Hi,
I'm Yannick, I'm have a home studio ( I can't really afford to do a major studio) and I'm currently using mixcraft pro 7 on a Windows 10 system. I record my vocals with a SnowBall Blue Condenser Mic. I have the pop filters and the shields and the works. I often lock myself in my laundry room that has the best acoustics as it is sound proof. What is the best mixing techniques and best features to use when mixing my lead and background vocals as well as when I use loops and what not. Any help would be nice. Here's an example of my work below. I did a cover of Sylvester's "Don't Stop." I'm trying to save money by learning how to mix properly myself with limited resources.
Thanks so much in advance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-XBJoapxOo
Getting Good Clear Vocals and mixing loops to get Professional Sound
Moderators: Acoustica Greg, Acoustica Eric, Acoustica Dan, rsaintjohn
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yannicktmusic
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:08 pm
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Starship Krupa
- Posts: 699
- Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2014 3:05 am
- Location: California
Re: Getting Good Clear Vocals and mixing loops to get Professional Sound
Hi, Yannick, welcome to the forum. Nice recording. Your voice is amazing, truly.
That question encompasses a lot, and your recording has so much going for it, I feel like I want to ask you questions as much as answer yours.
First, let me compliment you on your choice of hero(in)es to emulate, Sylvester is the Queen of Disco forever, and damn, your falsetto is great! You've got the performances down, both with the lead (I like how you show off your range by dropping down into a growl on one of the later choruses), and the overdubbed backing vocals.
Also, it doesn't sound like you're using any pitch correction, which is very nice to hear these days (it feels mighty real). Your choice of recording in that live laundry room is courageous, most recordists try to get their vocal captures as dead as possible and then add artificial reverb. Yours sounds really great, a really good capture to work with.
What I would suggest as far as where to go from where you are now is learning as much as you can about those two basic tools, the parametric equalizer and the compressor.
I don't know if you have Mixcraft Pro Studio or not, but my favorite basic EQ and compressor and the ones that Meldaproduction gives away for free, MCompressor and MEqualizer. MCompressor is a great one for learning because it has a meter that shows just what is happening, the knee, the threshold, ratio, attack, release. It really helps understand what the compressor is doing to the audio. MEqualizer is a parametric EQ similar to TBParametric that comes with Pro Studio.
Once you have those, or the equivalent plug-ins of your preference, head over to YouTube and/or Google and search for "how to make vocals pop" and "how to mix vocals" and "how to make your vocals stand out in a mix." Graham Cochrane's Recording Revolution series is popular for good reason.
If I had your tracks to work with, I would use the EQ, as well as the compressor, to "carve" some frequencies and reduce dynamics from the bass synth to allow your vocals to stand out better. The upper frequencies of the bass synth are stomping on your voice somewhat.
I suspect that like a lot of beginning home recordists, no matter how fantastic that set of pipes you have is (and I am envious), you might be mixing your vocal a little low because maybe you're not sure of the sound you're getting? I have to remind myself to push my vocal up in the mix because no matter how much of a strutting rock star or diva or thrashing punk or stoic art rocker or whatever I might fantasize about being, for some reason when I hear myself on the monitors it feels more like I'm onstage at a spelling bee.
Anyway, to give some technical tips, when treating a vocal track, the compressor "recipe" that I start with is 4:1 compression ratio on the lead vocal, with a hard knee, about 5-10mS attack, 20-40mS release, then set the threshold so that the meter is "dancing" and I am seeing 3-7dB gain reduction on the meter (using my ears of course to fine tune for what sounds appealing). With MCompressor, this is easy to set up because you will see the meter line dancing across the compressor knee, and can just visually center it.
The "aha" moment for me was when I realized that the secret wasn't adding things to make the vocal stand out, it was taking things away. Learn how to use a parametric to "sweep out the honk frequencies." Cut the honk frequency and roll off the lows with the EQ, reduce the peaks with the compressor (which has the effect of making the nuances stand out more), and you'll be on the way to getting your lead vocal to sit on top of your backing tracks, where it should be.
Our ears are sort of more "attracted to" sounds that don't have loud spikes in them, which the compressor takes care of, and don't have obnoxious honk or shrill frequencies in them, which the EQ takes care of.
Your compressor, if you set the threshold extremely low, can also make that laundry room reverb sound like Phil Spector's echo chamber.
Good luck, and let us know what you come up with! I loves me some '70's disco and it's great to hear you working in that genre.
That question encompasses a lot, and your recording has so much going for it, I feel like I want to ask you questions as much as answer yours.
First, let me compliment you on your choice of hero(in)es to emulate, Sylvester is the Queen of Disco forever, and damn, your falsetto is great! You've got the performances down, both with the lead (I like how you show off your range by dropping down into a growl on one of the later choruses), and the overdubbed backing vocals.
Also, it doesn't sound like you're using any pitch correction, which is very nice to hear these days (it feels mighty real). Your choice of recording in that live laundry room is courageous, most recordists try to get their vocal captures as dead as possible and then add artificial reverb. Yours sounds really great, a really good capture to work with.
What I would suggest as far as where to go from where you are now is learning as much as you can about those two basic tools, the parametric equalizer and the compressor.
I don't know if you have Mixcraft Pro Studio or not, but my favorite basic EQ and compressor and the ones that Meldaproduction gives away for free, MCompressor and MEqualizer. MCompressor is a great one for learning because it has a meter that shows just what is happening, the knee, the threshold, ratio, attack, release. It really helps understand what the compressor is doing to the audio. MEqualizer is a parametric EQ similar to TBParametric that comes with Pro Studio.
Once you have those, or the equivalent plug-ins of your preference, head over to YouTube and/or Google and search for "how to make vocals pop" and "how to mix vocals" and "how to make your vocals stand out in a mix." Graham Cochrane's Recording Revolution series is popular for good reason.
If I had your tracks to work with, I would use the EQ, as well as the compressor, to "carve" some frequencies and reduce dynamics from the bass synth to allow your vocals to stand out better. The upper frequencies of the bass synth are stomping on your voice somewhat.
I suspect that like a lot of beginning home recordists, no matter how fantastic that set of pipes you have is (and I am envious), you might be mixing your vocal a little low because maybe you're not sure of the sound you're getting? I have to remind myself to push my vocal up in the mix because no matter how much of a strutting rock star or diva or thrashing punk or stoic art rocker or whatever I might fantasize about being, for some reason when I hear myself on the monitors it feels more like I'm onstage at a spelling bee.
Anyway, to give some technical tips, when treating a vocal track, the compressor "recipe" that I start with is 4:1 compression ratio on the lead vocal, with a hard knee, about 5-10mS attack, 20-40mS release, then set the threshold so that the meter is "dancing" and I am seeing 3-7dB gain reduction on the meter (using my ears of course to fine tune for what sounds appealing). With MCompressor, this is easy to set up because you will see the meter line dancing across the compressor knee, and can just visually center it.
The "aha" moment for me was when I realized that the secret wasn't adding things to make the vocal stand out, it was taking things away. Learn how to use a parametric to "sweep out the honk frequencies." Cut the honk frequency and roll off the lows with the EQ, reduce the peaks with the compressor (which has the effect of making the nuances stand out more), and you'll be on the way to getting your lead vocal to sit on top of your backing tracks, where it should be.
Our ears are sort of more "attracted to" sounds that don't have loud spikes in them, which the compressor takes care of, and don't have obnoxious honk or shrill frequencies in them, which the EQ takes care of.
Your compressor, if you set the threshold extremely low, can also make that laundry room reverb sound like Phil Spector's echo chamber.
Good luck, and let us know what you come up with! I loves me some '70's disco and it's great to hear you working in that genre.
-Erik
___________
3.4 GHz i7-3770, 16G RAM, Win 10 64-bit, ATi Radeon HD 5770
2X PreSonus Firepods, Event 20/20's, Alesis Monitor Ones, Alesis Point Sevens
Mixcraft Pro Studio 8.5, Cakewalk by BandLab
___________
3.4 GHz i7-3770, 16G RAM, Win 10 64-bit, ATi Radeon HD 5770
2X PreSonus Firepods, Event 20/20's, Alesis Monitor Ones, Alesis Point Sevens
Mixcraft Pro Studio 8.5, Cakewalk by BandLab
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yannicktmusic
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:08 pm
Re: Getting Good Clear Vocals and mixing loops to get Professional Sound
Thank you so much. sorry it took so long to respond I refuse to use pitch correction as I am a trained singer and have been singing since I was a child. I love me some Sylvester. I will take this weekend to really remix some of my vocals and sound as professional as possible without spending a grip.