Flight of Malibu - Live mix - need help with vox processing

[VomitHatSteve]

Hello!

So I'm finishing work on a live album that I tracked in the summer, but as I review the mixes, I'm finding a lot of issues with vocals.

This song probably has the best examples of the problems I'm having:

Flight of Malibu pt. 3 (Live) - Regdar and the Fighters

First, we had pitch issues. At the start of verse 2 (0:40), the vocalist is about a semitone sharp for the first part of each phrase. I pitch shifted her down, but as you can probably hear it ended up pretty wonky. There was a ton of bleed between mics, so there's phasing between her track and her bleed into other tracks as well as the bleed from other instruments into hers. Any ideas how to fix this?

Secondly, in order to create separation between the two voices, I centered the first and then had the second (panned slightly right) essentially side-chain compress the first to move it left. You can first hear this around 0:13. Is it subtle enough, or is it weird?

Any other input you might have is appreciated too.

 

[Spazhands]

I can definitely hear the pitch work you mentioned, makes it sound like she is slowing down. Is it really that out on the first lines? It may be that you are focusing on it too much therefore it's more obvious to you?
Ben

 

[Robus]

I think I've heard this one before, or another of yours from the same session. I remember suggesting overdubbing some additional parts.

I'm not hearing much apart from the vocals, the cymbals, and what sounds like a synth in the background. I wonder if the pitch problems don't stem from the fact that that there just isn't much accompaniment happening. It's got to be easy to go sharp when trying to sing an energetic song like this essentially a cappella, with little harmonic reference. I realize this is a live recording with lots of bleed, so there is limited room to maneuver at this stage in the production. Personally, I would just say it is what it is. By appearances you were going for a chaotic, lofi sound and that's what you got. I wouldn't obsess over pitch. A bigger problem is those cymbals. They overpower everything.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

I can definitely hear the pitch work you mentioned, makes it sound like she is slowing down. Is it really that out on the first lines? It may be that you are focusing on it too much therefore it's more obvious to you?
Ben

Yeah, it's about a semitone.

I think I've heard this one before, or another of yours from the same session. I remember suggesting overdubbing some additional parts.

It would have been one of the earlier ones from this session. Amiga was the last I uploaded. It's 28 songs total, so I decided against uploading them all as I went.

I'm not hearing much apart from the vocals, the cymbals, and what sounds like a synth in the background.

Oh wow. That guitar is buried. How did I not notice that before?

Everything was loud live unfortunately. Odds are better that she couldn't hear herself. (Plus, she'd only just learned the song so probably wasn't super-confident in the melody).

Alright. I'll see about taming some cymbals all around. (Friggen' drummers always seem to have trouble with "hit the kick and snare as hard as you can; tap the cymbals"!)

 

[rayc]

VHS,
Needs guitar - where is it? I had assumed there was none. Your work on her semitone is OK but is still an issue. If you could add more around her (guitars) things may be better. She gets weird on Capt. shall we.

 

[easlern]

Yeah seems like the bass and/or guitar are missing, I can hear some fuzz that sounds kind of cool but not really sure if it's coming from one of those. The female vocals do sound a bit strange at times, she sounds like she's really selling it though, both singers are, so I might not even mind the off pitch parts if I heard them. In case you were considering no pitch correction as an option.

Sounds like a great show, good band with a cool song. . .

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Thanks Ray and Easlern.

I meant to try to remix this thing earlier this week, but was not able to. Stupid time not existing enough! I'll try to get a new mix with more guitar posted this weekend. Once I get that, I'll try a sans pitch-shift version too.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Alright. I got bored and whipped up a new mix tonight.

Flight of Malibu pt. 3 (Live) - Regdar and the Fighters

- Louder guitars
- Less side-chain compression on the guitars
- Different EQ on guitars
- Alternate snare sample
- Randomized drums are louder
- More gating on vocals (i.e. when one in singing and the other isn't, the latter is muted to help tame those cymbals)

Plus, there are two versions: one without the blatant pitch-shift on the even verses; one with.

Whatchoo think?

 

[Robus]

Link isn't happening.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Cornflabbit!
Flight of Malibu pt. 3 (Live) - Regdar and the Fighters
(Same as the first post anyway)

 

[Robus]

I'm still not hearing bass and guitars. Maybe I'm clicking the wrong link? You would make it easier for people to listen and comment by putting a soundcloud link.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Yeah, but I kinda think that Soundcloud sucks!

Plus, for those interested, direct downloads allow them to get the FLAC. (Plus, a lot of my favorite songs are ones that I downloaded from the clinic over the years and have just kept around.)

You downloaded one of the "Mix 2" files? The guitar/bass (same instrument) is a little quiet relative to what most mixes would be, but it's very much a tone instrument the way I use it. I think if I turned it up much more, then it'll be just noise.

 

[Robus]

I think I heard pt.3 live.

To be honest, if this were my project I would think of these recordings as a step along the path of the band's musical journey, and just leave them at that. A good finished product begins with good tracks. Poor tracking is the root problem you are trying to work around. Supporting elements like the cymbals are front-and-center, while key elements like bass and guitars are barely audible. The bleed between mics makes it impossible to balance the levels properly. Trying to "fix it in the mix" is going to be an exercise in frustration. It was a spirited performance with a lot of punk energy, but at the end of the day the recordings need to stand on their own. Again, my opinion: Look to your next gig. Try to capture the same spirit and energy but with better tracking and better isolation between mics. You'll be happier with the finished product.

My thoughts would be, send the bass and keyboards DI. Close mic the guitar cab. That's three tracks taken care of. Then focus your remaining efforts on getting a good balance from the drums mics, and reducing the bleed into the vocal mics.