General Music Chat

Ok I'm halfway down the pipe with my stuff. I'm thinking of adding Vox after I've mixed down everything else. Is this a bad idea?

What is the rule of thumb regarding this please?
Cheers.

Hey Chip, Your singer should be firmiliarizing himself with the song right now and after you have your rythm sections down. He should put down a quality scratch vocal. This will show the lead player where all the holes are for lead input. Then the singer can return and lay down a final vocal track and back grounds knowing all the parameters. This is how I do it.

Can be done that way Mark, that's how Paul did "Nothing But Wrong". But if you don't have to, don't. The vocals should be part of the mix, not an afterthought.

Thanks Guys thats what I thought you might say darn it. No matter I'll do as you suggest for the final ditti.
Thanks very much.

Yeah, I tend to build everything around the vocal, & not the other way around. The vocal is always the focal point.

Record everything on separate tracks, including the vocal. In the mix, EQ everything else to leave a "hole" for the vocal to sit in. With your stuff, synth-oriented, that would generally be the upper mids. Another good trick is to copy/paste the vocal into another track. Put your verb/delay, etc. on one and leave the other one dry. Mix to taste.

Good advice 90. I also like to double my vocal tracks, which was standard operating procedure in the 60's and 70's. Try to get the two tracks as close as possible; the imperfections will give the vocals a fullness that simply doubling the one track can't achieve.

Of course ya'll know that too much info breaks my head right
Seriously though thanks a lot and if anyone fancies a Cuppa with a crumpet you can come round and show me how to do it. hahahaha

Chippy - I know you're using Har-Bal for mastering, but what are you using to record with? Cubase?

Yes at the moment DB. Har bal works very well but of course I'm still learning about the headroom bit. One thing I find really annoying of late is that when I mix down to Mp3 it sounds as though my cyms are tweeting birds no matter what I do.

Chippy - I know you're using Har-Bal for mastering, but what are you using to record with? Cubase?

To duplicate a track in Cubase (or most other DAWs) you just select the track you want to copy, copy it to the clipboard, then paste it into an empty track.



The MP3/cymbal thingy - have you tried soloing the cymbal track and EQing it by itself? MP3's really wreak havoc on high frequencies, and cymbals are some of the first to suffer.

Hi DB. No sadly I didn't but I think I'll try that and isolate these horrid things, many thanks again for your help.
Best wishes.

To duplicate a track in Cubase (or most other DAWs) you just select the track you want to copy, copy it to the clipboard, then paste it into an empty track.
The MP3/cymbal thingy - have you tried soloing the cymbal track and EQing it by itself? MP3's really wreak havoc on high frequencies, and cymbals are some of the first to suffer.