Air Enhancer, EQ, Compression vs Vocal Stacking

[bryced87]

How often do mixers use the Air Enhancer (or similar plug in) along with EQ, Compression etc to enhance vocals rather than stacking them? My friend always stacks his vocals 12 times so they are louder.

[bryced87]

Does anyone know?

[Craig F]

no amount of processing can beat a good stack

[Wall2Wall]

Not if you are just copying and pasting the same exact piece on top of each other 12 times to create your "stack". That's what this seems like. And that's insane. If you want to make your vocals louder, #1 record with a good level. #2 Turn up the volume fader. And #3 Turn down the music.

[bryced87]

I've always been confused how how hot to record vocals and guitar. Someone told me to always record at -10 and never go in the yellow but that always seems to quiet

[Wall2Wall]

My advice. Invest in yourself. Book a session in a studio with an experienced engineer and watch, ask questions, and learn. There are no self taught surgeons, even in the internet age.

In the meantime, Google and/or youtube "vocal mixing" or something similar. "tracking vocals" or something similar. But be careful. When learning hands on you learn one thing at a time and you master it and move on. The internet tends to throw 10 things at you at once when reading or watching tutorials and aspiring engineers tend to think you need to use all 10 of those processes all the time.

http://modernmixing.com/blog/2013/08...mixing-vocals/
http://www.behindthemixer.com/mixing...-eqing-vocals/
http://theproaudiofiles.com/voice-pr...q-cuts-boosts/

[bryced87]

Originally Posted by Wall2Wall

My advice. Invest in yourself. Book a session in a studio with an experienced engineer and watch, ask questions, and learn. There are no self taught surgeons, even in the internet age.

In the meantime, Google and/or youtube "vocal mixing" or something similar. "tracking vocals" or something similar. But be careful. When learning hands on you learn one thing at a time and you master it and move on. The internet tends to throw 10 things at you at once when reading or watching tutorials and aspiring engineers tend to think you need to use all 10 of those processes all the time.

http://modernmixing.com/blog/2013/08...mixing-vocals/
http://www.behindthemixer.com/mixing...-eqing-vocals/
http://theproaudiofiles.com/voice-pr...q-cuts-boosts/

That's the person that told me to never go in the yellow. He's a professional experienced engineer.

What I'm struggling with is wondering if each and every syllable needs to be the same level when gain staging. Like if I'm gain staging for -12db is it wrong to ever his -14 or -6?

The engineer I watched was saying you should never had louder parts exceed -10.

EDIT: Just read an article that suggests anywhere from -10-6bd is suitable for recording audio levels