Help with Vocals

[mastermorris]

Everyone:

I can get a pretty good mix on the drums, guitars and bass. The problem I have is how to get a good vocal sound.

My vocals always sound like their in the back of the mix. I want to get them up front and sound full. Anyone have any tricks, compression settings, eq settings or advice to make this happen? Thanks for all the posts!

Mastermorris

[nst7]

This might be a dumb question, but have you tried simply making them louder in relation to everything else?

Also, the way they're recorded could have an effect, like if the singer is too far away from the mic, especially with bad acoustics.

I don't know that there's a universal compression or eq setting that works for everyone. It may be different for the genre, and even from song to song.

Also, some of what you hear on records is when the vocals are double or triple tracked, making a bigger sound.

Also, the type of effects, such as reverb or delay.

Maybe if you were a little more specific we could make more suggestions. Or if you could refer to a certain song or artist.

[albee1952]

Well said. Bad acoustics in the room can make the vocal sound distant(you want to record as little room reflections as possible, a reason those Reflexion-type shields are hot sellers). Once you get a decent recorded vocal, then you need to experiment to find what works(and expand your skills). 1 thing I do is go thru the entire vocal track and listen for words/phrases that are either too soft, or much louder than the overall track. I will use the AudioSuite GAIN plugin to "level" those regions so they sit better with the rest of the track. Once that's done, I consolidate the track(just to keep things neat). Then come the plugins. I start with the EQ III 1 band and set it to hi-pass around 120(depending on the voice and range). Then I add a compressor(usually BF76) set at 4:1 and adjust for moderate compression(like 3-4db of reduction on the meter). The I insert the EQ III 7 band and "go fishing" for ugly frequencies(boost a very narrow filter and sweep it until you hear "ugly" jump out, then cut that frequency a few db). Repeat as needed(go easy at first so you get the feel of that part). Then I might follow up with a second compressor(I like SMACK! or the Softube Tube Tech CL1B) for more compression and more level. I follow that with the Bomb Factory Pultec EQ1A to add a little sparkle(10-12 KHz with a little boost). Now I set the fader volume so the vocal sits right in the mix. If I need effects(and sometimes I don't) I will add sends to the track and use reverb and/or delay on AUX tracks. Generally, I bring the AUX track effects up until I can hear the effect, then back it down 3-6db. Remember that more reverb will push the vocal "back" into the mix by making it sound more distant. Sometimes you need to carve out other instruments(EQ dips) in the vocal range so guitars and keyboards don't mask the vocal by having too may things all in the same frequency range.

[jjboogie]

Originally Posted by mastermorris

Everyone:

I can get a pretty good mix on the drums, guitars and bass. The problem I have is how to get a good vocal sound.

My vocals always sound like their in the back of the mix. I want to get them up front and sound full. Anyone have any tricks, compression settings, eq settings or advice to make this happen? Thanks for all the posts!

Mastermorris

Don't use reverb if you want them more up front. And use compression to make them sit on top.

[Julia B]

Use your second best composite vox track and set it about -6 to -9 db below the main. It'll make it sound fuller, and more forgiving since the listener will average the two without being necessarily aware of teh two.

Compression on the initial recording. Compression again with a plugin. EQ with a plugin. And maybe add a D82 Sonic Maximizer plugin.

[tadhghealy]

i would suggest that perhaps you may need to eq other istruments ie drums and bass and guitar in order to help the vocals find a place in the frequency spectrum. for example guitars and drum symbols can often clash with the vocals and hense they will not come through clearly in the mix. try boosting the high end of the guitar for example and perhaps reducing the mids somewhere to allow ther voccal mids to shine through. also panning can help for example record double of the guitar part. identical parts and pan L and R pan only the kick (bassy) snare, bass guitar in the middle. then this will leave room in the center for the vocals to cut through. this all really depends on the kind of vocals so really experimentation is the key. i hope that might set you in the right direction anyway.

[RiF]

Sometimes, the reason for buried vocals are in the mix procedure.
I like this approach (there are others, but this works for me):
0. Put all faders down
1. Mix just the drums
2. Add the bass and make it work with the drums
3. Now add the vocals and make them sit with the drums and the bass alone. "Sit" means, EQ them to have their own room and compress them so they ride evenly just a bit above the drums and bass without sinking in or peaking out. If compression alone doesn't do it, level automation can help here too. Or split verses and choruses to different tracks and process them independently.
4. Add the other instruments one by one and make them sit with what you already have. Try to not touch the drums/bass/vocals but use EQing to cut the hell away from everything that stands in the way of what you already have. Again: Cutting (EQ) is your friend! Don't mix with solo'd tracks from now on. Do every adjustment with all tracks running in the mix. Don't try to make a track sound good solo'd. It will most likely not work in the mix if you do.
Show no mercy! If a track/instrument is in the way and doesn't add something worthy to the song/mix: MUTE IT! Less is more. Start with the least amount of tracks neccessary for the mix and make it work. Add others later and see if they do anything good. If not, keep em out.
5. See if it works and I hope it helps ;-)

Some more tipps that depend on the mix, but can help you:
- Cut away the midrange from like 400 Hz to 1-2 KHz from everything that does not need to be there. It makes room for the vocals. Especially guitars and fat keyboard pads or organs like to fight with the vocals for territory.
- Do not add more reverb than you need. Start with no reverb at all and add reverb later in the mix if the vocals are too up front and sound a bit disconnected from the rest of the mix. Delay is better than reverb, because a Delay doesn't muddy up the vocals as much as reverb. If you HEAR the reverb, turn it down.
- Boosting around 5KHz adds "upfrontness" to the vocals. Use bell-like filters and not shelving filters for just boosting the stuff you need. Using Digi EQ3, I like a 0.70Q curve in bell-mode on the top frequency band for boosting highs and high-mids instead of the default highshelv curve.
- Highpassing as high as 200Hz (depends) can add clarity to the vocals
- A little saturation can bring the vocals to the front as well. If you don't have a saturation plugin (URS Saturation, IK Fairchild, UAD Fatso, McDSP AC2, Massey Tapehead are the ones I use), take the AIR Distortion and mix it with the original on a duplicated track (but be careful not to overdo it).

[chrisdee]

+1 for using delay instead of reverb to get vocals more upfront. And as already said, put the effects on a bus instead of directly on the audio track. This way your original vocal is constant in volume. Much easier to control the amount of effect you want this way, and I think it sounds better.

Also remember if you want several different effects create a bus for each effect. Putting reverb, delay, etc on the same bus has never worked well for me. Not completly shure why, but putting each effect on it's own bus sounds better to my ears.

If your room is untreated get a reflection filter. What microphone are you using ?

[OnTelephone]

1) a good singer.

2) a quality mic.

3) roll off some of the low end, boost some of the super hi's (to taste), do this pre-compressor so that the lows won't trigger it.

4) putting a little pre-delay on the verb will help move the effect out of the way of the lyrics.

[barters81]

There is certainly some good advice in here.....

I've got a couple of tricks not already covered.

- opt to cut with eq rather than boost. This generally goes for everything, but especially a vocal track. The human brain sense volume increase more easily than a reduction. Hence you make larger changes with the listener knowing less about those changes.
- never boost or cut by more than 6db. Again many use this philosophy on everything. If you have to boost or cut by more than 6db, something else is wrong. And if you do odds are you're starting to add too much artificial sound into the mix......ie, starting to not sound real.
- Eqing one thing effects everything. What I mean by this is, you may think you vocal track is perfect, then you'll boost the bottom end of the guitar. Suddenly your vocal track is muddy, or overly bright. It depends on where exactly you've boosted.
- google compressor excitor. Basically your eqing the track in a specific manner, then compressing the crap out of it and mixing in with original track to taste
- listen to it in the mix. There is no point deciding on eq or effects with vocal soloed. The listener won,t here it that way, so why are you?
- finally.....and this is the most important thing. Get the singer to believe in what they are singing. If your singer doesnt believe it, how do you expect to.