My first tentative attempt at mixing for 2 years

Humbucker

Humbucker

New member
I've been out of the saddle for a while, recording and mixing wise. Last year I upgraded my admittedly basic setup to a pretty decent budget one. I usually write/record instrumental rock stuff and also sometimes pop/rock stuff with my wife who sings but this one is my wife singing the hymn 'Seek Ye First'. It was a kinda birthday present for her sister as they used to sing it in church together. Or something like that anyways :D

I had very limited time(just 2 days) to record and mix this so I know there are some flaws which having more time could have corrected. It's simply vocals, backing vocals and strings. I done quite a bit of experimenting with panning - the backing vocals are panned to each side and also the string tracks are doubled and panned to each side too. The only processing I have done is to add some reverb(Classic Reverb by Kjaerhus Audio) and a small amount of compression to the vocals, along with a slight EQ cut on the bass end of the vox and a slight boost on the top end. Here's what I used for the recording:-

Cubase SL3
M-Audio DMP3
M-Audio Audiophile 192
Studio Projects C1
Sonic Implants string ensemble

OK enough of my rambling - here it is:-

Edit: new host link:-

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0YUP3UNERSKJF230VJSI55FNZZ

I would really appreciate any feedback, and particularly tips on panning etc. Many thanks. :)
 
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Wow, Great vocalist. Nice harmonies too. The panning on the vocals is find if its what you want. My only question is if you tried not panning it, and if you liked that. The panning defiantly gives it a more church choir sound. Not sure why you doubled strings and panned them to both sides. It sounds like if you did that, you literally copied and pasted them to a new track with the same settings and set to the same time (not moving the track) and panning it. Now I've heard from many people that if you do that, you only get a louder sound rather than anything different. Then I tried copying a vocal track and panning it none, then panning it slowly 'til I got hard left and hard right tracks. It did sound different. The panned version sounded MUCH spacier and less tight. I know plenty of people are about to argue with me about this. But I stand by my results. What was the reason you did that to the strings?

Ben
 
emergencyexit said:
Wow, Great vocalist. Nice harmonies too. The panning on the vocals is find if its what you want. My only question is if you tried not panning it, and if you liked that. The panning defiantly gives it a more church choir sound. Not sure why you doubled strings and panned them to both sides. It sounds like if you did that, you literally copied and pasted them to a new track with the same settings and set to the same time (not moving the track) and panning it. Now I've heard from many people that if you do that, you only get a louder sound rather than anything different. Then I tried copying a vocal track and panning it none, then panning it slowly 'til I got hard left and hard right tracks. It did sound different. The panned version sounded MUCH spacier and less tight. I know plenty of people are about to argue with me about this. But I stand by my results. What was the reason you did that to the strings?

Ben
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Thanks for listening - very much appreciated indeed :) To be honest, I didn't really try not panning the backing vocals, as I kinda wanted a feel as if 3 singers(albeit they are all the same hehe) were standing next to one another, with obviously the middle one as the lead vocalist. I thought it would fill things out more too, as it was such a minimal recording in terms of instumentation. As for the strings, I guess I just wanted to make them sound fuller - I didn't want them in the centre and competing with the vocals. I was contemplating panning the lead strings(the single notes) to one side and the backing strings(the chords) to another but decided against it as I felt it would sound kinda empty as the lead strings only come in on the chorus. If I'd have had say, drums and bass included I'd have probably done that. I should have tried it really, but I just wanted to experiment and see how it sounded, then ask for some opinions/advice. I'm totally in a phase where I just wanna soak up as much as possible, and I am gonna do a lot of experimentation with my stuff to see what works and what doesn't. Thanks again for listening and your feedback. :)
 
Humbucker said:
Thanks for listening - very much appreciated indeed :) To be honest, I didn't really try not panning the backing vocals, as I kinda wanted a feel as if 3 singers(albeit they are all the same hehe) were standing next to one another, with obviously the middle one as the lead vocalist. I thought it would fill things out more too, as it was such a minimal recording in terms of instumentation. As for the strings, I guess I just wanted to make them sound fuller - I didn't want them in the centre and competing with the vocals. I was contemplating panning the lead strings(the single notes) to one side and the backing strings(the chords) to another but decided against it as I felt it would sound kinda empty as the lead strings only come in on the chorus. If I'd have had say, drums and bass included I'd have probably done that. I should have tried it really, but I just wanted to experiment and see how it sounded, then ask for some opinions/advice. I'm totally in a phase where I just wanna soak up as much as possible, and I am gonna do a lot of experimentation with my stuff to see what works and what doesn't. Thanks again for listening and your feedback. :)
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You should always try everything, but what you did makes perfect sense, and as my previous post shows, worked exactly how you wanted. Experimenting with other instruments should be fun as well. Have a blast.

Great work,

Ben
 
Hey Humbucker, I downloaded and got an error in my Windows Media Player saying the file could not be found, so I saved it to disk and played it and my Windows Media player started skipping and distorting all to &%$#@. So I did a system restore back to January and things seem to be ok with Windows Media now. I've done full restores before I found out about System Restore Points. Anyway, Not sure if it was something on your system or mine but I hate it when it does that. Hope you get others to listen ..... I just can't listen right now....
 
Mine only plays the first 7 seconds, but the vocal sounds really good & full. I can only imagine what the rest sounds like! ;)
 
emergencyexit said:
You should always try everything, but what you did makes perfect sense, and as my previous post shows, worked exactly how you wanted. Experimenting with other instruments should be fun as well. Have a blast.

Great work,

Ben
Click to expand...

Many thanks Ben. :)
 
ido1957 said:
Hey Humbucker, I downloaded and got an error in my Windows Media Player saying the file could not be found, so I saved it to disk and played it and my Windows Media player started skipping and distorting all to &%$#@. So I did a system restore back to January and things seem to be ok with Windows Media now. I've done full restores before I found out about System Restore Points. Anyway, Not sure if it was something on your system or mine but I hate it when it does that. Hope you get others to listen ..... I just can't listen right now....
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That's strange, really sorry to hear you had problems with it :( I can only think it's something to do with the host website I uploaded it to, it's the first time I've uploaded there so didn't know how good or bad the site was. I didn't expect any problems like that though. When I done a test download last night, I played it with Winamp and it worked fine. Really strange. To be safe I'll upload it somewhere else and edit my first post accordingly, I'll then test it fully in WMP to make sure it is fine. If you could try to listen again it would be much appreciated. :)

Edit: uploaded it elsewhere now and works fine in WMP :)
 
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pikingrin said:
Mine only plays the first 7 seconds, but the vocal sounds really good & full. I can only imagine what the rest sounds like! ;)
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Gonna upload it elsewhere so hopefully you'll be able to hear the rest :)

Edit: see new link in first post :)
 
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Nice voices! Only thing that stuck out was the allelujah part was somewhat too loud for my taste. The lead and background vocals were well balanced during the verse, but during the chorus it was difficult to hear the vocal going on over on the left side because the center was so loud. And... scratch, scratch, when more than one vocal part is going. Lots of scratch. Something is clipping in there.
 
Nick98338 said:
Nice voices! Only thing that stuck out was the allelujah part was somewhat too loud for my taste. The lead and background vocals were well balanced during the verse, but during the chorus it was difficult to hear the vocal going on over on the left side because the center was so loud. And... scratch, scratch, when more than one vocal part is going. Lots of scratch. Something is clipping in there.
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Many thanks for your feedback Nick :) Like I said, this was a rushed thing and there was definetely an experimental element to it, but I'll definetely take your comments on the vocals onboard. Didn't know about the clipping thing, I may have mixed it a little too loud. Thanks again! :)
 
You said you used a SP C1 mic and KJAERHUS Reverb. I also use both of those. You did a good job with the individual vocal tracks. Clear, and they have some shine to them. Could you give me a little more detail on how you used the reverb. For most lead vocals I usually start with the preset called "Big & Bright", then turn the effect down some. For background vocals, I usually start with the preset of "Room" and turn that down some. I'm just curious about how you used the reverb. Did you use any of the presets? If so, how did you tweak them? Thanks.

Nick
 
Nick98338 said:
You said you used a SP C1 mic and KJAERHUS Reverb. I also use both of those. You did a good job with the individual vocal tracks. Clear, and they have some shine to them. Could you give me a little more detail on how you used the reverb. For most lead vocals I usually start with the preset called "Big & Bright", then turn the effect down some. For background vocals, I usually start with the preset of "Room" and turn that down some. I'm just curious about how you used the reverb. Did you use any of the presets? If so, how did you tweak them? Thanks.

Nick
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Thanks for your kind words Nick :) Yeah, I often use 'big & bright' then tweak the room size and sometimes a few other things too. In this case I used 'Grand Hall' as a send effect for all 3 vocal tracks. I don't think I tweaked it very much, if anything I would have perhaps made the room size smaller cos I often find the presets make them too big-sounding. There was quite a small amount of reverb on all 3. I also used the Classic Compressor on all 3 vocal tracks, again starting from a preset('vocal') and tweaking it some - I used a ratio of 2:1 with a soft knee gain reduction. I'm really pleased you liked them, cos I really did rush the processing and mixing as it was kinda a last-minute kinda thing. Thanks again. :)
 
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