mixing vocals at the correct volume

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EightMilesHigh

Member
Does anyone have a trick or ideas on how to keep lead vocals at an acceptable level, in comparison to the music? I have a project I'm working on with a loud and powerful male baritone singer, and it seems like a fine line between making the voice too dominating, or not loud enough.

Any ideas, feedback, suggestions or past practices are welcome. Thanks.
 
EightMilesHigh said:
Does anyone have a trick or ideas on how to keep lead vocals at an acceptable level, in comparison to the music? I have a project I'm working on with a loud and powerful male baritone singer, and it seems like a fine line between making the voice too dominating, or not loud enough.

Any ideas, feedback, suggestions or past practices are welcome. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Volume automation
 
If different sections of the song have a big (intentional) difference in amplitude of the vocal, mult the vocal part to different tracks. Then you can use the faders to set the overall balance before you go in with automation and compression.
 
I actually have both automation and compression on the track. It sounds ok to me, I guess. Perhaps my issue is that I've listened to it a thousand times, I'll have to load my mix up for critique in the mix clinic. Thanks.
 
Yeah, post it! The MP3 Clinic seems to be picking up again after a period when you couldn't buy a response! Just lately quite a few posters have been stepping forward, posting tracks, and offering each other helpful tips.
 
Besides volume and compression...consider how the other tracks are sitting in the stereo image relative to the vocal.
If you have a lot of stuff dead center with the vocal...it's going to almost always be a fight, especially with full mixes and loud/uptempo material.

I almost always reserve *dead center* for lead vocals and lead instruments (they usually don't happen at the same time).
Even my drums, when going for a more centered, tighter kit...I always mover the Kick and Snare about 1-2 clicks left/right, which is enough to push them out of the way of the vocal, yet they still sound pretty much in the middle of the mix.
Sometimes I leave the bass guitar dead center too, but often I've also nudged that 1-2 clicks in the opposite direction of the Kick.

It doesn't sound like it would do much...but even those couple of clicks open up the center, and give the vocal it's own space...so rather than just trying to overcome the rest of the mix with volume...you instead make some space...and then play with volume and compression to get it perfectly balanced.
 
That's a great idea about moving the kick and bass off the center, in opposite directions. Going to try that one in my current mix.
 
After the volume automation and the compression has been sorted, I check the vocal level by making sure I can hear every lyric in the mix, then I turn the mix volume down very low and check I can hear every lyric in the mix. Depending on the type of music I then fine tune the vocal level to suit, for example in ballads the vocals are probably a bit louder then the if it was thrash metal.

Remember also that if you are using reverb, the reverb gives the impression that the vocals are further away and gives the impression that they are lower in the mix, so you need to fine tune this also.

Alan.
 
I recently recorded a gospel singer with a powerful voice who sang with a lot of dynamics. I put up two similar mics, one about 8" from her and another about 16" out and a few inches higher and ran them through two of the same kind of pres. They got recorded on two separate tracks. When I mixed, I used the far mic track track when she slammed the close one. It worked fine.

(Edit) I know this is about recording in the mixing section, but it suggests a future solution to the thread' s problem. Also, after making a comp track, a small bit of compression was plenty.
 
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