Microphone levels?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DarrenVocal
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DarrenVocal

DarrenVocal

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Hello there guys, I have always been wondering about this, but how loud should vocals be in a song , interview, podcasting etc? If possible, I want to know how loud it should be for all three topics.Thanks!

Cheers,
Darren.
 
That's not a question with an answer. In a song, the vocals should be loud enough to be heard, but not so loud that it overpowers the music. If you are looking for a number, there is no standard. It's always a matter of context.
 
Hey Darren
+1 to what Farview wrote. What sort of song is it? Is it dense or sparse? Intimate or full on? Are the vocals there to add texture rather than be in your face?
You've got to listen to the track and make the right adjustments to the vocals until they sit well. I can't give you a figure in dB.
Interview & podcasting should be much simpler - if the dialogue is loud enough to be heard clearly without it constantly slamming against a brick wall limiter then it's fine.
Mixing vocals into a track is a matter of style, taste and balance.
It's kind of finding the 'goldilocks' level for the vocals in the song- not too hot, not too cold, but just right! :)

Dags
 
-20dBFS RMS.

(Kidding, it's not quite that simple.)
 
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But for movie soundtracks delivered in Dolby AC3 format there's a metadata setting that allows the gain of the audio to be adjusted to compensate for different amounts of peak level over the dialog RMS level. It's called dialnorm.
 
As these other people have stated it's not a question that can be answered in written text. Only listening to the mix and adjusting the mix will expose the propler level for the vocal track.
However there are a few tricks you can do use to help answer that question if you don't have an experience engineer to play your mixes for.

1. Go listen to your mix in 3 different places outside your house.
A. In your car
B. In your car while driving. Road noise can change things in this listening environment
C. In your office building at your desk
D. Through your church PA if you have one
E. Through the PA in a bands practice room
F. Take your mix to a local music store that sells recording gear and audition your mix through
multiple other reference monitors

When you do this I highly recommend taking some notes on what you hear in each environment. That way you
can reference those notes when you get back to your studio and make the adjustments you think are appropriate.

The last suggestion I'll make is one that you can use mixing any thing to get a perspective on. Of course the above
examples you can use this way as well. Play your mix against a popular song in the same genre mixed by a pro.
This will give you an idea of what the pro thinks about it but it's not law of course.

I hope this helps.
 
Live speech averages 60-70dBSPL at a metre (they USED to specc' microphones at 70dB,now it is 1Pascal=93dBSPL. Makes the figures look better don't y'know!)

But, as has been said, context is everything. A piano concerto will peak to over 100dBSPL so we will set us knobs accordingly. No use then the continuity gal coming out 40dB down on that!

SO many TV programmes* have loud, unecessary very often, "background" music. Sounds great I am sure from the producers £10,000 AEs at 80-90dBSPL but us poor sods with a 32"Sony get very little dialogue, especially if, like me, you are deef! (and subtitles, when provides are a joke...NO! belay that. A bloody insult!) Why do we have to have train or plane noises over a link from a transport locale? IF the studio guy says Mary is at Man' airport I belive him!

*I am convinced that part of the huge sucess of The Big Bang Theory is that we can HEAR the bloody words. "Two Broke Girls" might have really snappy dialogue...I shall never know!

Dave. (Art for art sake. Understanding FFS!)
 
He's asking about the level of VOCALS.

It's impossible to answer because volume, in this case, is relative, not absolute.
 
All three should be tracked at exactly the same level, if that's the answer you're looking for.... averaging -18 to -12 db on your meters without major peaks.. this will depend upon the dynamism of what you're doing... obviously singing would be more dynamic than speaking (generally) in an interview or podcast, so take that into account.

It's what you do with it then that determines the final relative volume - mixing and mastering.
 
Thank you all so much for your comments! I now have a better idea of the volumes and stuff, and special thanks to Armistice and SuperFlyEli, you really gave me what I needed.
 
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