Strings, Piano and voice masking each other. Help.

[Maddox]

Hello.
I have a song with Cello, Violins, Piano and Voice. All except for the voice are midi.

In terms of panning, the violins are doubled, and one track is all the way to the left, and the other is all the way to the right, to cover the whole stereo spectrum.

The Cello is all the way to the right, and the piano is at the center. The voice is also at the center.

They are masking each other, sometimes, and i dont know from what instruments i should cut frequencies, and what frequencies to help with this. I'm experimenting, but the results are not quite the ones i'd like. I'm going for something similar to Your Song, by Elton John.

Can anyone provide some EQ cutting guidelines, please ? I have an eq chart, with all those instruments and voice, that i found on the internet, and as I said, i'm experimenting, but not getting very good results.

Anyone, please ? Thank you.

 

[Steenamaroo]

OK, so...

Can you post a clip to start off? I'd be easier to advise hearing that.

You say the violins are doubled. If this is an identical double (ie digital copy) then there's no point.
Panning one to the left and one to the right is the same as just keeping the original in the middle and turning it up.

Even if it's two instances of the synth, the two tracks are still going to be digitally identical, so unless you've done something like changed the synth voice on one of them, i'd scrap that idea and just go solo on the violin.

An alternative is to keep it the way it is, and adjust the notes of the one left or right violin so you have a nice harmony.


IDK. with three instruments, I'd be inclined to have the piano panned out l+r, but not hard.(It's a stereo synth right?)
Maybe half way each way if that makes sense? (50l and 50r in protools)

Then just have the cello and violin panned slightly left and right as they would probably be in a real room.

You shouldn't need to be struggling with eq over such a sparse mix, because all your sounds are replicas of real instruments that blend beautifully on a real stage without it.

A final option is to send me the wav and midi files,,cos I'm really bored today!
Hope that helps.

 

[guitaristic]

Well, EQ is a somewhat personal preference, so I'm not going to give specific frequencies, but just try to play around and carve out a spot for each instrument. It's not hard to do, and you might find some cool mixes in it

 

[benage]

Without hearing it it's hard to say, but you might want to consider changing one or two instruments down (or up) an octave if they are all playing in the same range, this will get them out of the way without having to resort to EQ.

 

[miroslav]

I have a song with Cello, Violins, Piano and Voice. All except for the voice are midi.

In terms of panning, the violins are doubled, and one track is all the way to the left, and the other is all the way to the right, to cover the whole stereo spectrum.

The Cello is all the way to the right, and the piano is at the center. The voice is also at the center.

Do those MIDI tracks have tons of reverb? Most synth/samples tend to come slathered in reverb, because individually, it makes them sound so much better then dry.
If all of the samples/synth tracks came with their own reverb, or if you are adding a lot of reverb...it will cause them to step all over each other no matter how much you pan.

Also...if you double the violins and pan hard L/R...is they both the same violin track, just two copies?
If they are, and you don't have any delay between them, they will appear centered and also all over everything because they are also panned to both sides...basically covering the entire stereo image, but mostly appearing in the middle.

Start with ALL tracks 100% dry. If violin tracks are just identical copies, then introduce some delay on one of the tracks, a few milliseconds, so that you can hear one on the left and the other on the right with the slight delay.
Get the piano out of the center, it's a wide bandwidth instrument that will overpower the voice and other instruments if it's too big/bold. Move it a little to one side...leave the center for the voice.
Now with all that sorted...if you are going to add any reverb, try it only on the vocal...leave all the other tracks dry and see how that works for you. You don't need a lot of reverb on piano, or strings...IMO.

 

[clivus]

In my experience, the instruments you are using can be midrange-heavy, as are most vocals. I suspect you have a ton of midrange information trampling your vocal. I would start by cutting the mids on your instruments in the 2K range. Some ducking of the instruments during the vocal phrases will give the vocals some space as well.