How do these CHORUSES sound so thick and full!? I know you know! haha

[beatspinazz]

my take.
i took some listening of acapellas.

many things stood out. they are really thin on the low end. its like they have put some deep low cut filters taking much of the low end out.
secondly, they are significantly bright possibly with some heavy handed high frequency boost. in addition i noticed that the poky high peaks were all smoothed out. this i guessed was due to de-essing, extreme compression, pre-amp saturation and maybe tube distortion?
another thing i noted is that there is lots of layering going on albeit in low amounts. this vox sound abit chorussy, flangey and double-tracked?
my guess was that they used a small dose of double-tracking, chorussing, flanging and harmonizer effect?
finally there is minimal reverb going on possibly from short plate like reverbs. these pple possibly jus use jus the early reflections with the minimallest of the reverb tails?

however the only thing i am so sure of is the extreme low end filtering and heavy handed copression and de-essing coupled with high frequency boots.

 

[Chibi Nappa]

however the only thing i am so sure of is the extreme low end filtering and heavy handed copression and de-essing coupled with high frequency boots.

There is no way to know that without hearing the recorded tracks. Who is to say that mic singer/mic/room wasn't just bright on it's own? Who is to say there were any esses to de-ess in the first place?

 

[beatspinazz]

There is no way to know that without hearing the recorded tracks. Who is to say that mic singer/mic/room wasn't just bright on it's own? Who is to say there were any esses to de-ess in the first place?

nway u keep arguing behind that cliche. looks like u can't hear the blatantly overfiltered, super-bright and overly de-essed vox that are overly compressed. ever heard the slight distortion on them with some edge of brightness and sort of artificialness?

 

[nzausrec]

but my band (Inner Frequency)

This is exactly what I mean. Lots of thick vocal activity.

 

[nate_dennis]

I am by no means a professional. I don't know much of the music that you are refferencing. But here are a few of my takes that are very basic, but I see/hear a lot of people neglecting.

Headroom - So many home recordists feel that they have to record everything to the absolute max volume wise. But you don't. Leaving headroom will allow your mixes to breathe and move and will (I THINK) make them stronger/thicker mixes. This also leaves more room for ....

MASTERING - A lot of people get down on themselves that they aren't recreating the sounds ley hear on CD/Vinyl/Tape/Radio/etc even though they are using clean signal paths and listening deeply to their mixes and working hard. The truth is . . . most home recordists can't afford to (or simply don't) get their stuff mastered. Leaving the headroom will allow for a better master. But my guess is (and it truly is a guess since i've never had the pleasure of doing this) that if you A/Bed a mix pre-master and the EXACT SAME MIX post mastering, you would be astonished by the differences.

Something else that may help . . .

try using some filters such as high pass or low pass. If your vocalist sings in a higher voice, run a lowpass filter on the track. Getting rid of the frequencies that aren't needed in the vocal will free up space in your frequency spectrum. Do the some thing with things like bass and kick. Freeing up some of your higher frequencies will leave room for you vocal track to breathe.

Disclaimer!!! I am newer to all of this. The music I listen to is very different than the music you refferenced. If my advice on hi/low pass filters is wrong, I apologize. But I do believe that is SHOULD work.

 

[Chibi Nappa]

But my guess is (and it truly is a guess since i've never had the pleasure of doing this) that if you A/Bed a mix pre-master and the EXACT SAME MIX post mastering, you would be astonished by the differences.

I have heard mastering before/afters on everything from home recordings to projects clocking in close to a million dollars.

The difference is small enough that most people couldn't even tell aside from a volume increase. Sure, disastrous home recordings might get some repair work with some world-class mastering. But professional major label stuff? No. Barely anything happens to it in mastering.



The REALLY shocking thing is how small the difference is between the rough board mix and the final complete mix at the professional level. Sure, big enough that anybody can hear the difference. But still...

 

[nate_dennis]

I saw you posted after me and i was afraid you were going to tell me I was wayyyyy off in my other points. Well, I sure don't mind about being wrong about the AB thing. It's cool that they aren't doing massive ammounts of changes at the mastering level.