Vocals Recorded, now what?

[Leeonidas]

Hey, I have a couple of questions. It would be awesome if someone is able to help me.

I have the Blue Yeti microphone, and I record using audacity(it's all I can afford, if there is better free software please let me know).

Once I have the vocals recorded, and laid over the instrumental I play around with the volume of each to find a good level where the instrumental or vocals are not too loud or too quiet. After that I export it as a .wav file. Then I open the wave file and I:
a)compress it(I just use the default settings, I have no idea what anything means, any advice here is welcome)
b) after that I equalize it, again using the default settings.
then
c)normalize it, using the default settings once again.

Then I export the final product as an .mp3. Compared to the raw .wav it does sound a lot cleaner, less raw, and I am pretty satisfied, but it still seems to be missing something.

I was wondering if there is anything else I can do to get a more professional sound? I somewhat understand the compression, but the equalization and normalizing I do not. I know I can layer my vocals for different effects/sounds. The genre is rap/hip-hop if that helps. Just any advice, tips...ANYTHING...to make better quality songs would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[guitarplayr82]

I record using audacity(it's all I can afford, if there is better free software please let me know).

There is some great software called Reaper that you can use for free, although you are encouraged to buy the full version. Check it out here REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits

I'd recommend upgrading to Reaper and checking out some of the features it has. It may seem confusing at first, but once you get to know the interface it'll be really easy to record and mix in it.

Some things you should look into to improve your song mixes:
-reverb
-EQ on individual tracks
-compression on individual tracks
-volume automation
-panning
-recording or mixing in stereo

Look into the things I listed above and try to see what you can do with them. Especially learn how to use EQ and compression. It'll take time to get used to the settings and how these effects can be applied, but they'll greatly improve your mixes when you implement them properly.

 

[Armistice]

Are you recording over a pre-recorded backing track/beats track that you scored somewhere, or did you create the backing track yourself and have control over the individual elements of said backing/beats?

What format is the backing track in?

As GP82 says... Reaper is usually the free software of choice around here... Audacity isn't really that good for multitrack recording IMHO... useful for editing sometimes though.

 

[Leeonidas]

No I don't make my own instrumentals, I just find beats on youtube and do remixes of some of my favorite songs. I looked into reaper and for $40 it seems like a great deal. I'm gunna try out the free version later on.

 

[Bobbsy]

One thing that struck me was that you said your MP3 copies sound better than your original wave files. This wouldn't normally be the case. MP3 compression knocks off all the high frequency information (generally above 16K depending on your settings) and uses psycho-acoustic tricks on the rest of the frequency band to cover up missing detail.

The first thing to do is check that the speakers or headphones you're using to monitor your recordings aren't emphasising the HF too much but, assuming you're happy with this, then it sounds like you want experiment with a bit more EQ at the mixing stage.

As for the basics of mixing, everyone does it a bit differently and every track needs a slightly different approach. However, some basic guidelines might be:

First, get your individual tracks sounding as good and smooth as you can. This often means limiting the top 5 or 6dB of peaks down to 1 or 2dB, especially on vocals. However, be careful not to cut out all the dynamic range or your mix will sound dull and lifeless.

Next, add any delay effects you need but resist the temptation to add much reverb at this time.

Next, listen to the tracks together. At this point you'll want to give each track a bit of "space" of its own, possibly with some panning in the stereo field but you'll likely want to use some light EQ to give each track a bit of its own frequency space.

By this point, you should have a good idea of relative levels and have things set so they're starting to sound okay. Now is the time to add a little overall reverb if needed and maybe some more compression to make the whole mix "sound" louder even if not. If you have access to it, multi-band compression is a powerful tool.

The main things though are to make sure everything in the mix sits well together with every sound source having it's own physical and frequency space.

Bob

 

[Klagen]

Reaper is free forever actually, after the 30 day trial expires you just have to live with a 5 second loading screen thing when starting it up. thats all.

Also you could try to EQ the vocals a bit, that's what i'd do atleast. cut out a bit of the lows and it will generally sound a little cleaner. there is no default EQ setting that works for everything tho, so you'll have to mess around a bit. Also you could try adding some reverb to bring the vocals to life a bit

 

[Jeff_D]

Reaper is free forever actually, after the 30 day trial expires.

well, kinda, but not really. You are correct that there is only one version and there is no copy protection. But, its still not free. After 30 days you're violating the tos you agree to when you load it. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not usually a stickler for this kind of thing (others here very much are), but for what you get and how much it costs, its really dumb to not cough up the cash.

 

[Leeonidas]

hey. Thanks everyone for the feedback. I don't really understand everything you guys have said but that's okay, I'm gunna go ahead and get REAPER and figure it all out, cause I don't feel like audacity can achieve all this, or at least it seems really complicated. Any more advice would be much appreciated but thanks enormously