Reverb and Mixing advice on vocals for Van Diemens Land cover by U2 needed

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atulisrockin

atulisrockin

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Hey guys, I am a newbie here and keen on learning how to mix and master :-)

I am working on a cover that I would like to publish on YouTube with me performing the song. The song is Van Diemen's Land by U2, which is a great simple tune.

To keep things very simple I've only got two tracks, vocals and guitar. First thing is that I want to add reverb to the vocals and make it sound near enough to the original by U2, I know there is a lot of roomy echo in his voice in the original, but I know very little about reverb settings. I assume compressing the voice would be a good idea too.

Also any other ideas on EQ and panning would be useful too. I use Reaper so if you can let me know what reverb/compression settings I should use on it that would be useful.

Set up:

UX2 Pod as input for guitar and mic
DAW : Reaper
Mic : SM58
Guitar : Epiphone Les Paul with DiMarzio pick-ups

I've attached the mixed down version of the mp3 so far with dry vocals and slightly panned electric guitar (with the Edge style delay). I can also attach the individual tracks if that helps. This is just a rough recording and I will do another one when I know what I am doing with mixing/mastering. Thanks!
 

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I wasn't familiar with the tune, the only examples I can find are recorded live. In those the reverb is produced primarily by the venue/room (and then whatever the mix engineer did with it). If that's what you're after, you're going to want to simulate that space.

There is a very good article on using reverb and delay for blend and size here.

If you follow the suggestion in the article, you'll set up your reverb plug-in as a send effect and pick a likely-sounding preset - something like Large Hall or Stadium or whatever and then tweak parameters from there. And you may have to go through quite a few presets to find something that sounds decent.

It sounds to me like in addition to the Edge type delay, the guitar was recorded with it's own reverb? If so, you might consider re-tracking without it. You want to send both tracks to the same reverb to put them in the same space.

As far as the mix goes, to me the guitar can come down in level relative to the vocals. You will probably want a little bit of compression on both tracks to even out the performance. EQ and pan however you want to, or to try to match the U2 version.

FWIW

J
 
Ok thanks man! That is quite useful and I will have a full read at the Sound on Sound article.

The original version by U2 can be found on YouTube by putting this into search "U2-Van Diemen's Land (Lyrics)" I would post the direct link, but as a newbie I am not allowed to just yet :-/

It looks like he has gone for a large hall type reverb so I will try and match that effect as much as possible. I had some reverb on the guitar amp simulator already in addition to the delay effect. Presumably I take that off completely and then apply the same reverb setting both to vocals and guitar when I am happy with the sound I am getting?

I haven't EQd things much so it will take some training for my ear to get used to hearing the right frequencies. Compression is easier to hear and see on screen.
 
I would describe it as a large bright room/plate with the reverb's presence turned up way louder than normal. The large hall may delay the reverb too much to be a match.

Great song fwiw, one of my faves on Rattle and Hum. :)
 
Thanks, that was a really useful description and I've tried it out on Reaper with much closer results. I actually didn't realise the difference between a big room Vs a hall in the reverb context. They are quite different actually, I was going with the literal interpretation of the two!

I am using the DX : SonyExpressFXRever plugin on Reaper and on Room Type I chose plate. The dry to wet mix is 50/50. I am experimenting with room size and liveliness. I am going to re-track this anyway since my tempo is a little too high compared to the original affecting the singing.

Rattle and Hum is an awesome album :-) And this is a great song to start off with as it is just two very simple tracks :-)
 
Ok guys, I have produced another version. Feedback on this would be valuable as well. I won't be able to exactly emulate that U2 production of it or match the Edge's vocal delivery but I am happy with how close this is now. I will re-track it one last time with better vocal delivery and projection though and make my video after that. Any tips on levels and tweaking reverb would be handy. File attached, thanks.
 

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I remember this song from the Joshua Tree. I liked the first one better. The seocnd one has way too much reverb on the vocals. Guitars are great on the first and should be left alone.

More than a reverb problem, I think the vocals need to be eq'd to be a little brighter and bring the volume up on them. Try a high pass and cut some of the boominess of the vocals.

Good Job though. My only complaint is trying to sound too much like U2. That's a matter of taste though.
 
Super! As I suspected the reverb I chose was a lil' too much so I will dial it down to be on the safe side, but I do still prefer some reverb as it feels more like the original. Guitar on the first felt brighter as there was less reverb on it, I added the same reverb on guitar the second time round as I did on the vocals second time round and the guitar seems to have gotten submerged a bit. I've never EQd properly before so I will play with that as well for vocals. Some of the boominess might have been due to singing too close to that SM58, which accentuates bass notes so I will move my pop shield a bit further to give me a brighter vocal sound from the outset.

I want to pitch the song somewhere between U2 and my own take on it, and hopefully I can converge to a nice place on that soon enough. Thanks for the feedback.
 
Take 3 mp3 attached. Here's the improvements I have now made

- Taken off a lot of reverb on vocals ; also on guitar :guitar:
- Compressed vocals more
- EQd vocals to remove some of the boom using the high pass

The high pass was a really really useful thing for me to learn. I kept changing the cut off frequency until I felt the boominess was removed without compromising too much of the low end in the voice, surprising how effective this is! The mix sounds a lot clearer.
 

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Mix three (Take three would mean a different performance) is much better than either of the other two. At least it does on the crappy RCA stereo I listened to it on.

Now my only complaint is I'd rather hear you being instead of imitating the Edge. Maybe you could apply if U2 ever needs a guitarist. :)

Check out my version of Cry Baby Cry here in the MP3 clinic if you would be so kind.
 
Cool beans. Yeah I'm more than happy to hear your song and put in my 2 cents. I tried looking around for it but couldn't find it easily. Can you post a link? and I'll get on it.
 
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