D
dmbpettit
New member
What does it mean when people talk about vocals being up front in the mix.
C
chessrock
Banned
It means that it would give the illusion that the singer was in front of the band, and that the vocalist is closer, in proximity, to the listener ... with the rest of the band positioned a little further back. If you were to picture the band rehearsing or performing in front of you.
D
dmbpettit
New member
how do you do that?
C
chessrock
Banned
There's a few ways. Making it louder than the other instruments ... dryer (less reverb or longer pre-delay) ... compression.
dgatwood
is out. Leave a message.
Get a singer who knows how to sing. 
Seriously, though... the difference between someone who knows how to project properly and someone who doesn't can very easily be the difference between a mix where the vocals are clear and a mix where the vocals feel buried even if everything else (volume, EQ, compression, wetness, etc.) are perfect.
That said, if they don't project, you can try boosting the... I guess one would call it upper mids... the upper formants.... It can make things sound much more intelligible without changing the relative volume.
A couple of URLs:
Seriously, though... the difference between someone who knows how to project properly and someone who doesn't can very easily be the difference between a mix where the vocals are clear and a mix where the vocals feel buried even if everything else (volume, EQ, compression, wetness, etc.) are perfect.
That said, if they don't project, you can try boosting the... I guess one would call it upper mids... the upper formants.... It can make things sound much more intelligible without changing the relative volume.
A couple of URLs:
eraos
Local Spiderman
Before Blue Bear gets to it, i'll refer to his mixing 101 post, at least the eq tables part of it. (at bluebearsound.com)
To support what the others have said:
When I recorded my friend's voice for a song, once, it came out really crappy, all muddied. He wasn't around for me to re-record it, so I had to deal with what I had. And by raising that 5kHz range, it does add a lot of clarity to the vocal.
Well, that was my first actual helping post.
To support what the others have said:
When I recorded my friend's voice for a song, once, it came out really crappy, all muddied. He wasn't around for me to re-record it, so I had to deal with what I had. And by raising that 5kHz range, it does add a lot of clarity to the vocal.
Well, that was my first actual helping post.
S
screws
New member
Ambience, in general, sometimes causes a track to sit further back in the mix. Reverb, delays and other effects can move the track back more than you might want it. But one very overlooked ambient addition is when a vocal is miked from a distance of 12" or more. The mic is then picking up the vocal as well as the natural room ambience, reverberations, delays and reflections, which can move the vocal back in the mix.
In other words, get the mic close to the singer if you want the singer to sound close to the listener.
In other words, get the mic close to the singer if you want the singer to sound close to the listener.