Some Help Mixing/mastering

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courage71181

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maybe you can give me some guidance,
i use cool edit pro 2.0. i suck at making my voice sound "right" with the beat. usually, i do dynamics processing to cut down the "shreaky-ness", and a reverb or something along with that FOR VOCAL EFFECTS. the problem is, no matter what i do adjusting the volumes of either my voice, or the beat...my voice always sounds behind or in front of the beat. i dont know if that makes sense to you, it just sounds seperate, like not "as one" and smooth. i do the manual mix down to file, all waves. is there something i can do with the mixing/mastering...and also something i can do with my voice...to make it sound a lot smoother and kind of on the same sound wave as the beat??
i'd appreciate the help highly.
thanks,
bob
 
some ideas. just try "nudging" the track or individual voice wavelets using editing. also try singing the vocals twice. normally the first time people are nervous on first vocal take.
once they have one down already the second one is normally easier. just "psychlogical". also make sure you have a good hphone mix.
i dont knw what you mean by shreaking. if you find your vocal track too sizzly like bacon. try judicious eq cute in the 2k to 6k area.
maybe boost the low mids a bit. for vocal thickness and character sing the track twice then nudhe one track just a few milliseconds forward in time.
if you want an interesting songwriters aid sometime; but be aware its quite addictive. try demo of band in a box from pgmusic.com.
peace and happy songwriting.
 
Yeah, right click on the track in Multitrack view and go to Wave Block Properties, and change the time offset (what you need to change will most likely be in milliseconds) and keep doing that until it mixes right.
 
okie dokie

i can't find the judicious eq cute...where's that at?
 
my bad typing. should be EQ CUT !
you just select a para eq frequency rang with a q factor.
(read up on google about parametric eqing and use of q factors).
then try selective cuts of that freq range. note - the wider the q more freqs are effected by the cut. the narrower, the fewer etc blah blah.
 
also, when i set the milliseconds off a little bit..it's giving me this weird effect like my voice is echo'd in like the wood coffin type deal where it's low and weird....who knows i may never get this right!!!!!helllp!


your hints are really very helpful. i appreciate that help.
some issues, though.
i don't know anything about the 2k to 6k ranges or anything technical like that, basically, i dont know which bars to move up and down and play with and how much to move them. also, should i do this to the vocals, only....ot to the mixdown? remember, my final mixdown is what's weird..the vocals never sound totally on the same frequency with the beat for that "smoothness" sound like you'd get if it were professionally mixed down and mastered. i know my resources here are limited, but i'd like to make it the best i possibly can you know?? i'm an amateur but i want to learn.
 
make the milliseconds lower. till you hear it right.
you MUST EXPERIMENT.
 
realise one thing. unless your input chain of mic, mic preamp , and convertors is top notch its difficult.
please post details on which mic,mixer or pre and soundcard your using.
i might have some ideas. if your using a blaster card or other terrible consumer card its beating a dead horse. youll need a better sound card.
 
i'm using whatever sound card came with my computer, so it's probably cheesy; you're right. also, my microphone is a 40 dollar hand held radio shack mic hooked up to an adapter, and then into my computer. the sound quality isn't as bad as all that shitty equipment sounds, but you're probably right on the fact that i won't get it as crisp as i want it, until i spend like 500 bucks on some good stuff. i'm planning on it around x-mas time. but that changing the milliseconds tip, that was awesome. is there any tips you got on the entire song after the vocals were laid and it was mixed down to one file...like any tips on effects after it's mixed down??you're a good guy man, i appreciate you taking your time out, not a lot of people are stand up people any more these days.
bob
 
re....signal chain. for a decent mic try the cad gxl (50 bucks).
for a decent mixer ...yamaha mg starting around 100 bucks if i remember. sound card...audiophile 2496. (about 100 bucks). so for less than 300 bucks youll have a decent signal chain. but before you get the sound card - tell me your computer confign please IN FULL so i can check and tell me
what you have in your pci slots.
for dirt cheap (using an xlr to qtr inch adaptor). plug the shack mic into the mic input of a cassette deck , and line out of the cass dek to the sound card. this way you can control the level going to sound card. tell me if it improves the cleanliness of your tracks. you can find old cass deks around for 10 bucks.
hmm - i could write pages on after mixing down.
cool edit has an array of fine mastering features. in particular experiment with the filtering. particularly with crap sound cards try and really slope down the very low end. nasty stuff down below 80 hz. just experiment.
see what a difference adding hi eq above 8k will do for you. (think "air").
biggest tip i can give you when mixing is to cut eq rather than boosting to create eq spaces.
peace and hope this helps. there is so much i could mention.
also i forgot if you want a nice songwriters aid check out band in a box from pgmusic.com. it creates a back up band. but i warn you - highly addictive !
 
also i forgot. having created your mixdown in cool.
play your mix in cool and heres a TIP. watch the meters.
you want to max out about -3b down from zero on the peaks. NOT RIGHT AT ZERO. this will give any mastering engineer you send your songs to a little bit of leeway. ALWAYS give the masrtering engr leeway. he will be most happy. also some type of song count in is usefull in case later on you
(or maybe a record company that signs you) wants to add additional tracks
and massage what you have. ideally a seperate track with a click on (muted for mix) can be quite usefull as well.
peace.
 
oh jeesh i forgot. also in cool are an array of frequency analysis tools. REALLY REALLY EXPLORE these. they can be really helpfull.
also when using cool noise reduction. this can be usefull with crap on board sound. sample a bit of sound card noise at track start, identify the noise print to cool, and then apply to whole track. BUT NOTE...keep the cool NR slider down lower. dont go very high. you might get what i calll "chirping".
try applying the noise print of the sound card also to the mixdown file.
to do this cool will let you store a noise print. just record a few seconds of nothing blank audio (no playing). and hilite and save the noise print.
apply it to the mixdown and see if the mix is cleaner.
peace.
 
more. an old trick for vocals in cool.
record your vocals twice. slide the second vocal forward just TEENY milliseconds. try about 5 msecs or less. then go to cools echo. try a slap back echho. you MUST EXPERIMENT. go for about 30 per cent dry 70 per cent effect with a delay between 40 to 100 millisecs in cool (EXPERIMENT !!)
apply to second vocal track. keep first DRY (no effect).
DONT PUT THE SECOND EFFECTED VOCAL TRACK AT THE SAME SLIDER LEVEL. put the level down a bit from the first vocal track. tell me how you get on. this is lots of WORK but if you get it right it sounds "cool".
also experiment with panning the second effected track. eg: dry one centre.
pan just a tad off to one side. now try extreme left and right.
see the difference from pan center ? lots to learn.
if you want to know how to do ping pong just ask.
now try the same with cools other effects like reverb , flanging, chorusing.
its ALL in cool. but you must learn how to exploit the features.
peace. and if you think ive helped click my scales. people always forget !
 
if you could, please get me the trail to each of those tips you stated..meaning, dont just say eq-this, use a slider, and watch my meter. i'm an amateur remember??you gotta kinda let me know where these things are exactly...other than that, i clicked your scale, and your tips are great and very much appreciated man, keep up the good work!!
(and i WILL EXPERIMENT; ALOT).
 
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