vocal stacking

[hmsbass]

I have used "stacking" a few times, but not on a regular basis. Lately, when we try to stack, I'm getting a lot of echo effect. Will that be caused by the master fader level being to high? We record the song once, I set up four more tracks, play the previous recording to listen through headphones, and record again. It's tricky, and we have been successful, and a lot cheaper than spending money we don't have for something like Vocalign. We spent considerable time in our last session on one song. The alignment and echo problems were frustrating.....not to mention the "performance" issues. I probably have misconceptions in trying to use "Quantize" to help the alignment issue.......
Thanks for your input.

[albee1952]

Tough to answer without knowing how you record in the first place. What interface? How are you creating your headphone mix(straight out of PT, with the interface software)? What buffer setting are you tracking at? Once its recorded, you can use nudge to move your "stacks" to align with the main vocal. You could also use Elastic Audio(Monophonic) to line up the "stacks" with the main vocal(enable EA and show markers on the main vocal so you have a visual guide).

[hmsbass]

Using Digi 002R interface, with PreSonus DigiMax preamp, 4 AKG Perception 420 mics, Pro Tools LE 8.04. We us my laptop computer and an external hard drive to store the sessions. I set up four mono tracks initially, or eight and make four inactive until I need them. I've probably got the buffering set pretty high as often a window opens in the middle of things notifying that I'm running out of CPU power. That happened while I was recording to a master cd, right in the middle of the 5th track. But, that is another story.....
I've decided to delete the previous session completely and start all over. Will record the primary and stack before any editing or plug ins. Maybe that will take care of the echo...I hope. I'm also hoping that the refurbished laptop I've ordered will alleviate any lack of CPU power.

Way the by, my name is Darrel....but some have called me things that shouldn't be shared ;>)

[hmsbass]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Tough to answer without knowing how you record in the first place. What interface? How are you creating your headphone mix(straight out of PT, with the interface software)? What buffer setting are you tracking at? Once its recorded, you can use nudge to move your "stacks" to align with the main vocal. You could also use Elastic Audio(Monophonic) to line up the "stacks" with the main vocal(enable EA and show markers on the main vocal so you have a visual guide).

Sorry, didn't answer all your questions...... Headphones are from the 002R through Pre Sonus headphone amp. EA is activated, Monophonic. I have "Low Latency" checked.
I don't plan to apply the EA, or anything else, until we are done recording. It takes practice to stack and begin and stay in time with the first recording, but we have been able to accomplish that on more than one occasion.
Thanks for your comments.

[albee1952]

LLM should keep you tight, but the "talent" of singing tight doubles is not universal(some do it great, others....not so much). I have had good results with EA, but have recently been trying ReVoice Pro and it really delivers(but it ain't cheap).

I do all my tracking at the 64 buffer without LLM(I need the plugins and sends to work), but my computer is likely more powerful than your laptop

[ondruspat]

Is the echo you're mentioning bleed from your headphones? A lot of cheaper headphones will "leak" sound. It's always good to have at least one real good "closed" set for critical performances.