vocal seperation

[Daniel Turkosz]

Whenever I record vocals on my korg d12, they always sound seperated from the rest of the instraments. No matter how much I play with the eq's it won't sound like the vocals blend with the other tracks like how they do in professional recordings. How can I fix this?????

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Danial:

Sounds like you are recording your vocal way hotter than the rest of the sounds?

Usually folks have trouble getting the vocal up front of the music. Seems as you have the vocal FAR up front.

How many tracks do you use for the vocal? If you're using two, maybe one would be enough. Maybe cut down on your input if using a mic preamp?

Or, record your music a bit hotter? Not familiar with your recording box but it sounds like a digital recorder.

The music should not overwhelm the voice nor should the voice overwhelm the music.

Try some adjustments in your input .

Green Hornet

 

[iqi616]

Whenever I record vocals on my korg d12, they always sound seperated from the rest of the instraments. No matter how much I play with the eq's it won't sound like the vocals blend with the other tracks like how they do in professional recordings. How can I fix this?????

It sounds like you're fairly new to recording (if not, I apologize).

I presume that you are recording the instruments and the vocals so they all have a good level (peaking around -3 dB) on disk. If the D12 is like the D1600 you have to set BOTH the input trim AND the channel fader when recording.

Are you applying any EQ or effects while you're recording? When you initially play back and do a rough mix, do you do it without EQ or effects first? What are you monitoring with? Are you using live instruments or samples?

Check your levels and try a straight mix first before you start EQing or adding effects. Use speakers, not headphones.

...Mike

 

[Henrik]

You don't say what type of music you do, and what advice to give greatly depends. I mostly do rock music, dense mixes with a lot of loud guitars. Here's what I usually do to get the vocals to sit in the mix:

I compress a lot. Many people will tell you not to, but I like the vocals to be quite heavlily compressed.

I cut some EQ around 250 hz and boost some at around 2,5 khz. Don't overdo this as it will make your vocals sound like you recorded it through a telephone. While tracking I use a high pass filter to get rid of everything below 100 hz.

I cut the guitar's EQ some around 2,5 khz, to create some room for the vocals.

Sometimes I add a short delay, maybe just one bounce (Elvis style). This makes the vocals stand out a bit since the echo will be out of time compared to the rest of the music.

What this will do is to give the vocals a space of its own in the mix. This means you can hear it without having to turn it up very loud - it sits in the mix.

Note that this is what I do for dense mixes. I wouldn't try this for a ballad.

Good luck
/Henrik

 

[Henrik]

You can listen to some songs of my band Polyester. They are recorded precisely this way. http://polyester.just.nu

/Henrik

(There seems to be a problem with the RealAudio versions of the songs, so you'll have to DL the mp3:s. THey are about 4 mb each).