F
FUNKY
New member
Ho to get vocals sound "in your face" in the mix?
Do you have some tips on this..
Cheers
FUNKY
Do you have some tips on this..
Cheers
FUNKY
Gidge
Lapdance Test Dummy
Great mic...great preamp.....
Blue Bear Sound
New member
And also...
...minimal reverb (close ambient only, if any!)
Bruce
...minimal reverb (close ambient only, if any!)
Bruce
sonusman
Banned
How about a well controlled singer who can "hear" the effects of the mic while they perform. And then the other stuff above after that....
Ed
Ed
VOXVENDOR
New member
Mix a little hot on the vox.... make them a tad crisper (for the layman.. trebily) then the guitars and stuff.... ... (as Bruce above mentioned).. very little on the effects
Joe
Joe
Gidge
Lapdance Test Dummy
...or try recordingyour vocal with two mics, a dynamic and a condensor....dynamic at about 6 inches and the condensor 12 to 18 inches away....compress one but not the other and blend them....
W
Wallycleaver
New member
put your face closer to the vocalist! If recorded move face closer to speakers!
C
CyanJaguar
New member
I noticed that the vocal is more in your face the closer you are to the condenser mic.
1 inch away is TOTALLY in your face. But beware of excessive bass boost.
Also make the vocal a little bit louder in the mix. It also gives the effect you are searching for.
1 inch away is TOTALLY in your face. But beware of excessive bass boost.
Also make the vocal a little bit louder in the mix. It also gives the effect you are searching for.
R
Rick Hammang
New member
I agree with Gidge on the 2 mic one compressor set-up, or one mic split to 2 strips with compressor on one of the channels, EQ could be used to roll off excessive low end, and mid Q can bring the vocal right into your ear, but you want to make it smaller, and more pronounced. Watch the trims for overload, and give a lot of space for dynamics. Let the compressor keep the level up, even though the trim/pads may be way down.
Just a suggestion,
--Rick
Just a suggestion,
--Rick
C
CyanJaguar
New member
sorry, I disagree that a trebly sound will sound in your face.
The "in your face range" is around 300 hz, where you boost to be more forward and cut to pull back
The "in your face range" is around 300 hz, where you boost to be more forward and cut to pull back
sjoko2
New member
I agree - "in your face" is more the place an instrument or vocal takes in the overall mix, rather that any kind of processing or recording method.
VOXVENDOR
New member
The 300 hz, in your face range is correct.. but what I was getting at was, whenever I mix a vocal, if the esses, and other essy words, the when someone says.. "CH".. as in "Change", or something, if it's crisp and cutting through, it does make it sound more in your face, than distant.... (This is in my experience, other opinions, are sure to vary).
Joe
Joe
sonusman
Banned
hmmmmmmmmm......rather interesting posts here.
Audio examples please! Include all pertinent room/equipment used info.
Ed
Audio examples please! Include all pertinent room/equipment used info.
Ed
Tekker
New member
Cut certain frequencies on other instruments to "make room" for the vocals.
E
elbenj
New member
Cyan hit it on the head. Use a dynamic mic due to the fact that it
is more proned to give you the proximity effect. Leave the Vocal
as dry as possible..You will find that this will work for any instrument...
is more proned to give you the proximity effect. Leave the Vocal
as dry as possible..You will find that this will work for any instrument...
Gidge
Lapdance Test Dummy
elbenj,
Im sorta new at this...how does the proximety effect correlate to "in your face" vocals?....
Im sorta new at this...how does the proximety effect correlate to "in your face" vocals?....
sjoko2
New member
Hold on a minute! 
I think this thread is getting confusing - and just ignore the hell out of me if you don't agree after reading this:
What is "in your face" - A sound / instrument(s) / vocal, part of multiple tracks which make up a recording, but with a dominant up-front position, which seems to generate from inside your head, rather then the speakers.
Drums can be 'in your face' - a brass section can be 'in your face' - even a string section can be 'in your face' (remember some ELO recordings?) and of cause vocals can be the same, even backing vocals.
Does this mean that, in order to get an 'in your face' sound, you have to boost or cut certain midrange frequencies? Well - for some instruments, like a vocal, this might help to make the sound more penetrating, easier noticeable. But that should never be done if it disturbs the overall quality of the sound.
For those of you familiar with psycho acoustics, there are brilliant techniques to make things come from inside your head. This can involve logarithms of all kinds - really cool stuff if you're into that sort of thing - horrible if you are not.
A sample of an application of psycho acoustics on a vocal is Uru's song You Know, which is bass & drums with some bastardized water flowing. Play it in HiFi stereo and you'll hear a very strange space effect on the vocal. The downside (and fun to try) - play it in LoFi and the lead vocal almost totally disappears.
Its at http://www.mp3.com/uru
Slightly off the subject, there is another psychoacoustic effect in the song Gypsy Girl - about 2/3 of the way down in a spoken bit, very weird effect! If you'd hear it in 5:1 it would freak you out.
So how do you get an 'in your face' effect without upsetting the sound quality or balance of your mix? And without the use of logarithms? The problem - it varies, depending on what and how your mix is planned. But there are some cool things to try. And I mean TRY - these are things you have to do for yourself, to play with, to listen to the effect and adjust them. That will give you a better understanding of sound, placement, and, hopefully, an understanding of how to create an 'in your face' sound.
Lets say for this purpose we'll stick to making a vocal IYF - but if you haven't got a track with a vocal handy, you can do the same with a guitar - a snare - everything you want to stand out.
First get a mix up without your IYF vocal. Pan EVERYTHING, your drums as tough you sit behind or stand in front, your bass, guitars keys, everything. Doesn't have to be extreme, but make sure nothing is left bang center.
Now add your vocal - bang center, without any reverb or other effects.
What you will find is that you can have an overall lower level for your vocal to achieve the same perceived volume.
Second. You like to have some reverb on your vocal. Well - if you put reverb on your vocal, you will find it moves back in the mix. Even if you increase the level, the perceived level will be less - in other words, less 'in your face'. How do you solve that one? There is a trick which will make the vocal stand out even more.
Leave the vocal the way it is. If you have a stereo verb, use that, marginally different L from R effect - and record the reverb on two channels, feed them into the mix panned full L & R. If you don't have a stereo verb do it 2 x with mono ones. Now experiment with the verb levels in the mix.
You will find that the above will make the original vocal stand out even more.
Other interesting things to try in the same manner are flanging or phasing effects.
Note: another thing to experiment with is the delay in the verb, make the L & R ones come in at different times from each other, both with the same verb settings.
Third - a tricky one but can be used if you have a good effect processor or plug-in. Dump (or bus) your mix WITHOUT the 'in your face' item to 2 channels and experiment with effects on these 2 channels, record the desired effect (ONLY the effects) to 2 tracks. Pan the effects sharp L & R, now play your mix as normal, with the 'in your face' item, and start feeding in the effects gently.
I can never get enough of playing with stuff like that, even after 30 years! There are 100's more 'tricks' but I hope you'll enjoy playing with the above.
I think this thread is getting confusing - and just ignore the hell out of me if you don't agree after reading this:
What is "in your face" - A sound / instrument(s) / vocal, part of multiple tracks which make up a recording, but with a dominant up-front position, which seems to generate from inside your head, rather then the speakers.
Drums can be 'in your face' - a brass section can be 'in your face' - even a string section can be 'in your face' (remember some ELO recordings?) and of cause vocals can be the same, even backing vocals.
Does this mean that, in order to get an 'in your face' sound, you have to boost or cut certain midrange frequencies? Well - for some instruments, like a vocal, this might help to make the sound more penetrating, easier noticeable. But that should never be done if it disturbs the overall quality of the sound.
For those of you familiar with psycho acoustics, there are brilliant techniques to make things come from inside your head. This can involve logarithms of all kinds - really cool stuff if you're into that sort of thing - horrible if you are not.
A sample of an application of psycho acoustics on a vocal is Uru's song You Know, which is bass & drums with some bastardized water flowing. Play it in HiFi stereo and you'll hear a very strange space effect on the vocal. The downside (and fun to try) - play it in LoFi and the lead vocal almost totally disappears.
Its at http://www.mp3.com/uru
Slightly off the subject, there is another psychoacoustic effect in the song Gypsy Girl - about 2/3 of the way down in a spoken bit, very weird effect! If you'd hear it in 5:1 it would freak you out.
So how do you get an 'in your face' effect without upsetting the sound quality or balance of your mix? And without the use of logarithms? The problem - it varies, depending on what and how your mix is planned. But there are some cool things to try. And I mean TRY - these are things you have to do for yourself, to play with, to listen to the effect and adjust them. That will give you a better understanding of sound, placement, and, hopefully, an understanding of how to create an 'in your face' sound.
Lets say for this purpose we'll stick to making a vocal IYF - but if you haven't got a track with a vocal handy, you can do the same with a guitar - a snare - everything you want to stand out.
First get a mix up without your IYF vocal. Pan EVERYTHING, your drums as tough you sit behind or stand in front, your bass, guitars keys, everything. Doesn't have to be extreme, but make sure nothing is left bang center.
Now add your vocal - bang center, without any reverb or other effects.
What you will find is that you can have an overall lower level for your vocal to achieve the same perceived volume.
Second. You like to have some reverb on your vocal. Well - if you put reverb on your vocal, you will find it moves back in the mix. Even if you increase the level, the perceived level will be less - in other words, less 'in your face'. How do you solve that one? There is a trick which will make the vocal stand out even more.
Leave the vocal the way it is. If you have a stereo verb, use that, marginally different L from R effect - and record the reverb on two channels, feed them into the mix panned full L & R. If you don't have a stereo verb do it 2 x with mono ones. Now experiment with the verb levels in the mix.
You will find that the above will make the original vocal stand out even more.
Other interesting things to try in the same manner are flanging or phasing effects.
Note: another thing to experiment with is the delay in the verb, make the L & R ones come in at different times from each other, both with the same verb settings.
Third - a tricky one but can be used if you have a good effect processor or plug-in. Dump (or bus) your mix WITHOUT the 'in your face' item to 2 channels and experiment with effects on these 2 channels, record the desired effect (ONLY the effects) to 2 tracks. Pan the effects sharp L & R, now play your mix as normal, with the 'in your face' item, and start feeding in the effects gently.
I can never get enough of playing with stuff like that, even after 30 years! There are 100's more 'tricks' but I hope you'll enjoy playing with the above.
Last edited:
C
Chuckschwandt
New member
Come out of the direct out of the channel, or
use the first indent of your insert to tap the
vocal signal. Then, plug it directly into
another channel. Now you have two channels
of vocals. Then, you can boost the bass on
one and the highs on the other. Bottom line is now
you have two channels to pan, verb, compress,
and etc. You can also keep tapping the signal
over and over till you have more vocal channels
to fatten it up.
use the first indent of your insert to tap the
vocal signal. Then, plug it directly into
another channel. Now you have two channels
of vocals. Then, you can boost the bass on
one and the highs on the other. Bottom line is now
you have two channels to pan, verb, compress,
and etc. You can also keep tapping the signal
over and over till you have more vocal channels
to fatten it up.
BBB
Member
Depending on what you are looking for, some decent compression can increase the average level of the vox in the mix. Thus, you can bring the overall vox up higher by increasing the overall level while reducing the dynamic peaks. Try using a fast attack and slow release. If you want more punch, slow down the attack and increase the release.
Me
Me