Blending lead/vocal track in with the rest...

[axehead]

I've been composing and mixing for a couple of years now, but it's only now that I'm really seriously getting into it, and looking more at the technical side.

I record the backing tracks, using guitars, wav files and MIDI, and I'm quite pleased with how they sound after I mix them together. However, when I add lead guitar or vocals over the top, I can never get it to blend in very well. It always seems to stick out rather than become part of the song.

I'm hoping that when I get my POD on Xmas day, I will be able to get much better guitar tones than by using my Zoom 505, which should hopefully help to get a tone that will blend in more. However, is there something techinal I can do in the mixing procedure to blend the guitar/vocals in, or is it more down to the guitar/vocals just not sounding right in the first place!

I hope that makes sense...it's difficult to explain!

 

[Shailat]

It does make sense only it is a difficult question to answer with out hearing the mix.

The problem can stem from various things.
To mention a few....

* Over use of Reverb (or over use of other effects).
* No unity while using various Reverb's
* Problematic arrangment
* Unbalanced mix (is your vocals constant in level during the whole duration of the song?)

* Unbalanced Eq (Is your vocal smooth and full or harsh and sharp?)
And more and more.....

A suggestion - listen to vocals with drums and bass only. If you can get it to sound balanced and solid, with the drums sounding good and the bass working well with the drums, you have done most of the work.