Recording Vocals

JDOD

JDOD

therecordingrebels.com
Alright, not done a great deal of vocal recording and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing really.

I need to know how to get a vocal track to sit in a mix properly, this sounds a bit like... eh, well like someone singing over a backing track!

I've added Reaper's ReVerbate "Live Vocal" preset and ReComp "Modern Vocal" preset - they make things sound better although I don't really know why.View attachment Pillars - Verse 1.mp3

EDIT: Following on from Andrushkiwt's thread - there's supposed to be a massive scream at the end of this bar into the chorus - I need to find a padded wardrobe to sit in to practice it so my neighbours don't call an ambulance.
 
The song sounds intriguing. I don't think the vocal is sitting too badly, but it may not be loud enough. You got a couple of guitars that are louder, especially that cleanish rhythm guitar doing the 8th note thing. Because the vocal is lower and wetter, it sounds like it's behind that guitar. But that may be fine for the style you're doing. If you want the vocal featured like in a pop song, I'd say ditch most of the reverb, bring up the level, and pan that guitar father right to get out of it's way. But I'm thinking you're not looking to do a pop arrangement. The vocal could be fine where it is, just bring up the level a little bit so it can be heard more distinctly. You might achieve the same result by lowering that guitar level.
 
That's more like it. Cheers.

Any other takers? I'm booking some singing lessons with a mate of mine who sung backing in a band I was playing in last year which should speed up the vocal recording process. Now I just gotta work on my scream
 
Robus said:
The song sounds intriguing. I don't think the vocal is sitting too badly, but it may not be loud enough. You got a couple of guitars that are louder, especially that cleanish rhythm guitar doing the 8th note thing. Because the vocal is lower and wetter, it sounds like it's behind that guitar. But that may be fine for the style you're doing. If you want the vocal featured like in a pop song, I'd say ditch most of the reverb, bring up the level, and pan that guitar father right to get out of it's way. But I'm thinking you're not looking to do a pop arrangement. The vocal could be fine where it is, just bring up the level a little bit so it can be heard more distinctly. You might achieve the same result by lowering that guitar level.
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+1 This is also what I hear, and good advice I think.
 
Vocal - I use parallel compression to even out my vocals, adjust the levels accordingly, send the two tracks to a bus where I can adjust overall level to mix. Reverb is your taste, but do try to bring those vocals up. They are being crushed by the backing track.
 
I'm a big fan of compression on vocals. It evens out the loudest peaks so you can bring up the entire vocal line. This helps not being too loud in the intense parts of the vocal, and not disappearing in the quieter words and phrases.

How much compression you use is a matter of taste. Most rock and pop music has some pretty seriously squashed lead vocal lines. But they also have access to excellent compressors that can perform a ton of gain reduction while still remaining pretty transparent. Too much compression brings about its own complications, requiring either gating or manual attenuation of things like breaths between phrases, and probably some de-essing to tame sibilance. And if a vocal is too squashed, it just sounds...weird.

I usually use at least a little bit of a plate reverb on vocals as well. Too much, and it gets washed out. Not enough, and it sounds like the singer is right in your face. A little slap-back delay can help a vocal stand out, although I still haven't successfully done this. I always end up sounding like a robot singing inside of a metal bucket.

Doubling the vocal usually works for me too. Compress the crap outta the double and mix it in low, kinda like ido's parallel compression suggestion.
 
ido1957 said:
Vocal - I use parallel compression to even out my vocals, adjust the levels accordingly, send the two tracks to a bus where I can adjust overall level to mix. Reverb is your taste, but do try to bring those vocals up. They are being crushed by the backing track.
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What's parallel compression? I've heard this before in relation to drums
 
Vocal 1 - eq/de-ess (as needed for your mic) maybe a slight opto compressor for color
Vocal 2 - eq/de-ess, followed by 3 comps. Each comp -18db threshold and 4.0 ratio

Fader settings depend on volume recorded but basically, Vocal 1 is dynamic and vocal 2 fader is quite a bit lower, but set to the level where when 1 drops in volume, 2 stays at the same level and keeps the vocal even until the end of the phrase, and the combination results in vocal not dropping out or fading away. Feed the output of the tracks to a bus so you can control the overall volume in the mix.

On a tune I'm working on now: Input gains all flat. I have the effects above and...
Vocal 1 - Fader -3db,
Vocal 2 - Fader -14.2 db
Bus - Fader -9.9 + De-esser + (slight) Opto Comp
 
That's where you split the signal, sending part to the compressor and leaving part uncompressed. If you're using Reaper, in ReaComp you'll see two sliders, one for the wet signal the other for the dry. You can balance those two levels to get the result you want. Another way of doing it is to set the compressor on a separate track, at 100% wet, then use send/return to send your vocal to that track. You balance the wet/dry by adjusting the amount of signal you are sending using the slider in the send/receive window.
 
JDOD said:
I need to know how to get a vocal track to sit in a mix properly, this sounds a bit like... eh, well like someone singing over a backing track!
Click to expand...

One possible way of dealing with this is to modify the way you mix.

For example, start with everything muted except drums and bass. Get these sounding really good together. Instead of bringing up other instruments, next bring up the vocals and get them integrated with bass and drums. If everything is working well, you could easily just go with this as a final mix.

Now bring up the other instruments so that they add their colour, but do not overwhelm the bass, drums and vocals,

Doing it this way may help integrate the vocals more.
 
JDOD said:
I need to know how to get a vocal track to sit in a mix properly, this sounds a bit like... eh, well like someone singing over a backing track!
Click to expand...

The first thing that came to mind when listening to this was that the vocal was too quiet to even judge how well it sat with the rest of the mix. are you using the same "type" of reverb on the guitars as the vocal? Using the same, but with different pre-delays, can help tighten it up. i usually use at least 30ms pre-delay on guitars and at least 80ms pre-delay on vocals - i've just found those work best for what i'm doing. So, i'd try using your "medium studio", or similar, reverb on both guitars and vox. adjust pre-delay to taste.

you mentioned 2 different reverbs in your post...live and modern. are you using two different verbs for something? i guess i didn't understand that part.
 
Live is the reverb preset, modern is the compression preset. Gonna re-record the verse guitars for this track soon anyway and I'll see how everything sits then.

EDIT: Just realised when listening through now that the verse guitars are a copy and paste job that I was using as a place holder 'cos I was concentrating on the tone of the Chorus guitars which I've pretty much cracked.
 
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Or push on with the song, write a chorus and a change up, hammer out the lyrics, and you're there. It's promising JDOD. Finish it.
 
The song is completely arranged and the bulk of the lyrics are written (I'm sure I'll gradually change a few things as I hear them sung)
 
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