twin tube saturation plug in, the transient plug in, and eq's look nice, and might be in my price range if I am going to end up actually using them and getting good results. But like someone else said, there are a lot of gimmicks out there, and I don't want to buy something this costly without getting wowed. Also, imagine there is a possibility that one day I will send a mix to be professionally mastered. So I want to know where to stop with what I do and what to leave to them. For example, if I end up getting a saturation plug in, should I use it, or will the mastering engineer use their own saturation?
Another thing is that I find it make any meaningful changes without losing something. Right now it's ultra clear, it has lots of raw power, with the volume high, everyone is impressed there are mostly no complaints. Just the things I pointed out and at this point I don't know how much of it is subjective. We don't want to add too many subjective changes for now, but would like to make the obvious improvements and maybe something like an L@ or something to increase loudness.
Also should mention I have cubase 2.0.
