Thread Mixing vocals

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Gjo

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First post

1 Posted on 08/17/2005 at 00:32:40

Hey!

I'm new at this forum, and it looks great!

I'm pretty new to homerecording and I've only managed to finish one song that sounds even close to ok so far. One out of three. I've been doing this for a couple of months now. One problem that I have that I can't figure out what to do about is the vocals.

I can make it sit decently by doubletracking, but I don't wanna have to do that on every song since it gives a kind of special sound.

Whenever I try to record just one track vocals I can't possibly get it to sit. Not by using reverb, not by compressing or anything else I can think of. I realize that it's probably 'cause I'm not using these tools the right way, but I can't figure it out.

I record on a laptop with a firewire soundcard, through a behringer mixer and a SM57 microphone.

The music is accoustic guitars. Sometimes with additions (VST-instruments). I use Cubase SX.

Anyone have anything to say from this information (I know it's not much) to maybe point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

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dupla

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2 Posted on 11/13/2005 at 07:12:54

i have the same kind of problem. but i am assuming my vocal techniques are insufficient for the kind of projects i want to work with.
so i just gave it up and just went back to the acoustics and kind of slow and dull playing style and singing as well. which suits my voice. hope someone will post a reply to the first though. wanna know how to improve the vocals by mixing :D

ambientlive

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3 Posted on 11/13/2005 at 08:12:59

Are you using any form of EQ ?

jmmcleod

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4 Posted on 12/02/2005 at 09:08:51

I'll be so bold to say that all of us have probably been on this boat. Vocals are tough to record and mix. I'll grab this link from my seemingly endless list of online resources. Hopefully it will help you at least get on the right track. It has really been helpful for me:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/how_to_record_vocals.htm

and

http://www.tweakheadz.com/how_to_process_vocal_tracks.htm

ambientlive brings up a really good point about EQ'ing. I personally like to take out a bit of the lows and bring the hi's up slightly (very vague, I know, but I've found the EQ'ing is a trial and error thing for me.) Be careful with compression as you can take out too much of the singer's dynamics if you over do it. Reverb can help, but it's easy to overdo as well.

By no means am I an expert, so take this advice for what it's worth. Hopefully some of this will help.

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