Vocal Mixing Tips/Suggestions Adobe Audition Cs6

[omgitsjamal]

What's up guys, first post on the forum. i'm an upcoming musician finally getting into the beginning process of recording my debut project. i plan on doing my vocals at the studio(neumann tlm102, maybe tlm49, i can't remember at this moment) and doing the best mixing work i can when i get home. i'd appreciate it if none of you made statements claiming that i'm "being too cheap" to pay for professional mixing because that's totally not the case. i have other things to pay for that prohibit me from spending $50-$60 per song(16 songs) on mixing fees. if i had the $$$ to invest, TRUST me i'd do it in a heartbeat but i just can't. also, all of the instrumentals i'm using are already pre-mixed. any tips on how to blend my vocals with the music would basically save my life lol. my main thing is making sure everything blends together well and that the instrumentals don't overpower the vox and vice versa. it would be impossible for me to get the tracked out files for all these instrumentals. most of them are free beats that i feel i was blessed to discover before any major artist did(they're that good)

i'm pretty sure i can do a decent job with most of the songs but in a few, the instrumentals get really loud and i just want to make sure everything is blended. here's a song that i tried mixed a while back. i used a few effects for the vocals in audacity and mixed it all together with adobe audition cs6. anyone who uses audition now or has past experience with it and would like to give some tips, would be greatly appreciated! anyone else who has suggestions on other mixing software or anything like that in general would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

[Alex Sanford]

Here are some of my best vocal tips:

1. Stacked compressors. If you use a single compressor plugin to squash the vocals down to the point where the volume is pretty consistent, it can sound unnatural. Try a 2 or 3 compressors, where each compressor is only providing off 2-3dB of gain reduction. That will get the vocal level to sit a little more consistently in level, thus making it easier for it to sit in the mix.

2. Fast attack and release on your compressors. This will essentially tame down the loud vowel sounds, and emphasize the consonants, which will help the vocals to be more understandable, even if the level is fairly low.

3. Volume automation. Go through manually and turn up some of the quieter parts, and turn down some of the louder parts using automation.

4. Listen to a bunch of other music in the same genre. Listen to how the vocal sits in the mix. How loud is it? Does it sound compressed? Use this to determine volume, compression level, and even EQ decisions.

Hope this helps.

Alex
http://indieartistlounge.com