Vocal Questions

[songwritten]

Hey everyone...It's been awhile since I've posted...but I've been reading a WHOLE lot of stuff on this site for a long time. I've searched on this board for awhile...found things similar to what I'm going to post...but nothing right on...Anyways...I've been trying to record vocals...I'm a singer/songwriter and I've been working with an acoustic and vocals. Heres my problem: I record my acoustics...have about three tracks of vocals. When I go to record my vocals...they are clear and sound decent...but they just don't....its hard to word this...they just don't fit...certain parts do and certain parts don't. I wish could figure out how to getmy tracks seem more contained but I can't seem to get a handle on it. I tracked with slight compression on the vocals...but I dont even feel like it made any difference. I work the microphone like crazy and still I can't get a sound that is contained..its all over the place. I've experimented with being close to the mic and working it from there and standing further from the mic and working it from there. How do you guys go about getting your vocal tracks to not have varied peaks and loud parts? I know this is SUCH a broad question...but I'm really stuck and I've been working on this ALL day. I'm using my friends RODE NT1-A condensor, going straight into my mackie DFX-12. Good clear sound...but my room sucks...basically I'm just standing in the middle of by bed room...is that having a major factor on my problem? Thanks so much everyone....and sorry about the lenghthy post. I'm just frustrated with myself.

 

[Rokket]

Using compression when you are recording isn't enough. You have to use it when you are mixing too.

And a little control while you are singing could help you. Try listening to your vocal without the backing tracks. If you can listen to it without making faces, it's probably pretty good, and some compression is all you need to help it stand out, and level the sound.

But if you find yourself wincing during certain parts, and going "ugh, that's terrible", it's probably not something compression (and some light eq'ing) is going to help, because the problem is in the performance.

 

[maddrummer]

A big part of it is probably the performance. Good vocal technique takes a long time to develop so work on that. I don't know what you are recording into, but if you can write automation or ride a fader when you are mixing then try that. It's a little more time consuming to write automation for ever little part but sometimes I get the best results doing that. Good Luck

 

[songwritten]

yeah ill def. work on the performance part. I just don't understand though...ive done a full album with my band and havent had a problem. Using the same gear. But now that I'm doing it acoustic...I guess I'm gonna have to be more aware of what I'm doing at each part in the song. Rokket, I forgot to add that I was including compression in mixdown. I am using sonar....so I can use automation...it did sound pretty good with automation, but it just felt weird depending on it when I didn't use in when I recorded with my band. Some more experimenting will be done tomorrow! If I can get my cd burner hooked up then ill post some samples of it tomorrow. thanks guys!

 

[mattamatta]

Sounds like you're on the right track toward getting it worked out.

Dont feel bad that things are different now than they were before - a different song can call for completely different approaches.

And, one thing I'll say that I think is a big factor here is that the dynamic range of acoustic stuff is inherently farr different from the dynamic range of a typical electric rock mix.

So it really is a bit of a different beast with it's own set of problems and issues.

Getting a vocal sound to really fit in and become coherent with a mix can be one of the hardest jobs in mixing. It really is an art to be mastered. Sometimes I've slapped a preset on a track and it worked fine. Other times I tweaked and tweaked and tweaked, compression, eq, reverb - and nothing worked.

Sometimes it's one of those things that will suddenly click and get you moving toward the "right" sound, sometimes it's a balance between some or all of them or other things.

I recently was mixing around with a vocal and just couldn't get the compression right no matter what I did... finally I tweaked the eq a bit, and with a little bit of eq in the right places, it really came together just right, and I was able to get it to do what I wanted it to.

It's some tough stuff, so just keep playing with it, maybe having people listen to clips if you get stuck.

Good luck.

 

[mcolling]

When I go to record my vocals...they are clear and sound decent...but they just don't....its hard to word this...they just don't fit...certain parts do and certain parts don't. I wish could figure out how to getmy tracks seem more contained but I can't seem to get a handle on it. I tracked with slight compression on the vocals...but I dont even feel like it made any difference. I work the microphone like crazy and still I can't get a sound that is contained..its all over the place.

Could it be that your vocal just isn't in time with your acoustic track the way that it would be if you recorded both at once?

In fact, if you're just recording your voice and acoustic, why not do them both at once? Just use a dynamic on your vocals, I would say, and then use the condenser for the guitar.

What does everyone think of that technique?

 

[songwritten]

Thanks guys, I gave it a try again and I got it right! Only thing thats annoying now is that I suck at using a de-esser...I'm still working on those soundclips...i don't have a burner installed in my recording computer yet so I'm gonna mix the song to my tascam...then run my tascam into the computer im on right now and mix it into N-track then ill upload it here. It definatly took some time getting the vocals to feel right. When I recorded with my band we were playing Zeppelin-like songs. The song I'm working on now is more in the Goo Goo Dolls kinda area. Thanks again!