Help: Vocal Presence

[c9-2001]

hey yall hope someone can help me..

one of my groups just record a new song today and the mix sounds great... but when i play the mix back on the tv, home stereo and car stereo, the vocals don't have any presence to them.. they actually sound dull as shit.. the eq is clean, but the vocals don't have any presence... they sound almost in the background, yet in the studio it sounds perfect..

the song wasn't tracked with cheap equipment.. this really has me down right now.. b/c i like the song.. but i don't wanna give my artist a cd sounding like this.. to me its shit.. i'm a perfectionist.. it has to be perfect or close to it... can someone help me get these vocals sounding right..

main equipment used:
Mackie 32.8
akg solid tube
mixed on Mackie hr824's
tracked and mixed under Cubase Sx1.03

 

[littledog]

Is this the first time you've ever had this problem?

If it is, perhaps something happened to your monitoring chain.

But more likely, this is a continuing problem which is quite common.

First lesson of mixing: just because it sounds good in your room doesn't mean it won't sound like shit everywhere else.

Solution to mixing in a problem room:

1) Compare constantly to commercial CD's that have a similar sound and style to what you are going for. The commercial CD's sound like they don't have enough bass through your speakers in your room? Then you better mix yours bass-lite too or risk blowing out your windshield when you pop it in the car stereo.

2) Check the mixes at regular intervals on a variety of other systems in a variety of other places.

Eventually you will learn the idiosyncracies of your particular system/room and learn to compensate.

 

[c9-2001]

well this isn't my studio.. i've never really had this problem.. i was thinking it was a preamp problem.. seeing that they don't have one. just the power supply for the solid tube

bass.. there isn't 1 commercial track out that can contend with any of mine when it comes to bass.. but i make sure i don't over do it while mixing... 20hz at hi volumes on moniotrs isn't very smart
the song i'm mixing peaks from 32hz to 17hz... i played it back in one of my artist system(a system i built and designed) and everything is great but the vocals..

they style of this track.. its a Atl Bouce track(club track) like Lil John(i don't give a fu*k,bia bia) , Baby D(eastside vs westside) stuff like that... i always focus a lot of quality on my vocals.. and right now.. the quality isn't there...

this has me pissed..i'ma get to it tomorrow.. i'm tryin to go out tonight for new years..

 

[James Argo]

...I'm still working on it.

http://www.recordingeq.com/EQ/req1000/rectech.htm


Jaymz

 

[crosstudio]

most people have stereo systems that can't reproduce anything below 80hz so all that subbass is wasted. you can only feel that in the club (ie... club mix) or in specially designed systems.

putting a solidtube into the mackie pre's shouldn't give you a dull vocal in and of itself. i've been working with the 1604vlz pro for years and gotten pretty good results.

1) was the studio EQing their monitor mix to give it more high-end?

2) was the vocal recorded badly?

3) is there too much reverb on the vocals?

4) was the life squashed out of the vocals with compression?

5) were all the transients scrubbed out with limiting?

 

[c9-2001]

i haven't quite fixed the problem yet, but i eq'd the vocals a little cleaner.. boosted around 4800-5200hz.. it brought the vocals out much more... i have to re mix the song.. cuz with the boost the vocals are to loud in the track.. but maybe this will fix something..

 

[c9-2001]

any ideas?