Can't make my daughters vocals sound good.

[tommytime555]

I'll say upfront, I am no good at this mixing stuff, very green in general. I'm a smidge better than someone that is able to adjust the volume levers on the tracks and apply reverb. That's about it.

I'm trying to make my daughter's vocals mesh better with this mix and just need a little hand-holding. It sounds more like karaoke than anything. How can I get this to sit better?

She's 12, and fairly new with singing.. I know this isn't the greatest vocal track to begin with. Please go easy on her! lol.

Thank you much!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p9xzj...whlwh47vs&dl=0

[smurfyou]

I think it's fantastic you are able to share an interest with your child and that she is willing to be recorded! No vocal critique from me.

My first impression is its just too wet. The delay and reverb levels could come down and the dry vocal up. So I'd start there. Listening on an iPad so not in the studio - but because it's wet its hard to tell how it's mic'd. If the mic was a little too far away in an untreated room it will give a karaoke / amateur sound. Heavy compression could make it worse.

[albee1952]

I agree. Take down the reverb and delay to the point where you can barely tell its there. The backing track might benefit from some compression(tread lightly at first and use a low ratio like 2:1 or 4:1 and set the threshold to give 2-3db of gain reduction). Overall, I think its pretty darn good for a 12 year old. If you really want to get fancy(and maybe do this while she is not around), put Melodyne on her vocal track and tighten up the tuning a bit. Novice singers can all use a shot of self confidence

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by tommytime555

I'll say upfront, I am no good at this mixing stuff, very green in general. I'm a smidge better than someone that is able to adjust the volume levers on the tracks and apply reverb. That's about it.

I'm trying to make my daughter's vocals mesh better with this mix and just need a little hand-holding. It sounds more like karaoke than anything. How can I get this to sit better?

She's 12, and fairly new with singing.. I know this isn't the greatest vocal track to begin with. Please go easy on her! lol.

Thank you much!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p9xzj...whlwh47vs&dl=0

Her vocal is just fine for a first try young person

Can you give us a good clear screen shot of your mix window ?

Also you might want to list your system details in your User CP signature line



Not sure what you mean by "mesh better with the mix "
I would say the vocal is too meshed or more precisely is sitting too far back in the mix

So
In general for starters the guitar level is too high compared to the lead vocal level, and the levels should probably be set inversely to where they are now to start with .

Also seems to me the guitar frequencies and the vocal frequencies are clashing with each other too much
So do you know what subtractive EQ is ? and how to use it to carve out more room for the vocal vs the guitar ?

And IMO both the guitar and vocal could use some slight compression (after getting the EQ working better) Slight compression on guitar to get it to sit a bit more back in the mix with a few db of reduction , and the vocal to bring it more forward so likely a few db reduction and a bit more db of makeup gain.

I agree the reverb is a bit wet not so much on the main vocal, but especially on the multi vocal Chorus
So if I am hearing correctly and you do have multi vocals on the chorus then I would not use any reverb on them,,, ONLY on the main lead vocal
Also If you are not already doing it . I would not put the reverb on the vocal track itself I would put it on it's own Aux track (called a parallel FX track ) and send the vocal to it.
So both the above reverb methods will help dry up the vocal/s and make them more intelligible and move them forward in the mix

[inspire]

Nice stereo effect IMHO.