I'm Killing Myself Here!!!

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ANDtheMC

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I can't seem to be able to mix my own vocals to a track (I rap)... I mix other peoples' vocals down fairly well and people love the way I mix their tracks down but when it comes to my vocals, I can't get it to sit on the track the way I want it to.... And ESPECIALLY if there's something with a thundering type of part to a beat, I always get drowned out.... It's frustrating as hell...

Somebody PLEASE HELP!!! I've tried everything... I've tried taking the same vocal track and duplicating it and panning one each to the left and the right and leaving one in the center... And EQing each... I've tried compressing almost too much... I've tried the limiter... I just can't figure it out.... It always seems like the levels are either too high or wayyyyy tooo low.... I want it to sit comfortably on the beat and be able to make out every word.... I've tried "widening" the sound... I dunno what it is... I tried adding highs to the point where the "sssss..." becomes annoying EVEN AFTER using the De-esser.... I've tried adding to the mids... NOPE! I don't like a lotta lows, it makes the recording sound very dead....

Somebody please help me....
 
ANDtheMC said:
Somebody PLEASE HELP!!! I've tried everything... I've tried taking the same vocal track and duplicating it and panning one each to the left and the right and leaving one in the center... And EQing each... I've tried compressing almost too much... I've tried the limiter... I just can't figure it out.... It always seems like the levels are either too high or wayyyyy tooo low.... I want it to sit comfortably on the beat and be able to make out every word.... I've tried "widening" the sound... I dunno what it is... I tried adding highs to the point where the "sssss..." becomes annoying EVEN AFTER using the De-esser.... I've tried adding to the mids... NOPE! I don't like a lotta lows, it makes the recording sound very dead....
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Yeah yeah....we get it. You've tried everything.

Is it possible you just don't like your own voice?
 
Geez, there's a lot of anti-rap on this forum...

RAMI has a point though, if your voice sits in a particular area of frequency then you might have to tailor your other tracks around it. Is the sound of your voice similar to the other rappers you record? If not, you're going to have to rethink things...
 
Elton Bear said:
Geez, there's a lot of anti-rap on this forum...
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No man, I like rap/hip-hop. My comment has nothing to do with that. I really believe that could be the problem. Most of us don't hear our own voices the way others do, and most of us take a long time before being able to listen to our own voices without cringing.
 
Get rid of all the copied tracks and EQ and learn how to use the limiter. It will be your best friend.
 
TexRoadkill said:
Get rid of all the copied tracks and EQ and learn how to use the limiter. It will be your best friend.
Click to expand...

I do use the limiter... But sometimes it makes shit sound muffled... Then I EQ the shit outta it and drop all the mids and lows and highs but then that just makes the beat drown out my vocal again... And no, my voice is nothing like the other people I mix down...
 
Why not drop the volume of the beat, so that it isn't drowning your vocals out?

Then you can limit/compress the master bus to taste.

Or... Try parallel compression on the vocal track.
 
All the suggestions in this thread are valid and widely-used, so I'm not directing this at the people that made these suggestions.

But, seriously....With a half decent voice and a pretty good mic, you shouldn't NEED any of this. Especially since the OP is saying he can never get his voice to sit right. It's not a case of just saving one particular track.

I'll stand by what I said about not liking your own voice. Either that or there's something wrong in the way you're tracking. But, no matter what kind of music you're recording, you should be able to put a raw vocal track over music and not need any "tricks", or even any limiting, etc. to get to at least sit there. Of course, you can sweeten it afterwards with some reverb and you might EQ a couple of frequencies out slightly. But you shouldn't need any extreme limiting or EQ-ing. If you do, you have to go back and look at your gain staging and recording chain in general.

Especially since we're talking about a vocal track going over a "beat", which is usually an already well recorded and processed track.

Maybe you can fill us in on what kind of mic and equipment you're using and how you're recording your voice (eg. Do you use any EQ/Effects on the way in, etc...???)
 
So long as you're not killing yourself here! I don't like the mess afterward.
Rami has said it ALL. Provide some detail about your signal chain.
Have you sussed out the dominant EQ zones for your vox with an analyser & then carved some of that space out of the beat tracks? That's failry basic & works too!
 
by cutting and pasting vocal tracks and panning and such, you're just making a mess out of the audio... that's a waste of time and it makes for noise pollution.

Focus on bettering your mixing skills.

That's all that there is to the matter, based on the fact that you say that you have tried everything.
 
whats the mic chain?
maybe try a few mics that might fit your vocal better, if you can.

i went thru several nice mics that just didn't work out and then found one that worked for me better.

also your mic technique, when you playback the vocal track solo, is the volume all over the place? in other words is your "performance" not right and your trying to fix it in the mix? this one is free, mic technique...
 
why not cut slightly from the instrumentals where you vocals are the most upfront? like if your vocals stick out around the 4-5 kHz range, take some away from the competing frequncies in the instruments
 
I tried using amplitube 2 on a vocal track and it sounded pretty good...keep in mind I know nothing about recording vox and Im not even sure you should amp it however this amp and effect plugin I bought seems to work great.

You can try free demo here...free demo adds and bit of clicks and pops now and then to force you to buy however if you use the right preset it just might work.

click on downloads in black in menu up top and download amplitube 2...PS the clicks and pops are not loud...barely hear them once in a while...before download it asks for email...just use a yahoo or gmail address if you have one.

http://www.amplitube.com/

PS...you can get amlpitube 2 on ebay for half price...around $150 if anyone actually wants to buy it....I bought it...its a decent program and is similar to guitar rig 2 or 3.
 
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