getting the vocals inside the music

[wuskool]

my dilemma i get musical mixes, and record good vox. but i cant seem to get the vox in a good blend with the music, is it in my compression or is it just my ear? ANYBODY GOT ANY GOOD TIPS?

[Scott McLemore]

Welcome to the DUC.

The whole song is not a solo no matter what the band thinks-- somebody's gonna have to compromise!

Sometimes it' a matter of what I've heard called "carving a hole with EQ" for your vocals to sit in-- happens between instruments as well-- if there's too much happening in one frequency range the part you want will be drowned out. For instance I am always having to scoop some high mids out of the rhythm guitar to hear the piano line.

With vocals in particular, you might need some tasteful compression, as they can be too peaky to get very loud without going into the red. Red (clip) is really bad in Pro Tools (input, plugin, or masters), by the way. Too much compression of the instruments can make them into a brick wall nothing will get through. Get the mix working as a whole, with some headroom, before you compress the masters.

Or... the suggestion nobody ever seems to want... you might have to turn down the band if you want to hear the words!!

Trust your ears-- they're the best tool you can have-- but looking at different kinds of meters (peak / RMS / spectrum / even SPL on live gigs) once in awhile sure doesn't hurt!

Scott

[tommyj1112]

OK, well, you haven't really given us enough information to really be able to help you. There are pletny of general and generic tips or strategies out there on recording and mixing vocals, just do a Search for them.

But if you are looking for specific help with your mixes, then you really need to provide us with more information about what you are doing. What is your set-up like? What is in your signal path? What is your monitoring situation like? What is it about the blend of the vocals with the instruments that you don't like? What kind of music are you recording? Is there a certain style or sound you are trying to achieve?

It would even be better if you could post a clip so we can hear what you are talking about!

[cfb25]

Is this before or after mastering? Mix the thing as well as you can. Then hit it with a c4 on multi-electro, then a L1-ult max so you get max about 4db, This always sit my vocals right in. These can't take anything and make it amazing, but it does a fine job of making something good sound great.

[wuskool]

WHATS THE CT4 AND OTHE PLUG YOU MENTIONED

[JFreak]

you can also try MID-SIDE processing. in other words, duck everything else from the center and then put lead voc into that space. Waves S1 makes this easy.

[cfb25]

C4 is a multi-band compressor, and L1 is a lookahead limiter and dther... These are both waves plug-ins available in several packages.. Check it out at waves.com Their stuff is bomb, you can't go wrong, reverbs, compressors, eq's everything...

[Kryst]

C4 is a multi-band compressor, and L1 is a lookahead limiter and dther... These are both waves plug-ins available in several packages.. Check it out at waves.com Their stuff is bomb, you can't go wrong, reverbs, compressors, eq's everything...

Well, apparently you can go wrong when you learn about WUP, in many peoples' comments

[Version 3.0]

what does WUP stand for?

[spkguitar]

Waves Update Program