NewSong - When God Made You (Wedding Ceremony Song)

[Wiskid]

I wanted to incorporate something personal into my wedding ceremony, so I had two vocalist come in and record this song (they were going to sing it live, but couldn't make it). I used the instrumental only track from NewSong, and recorded the vocals over top of it. I'm looking for some input on the balance of the mix, does it sound like the vocals are sitting good in the mix? Are the two vocal tracks mixing well together?

Thanks in advance!

 

[WhiteStrat]

Having grown up in an evangelical/pentecostal environment, I'm very familiar with these backing tracks. Unfortunately, there's now way around the drenched-in-verb, broadway-esque sound--that's how they're made. But given that much I'd say you did a good job of making the voices fit in.

A couple of particulars:

1) at 0:54 the reverb disappears on the guys voice. The ear is expecting a 'verb tail in the pause there, and it goes dry.

2) At about 3:00, as the music swells with drama (the heavy guitar power chords are coming in) it sounds you like you ramped up the voices a bit too much to keep up with the music. Imagine you're sitting in a room with 2 singers and the band. During the quieter piano/strings parts, the voices would necessarily be louder and more forward (and they are in your mix). But when the band ramps it up, the voices would no longer sit so far out front. Not that you wanna lose them to point of not hearing them, but if the voices settle into the music a bit as the music builds up, the whole thing actually sounds louder and more powerful. The mind "hears" the band in the room getting bigger and the voices reflect that. But if the voices come up just as much as the music, it just sounds like someone reached down and cranked up a volume knob on the whole mix.

Hope this makes sense...

 

[Steenamaroo]

Oh wow. I expected 0:54 to be a nit pick, but yeah, it really is cut off unnaturally.

There were a few other things that struck me.
Sibilance, distortion, and pitch.

Sibilance seemed more obvious on the male part. Maybe an eq could sort this out.
Distortion is maybe too strong a word, but at certain points the voices are pushed too hard.
I don't know if it's due to master volume, or the actual tracking levels, but listen close at
1:18 "come true"
2:14 "In my life"
There are more, but pulling back all the tracks a bit might just sort it.




Tuning:
There are a few ropey spots.
2:33 is probably the most obvious. The girls part is wrong here.
2:38 : girl again.

I realise you asked about the balance, but I thought you might wanna know about these too.
Balance wise, Strat has it.

 

[Wiskid]

Having grown up in an evangelical/pentecostal environment, I'm very familiar with these backing tracks. Unfortunately, there's now way around the drenched-in-verb, broadway-esque sound--that's how they're made. But given that much I'd say you did a good job of making the voices fit in.

A couple of particulars:

1) at 0:54 the reverb disappears on the guys voice. The ear is expecting a 'verb tail in the pause there, and it goes dry.

2) At about 3:00, as the music swells with drama (the heavy guitar power chords are coming in) it sounds you like you ramped up the voices a bit too much to keep up with the music. Imagine you're sitting in a room with 2 singers and the band. During the quieter piano/strings parts, the voices would necessarily be louder and more forward (and they are in your mix). But when the band ramps it up, the voices would no longer sit so far out front. Not that you wanna lose them to point of not hearing them, but if the voices settle into the music a bit as the music builds up, the whole thing actually sounds louder and more powerful. The mind "hears" the band in the room getting bigger and the voices reflect that. But if the voices come up just as much as the music, it just sounds like someone reached down and cranked up a volume knob on the whole mix.

Hope this makes sense...

1. Wow, I never even noticed that at :54!! Thank's so much. I think that's from Logic's "Strip Silence" feature... Shoot!!

2. Yes, I did bump volumes up as the music kicked into gear, perhaps a bit too much. I'll take a look at that. Thanks a lot for the great tips!

 

[Wiskid]

Oh wow. I expected 0:54 to be a nit pick, but yeah, it really is cut off unnaturally.

There were a few other things that struck me.
Sibilance, distortion, and pitch.

Sibilance seemed more obvious on the male part. Maybe an eq could sort this out.
Distortion is maybe too strong a word, but at certain points the voices are pushed too hard.
I don't know if it's due to master volume, or the actual tracking levels, but listen close at
1:18 "come true"
2:14 "In my life"
There are more, but pulling back all the tracks a bit might just sort it.


Tuning:
There are a few ropey spots.
2:33 is probably the most obvious. The girls part is wrong here.
2:38 : girl again.

I realise you asked about the balance, but I thought you might wanna know about these too.
Balance wise, Strat has it.

I also did not notice that the harmony was off that bad, thanks. Lucky for me, I have Melodyne, so I was able to correct it (I think, lol). I also added a DeEsser to the guy's vocal track. Do you think that helped the sibilance? The OP should be updated with the new (and hopefully improved) track.

 

[Steenamaroo]

2:33-2:40..you definitely got it. Nice one.
I'm listening on headphones right now, so i'm not really sure about the sibilance thing; It's hard to tell.
It wasn't horrendous or anything though, so a little tweak should have been enough to help.

I am noticing a weird phasy effect on the male voice now that I didn't notice before, especially at the start. :50 -:57.
It nearly sounds like a chorus effect blipping in and out. Is your tuner plug doing something strange maybe?



I don't know if I noticed or not last time, but there's a delightful irony at 2:56 where the girl goes flat on "harmonise in perfect tune"

+ side though, those tuning fixes you did definitely help it along. Good job.

 

[Wiskid]

2:33-2:40..you definitely got it. Nice one.
I'm listening on headphones right now, so i'm not really sure about the sibilance thing; It's hard to tell.
It wasn't horrendous or anything though, so a little tweak should have been enough to help.

I am noticing a weird phasy effect on the male voice now that I didn't notice before, especially at the start. :50 -:57.
It nearly sounds like a chorus effect blipping in and out. Is your tuner plug doing something strange maybe?

I don't know if I noticed or not last time, but there's a delightful irony at 2:56 where the girl goes flat on "harmonise in perfect tune"

+ side though, those tuning fixes you did definitely help it along. Good job.

Once again, thanks A LOT! It was, in fact, Melodyne causing problems. It was party my fault, I accidentally re-captured the audio within the melodyne plugin, thus causing the phase/chorus sound.

I believe I've fixed the off harmony at 2:56.

The OP is updated with a new version. There's still a slight chorus sound in the beginning. I had to flex time "In my life" in the beginning to fix that issue (which caused the effect). I don't think it'll be too noticeable to the average ear. THANKS!!!

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hey there,
No problem at all.
I hope I wasn't too critical; I think those changes definitely helped a lot.

The only thing I'd really worry about now is just pulling back all your levels a bit.
I still feeling like it's always flirting with distortion, so dropping everything a few db will probably sort you right out.

If this is going to be played live once, you'd be better with a quiet mix and a loud PA/hifi, than a loud mix which distorts no matter how quiet the PA is.
Pull the individual faders back until the master peaks at about -5 - -10. That should be good'n'safe.

 

[Wiskid]

Hey there,
No problem at all.
I hope I wasn't too critical; I think those changes definitely helped a lot.

The only thing I'd really worry about now is just pulling back all your levels a bit.
I still feeling like it's always flirting with distortion, so dropping everything a few db will probably sort you right out.

If this is going to be played live once, you'd be better with a quiet mix and a loud PA/hifi, than a loud mix which distorts no matter how quiet the PA is.
Pull the individual faders back until the master peaks at about -5 - -10. That should be good'n'safe.

No, man, I prefer it if you are critical! That's how you get a good product. I'll go ahead and pull back the levels. Right now it's peaking at -.8 -- with a limiter on the main out.

 

[Steenamaroo]

ok, it's possible that the limiter is just working to hard; That would have a similar effect.

Take off any master limiting or compression, get the master to peak in a healthy area, and then if you want put your limiter back on.
Be careful not to over do it though. You'll hear the vocals losing focus and clarity if you push it too hard.