removing background bleed on vocal track?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drpfeffer
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drpfeffer

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last week I recorded a little acoustic session with my band, i had placed 4 mices in the room where we were playing, one of them a dynamic mic for the singer to sing in.. OK the problem here is, that he is singing to far away from the mic, so the vocal isn't very loud, and if i try to get it louder by using compression/limiting and other tricks, i'm increasing the background bleed on the vocal track and the noisy bright tones of the other instuments on the vocal track is destruying the mix..

Any ideas anyone..?
 
There really is no effective way to salvage the track. You can try cut the lows and the highs, but your still going to have the voice competing with whatever instruments share that range. Also, any cuts you make will affect the quality of the voice. Don't consider this recording a waste, though. You've just learned something about mic technique.
 
yeah, i didn't think that there was an effective way to save it myself either, but thanks for your reply, i guess you're right, i have learned a hardearned lesson, and next time i'll make sure that he sings into the mic insead of sitting back from it..
 
I agree. Not alot you can do... You could try a gate or expander to take the vocal track volume down during the vocal pauses, this may help?.. but unlikely to have much impact.

I'd also say not to compress the track so much. Bring the other tracks down and the vocals up on the faders.

Give it a go... then record it again!


... Sorry. :o
 
IF you have an expander, give it a try. It turns the volume of a track DOWN when it goes below a certain threshold. Like a compressor, but opperating on the quiet end of the spectrum instead of the loud end. Its not a cure all, because most or all of your bleed will come back when the expander opens, but its worth a try.

A multiband expander is a little more usefull in this case, since you can set different thresholds and ratios for each band. They're pretty finicky, though, and it takes a lot of tweaking to get it to do what you want transparently.

Good luck.
Chris
 
My experience is that in cases like this, you have to learn to live with it and try and use it to your advantage. The problem with gating or expansion or even compression is that it makes the bleed swell and dip in volume. That means that everytime it changes on the vocal track, the instrument sound changes as well. I would start by trying to remix the tracks by bringing the vocal up first. Try and use the bleed that you are getting to help the instrument tracks instead of letting it hurt them:)
 
<< I would start by trying to remix the tracks by bringing the vocal up first. Try and use the bleed that you are getting to help the instrument tracks instead of letting it hurt them >>

this is EXCELLENT advice and bears repeating.

i used to record my band's practices in multitrack format, and the vocals were always loaded with drum bleed, as the vocal mics and drums were in the same room. me being the singing drummer didn't help matters any. the guitar amps i relocated to other rooms so they were isolated somewhat, but i couldn't do anything about the drums in the vocal mics.

i always started a mix with kick and bass, and then drums, and built from there. vocals were almost the last thing i'd add, as they "sit on top", right? well, after fighting for months with our recordings to "keep the bleed from hurting" the rest of the mix (and to no avail), i decided one day (call it a wild hair) to start with bass and kick as usual, but to bring the vocals in immediately after that and build the drum mix around the bleed on the vocals.

as soon as i did that, it was like night and day with regards to how much better everything sounded.

moral of the story--bleed (and often nasty-sounding bleed) is inevitable, and learning to use it to our advantage is a wonderful skill to master (or at least get better at), rather than trying to remove it entirely.


cheers,
wade

PS--X, you're getting a rep point from me for this--this is excellent advice.
 
I was thinking I what I would try to do....Can you resing your vocal on another track, and then just lower the orignal recorded vocal track that has the other instruments bleeding onto it?
evt
 
Why not just tell everyone that you meant to do it that way? You were going for that Albini sound. :D
 
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