BR-1200 bringing vocal effects more upfront

J

Jiminindy

New member
I'm having a problem making the subtle effects on my lead vocals noticeable. I use just a little bit of reverb or slapback, depending on the song, but so many times it (the effect) seems to get lost in the mix even though the vocal itself is quite understandable and tweaking the effects turns out to be a waste of time. I'm missing something in the EQ or compression, track levels or something. I just finished one where I experienced that problem, went back and remixed it with the rhythm tracks backed off some, but still didn't suit me. Maybe I just didn't use enough effect, but I didn't want to OVER use it. Any ideas out there? Thanks.

Jim
 
One of the hard things to do, but necessary is to mix with all the tracks. If you set up one track to sound great, then add the rest of the tracks, a lot of times it sounds like shit in the mix, but great by itself.

I especially find this with guitar tracks. If I mix the guitar so it sounds great in the mix, solo'd the guitar can sound like hell, but who cares. It's in the mix that it needs to sound good.

All that to say, work on the effects and EQ/Comp of the vocals in the context of all the tracks, not solo'd. It may seem like you are using a lot of reverb, but if it sounds good, that's all that matters.
 
Hey Jiminindy,

I guess you've got the effects figured out by now.
I use the loop effects and eq, comp etc in the context of the whole mix like Washburn suggests.

Did you try editing your delay levels etc within the loop effects? You may have discovered this already i.e. effect level; delay time.
One old trick I like to do subtlety on a vocal track is to set the delay time in relation to the tempo of the song.

Have you tried using the 'Scene' functions for programming the mix? This is good if you want to change effects settings, eq, panning etc throughout the song because these things cant be easily changed manually while doing a mix.

Kind regards :-)
 
Tweek the reverb/EQ on the vocal while listening to the mix down (without actually bouncing to mix). If you find a noticeable (good) difference at some point, go back to the start of the track and listen at those settings, then adjust some more, as needed.
 
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