"Difference of Two"

[HRmusic90]

So I've been spending a lot of time re-recording my old songs, but I finally wanted to finish up something new I had sitting around. I was feeling nostalgic for some nineties industrial: Stabbing Westward, God Lives Underwater, Gravity Kills, etc.
I ended up with this:

View attachment D2.mp3

I'm pretty happy with everything except the vocals. Vocals have always been a weak point for me. They always sound like they're just laying on top of the mix. I did my best to counteract that, but I feel like I can do more. I would like some tips on exactly what.


UPDATE:
So I thought I had cut out plenty of mids before. Turns out I had to reduce them even further and then boost the overall track level. It seems to definitely help.
And interestingly, I missed this when I was tracking, I ended up distorting my preamp a bit so there is a slight distortion on the chorus. I think it kind of works.

View attachment D2_2.mp3

 

[NotThatBright]

That sounds pretty good. As far as the mix, I don't know what I'd tell you to change. Are the guitars, bass and drums synthesized or real? I think I'm wrong over half the time when I guess.

I also never know what to do with vocals, so I'm no help there. I use a Tascam DP-24 to do everything, and with this thing I can't do anything to my voice except sound like a robot or like myself, neither of which is a particularly good option. I assume you're using a computer and a DAW to do all the recording, mixing, etc... don't they have effects that can make you still sound like you, but a "better" you, and that make the voice blend with the music a little better?

 

[Bubba po]

I think the vocal needs compressing a bit, and some reverb putting on it to "glue" it into the track. Reverbs don't have to be big to help vocals sit better. I reckon the vocals would benefit from thickening up, too. Fairly processed vocals would really suit that style. Do you have pitch shifting? One trick that I think would work would be to copy your vocal to two other tracks, pan them left and right and pitch shift them very slightly - one up a tad, and one down a tad. Then I would set up a reverb buss track and put a nice mid-sized hall reverb with a wide stereo feel to it. Send the vocals to that and a little bit of everything else. Tweak the sends and the reverb buss volume until everything sits together. That's what I would do, anyway.

Oh, and I really like the song, by the way- everything else sounds good.

 

[HRmusic90]

That sounds pretty good. As far as the mix, I don't know what I'd tell you to change. Are the guitars, bass and drums synthesized or real? I think I'm wrong over half the time when I guess.

I also never know what to do with vocals, so I'm no help there. I use a Tascam DP-24 to do everything, and with this thing I can't do anything to my voice except sound like a robot or like myself, neither of which is a particularly good option. I assume you're using a computer and a DAW to do all the recording, mixing, etc... don't they have effects that can make you still sound like you, but a "better" you, and that make the voice blend with the music a little better?

The guitars and bass are real, the drums are MIDI (KitCore), and the synths are samples from a couple different ACID loop libraries.

Yes, I did record everything into my DAW. I did insert a graphic EQ into my preamp but I found I still had to use software EQ to help it sit better. Otherwise it was way too "boxy" sounding.

 

[HRmusic90]

I think the vocal needs compressing a bit, and some reverb putting on it to "glue" it into the track. Reverbs don't have to be big to help vocals sit better. I reckon the vocals would benefit from thickening up, too. Fairly processed vocals would really suit that style. Do you have pitch shifting? One trick that I think would work would be to copy your vocal to two other tracks, pan them left and right and pitch shift them very slightly - one up a tad, and one down a tad. Then I would set up a reverb buss track and put a nice mid-sized hall reverb with a wide stereo feel to it. Send the vocals to that and a little bit of everything else. Tweak the sends and the reverb buss volume until everything sits together. That's what I would do, anyway.

Oh, and I really like the song, by the way- everything else sounds good.

I usually do add a final reverb to my tracks but I didn't this time around... figures

I just gave it another listen now that I got a night's sleep in between. Yeah, it seems like there's too big of a difference between the verse and chorus levels.

I don't think I ever would have thought to do all the stuff you mentioned, but I like it. I may try it.

Glad you liked it!

 

[Bruthish]

Music sounds pretty good. Like said above I think the vocals are having a hard time fitting into the mix. Some reverb at the least would help but since its a "synth" song, I would say some kind of processing or effects may be cool for it.