Tips on Mixing Vocals?

Sample Packs? VSTs? DAWs? EQ? What DOES the knee on the Compressor do? All computer-related music making topics belong here!

Tips on Mixing Vocals?

Postby Reaux » 23 Dec 2014 02:54

I don't know if there's already a post on this, and I'm too lazy to do a lot of digging. If there is, whoops. If not, whoop.

I use a Blue Yeti microphone and as most Yeti users may probably know, they're sensitive and pick up a lot of noise. This is especially true if you don't really have a good setup (i.e. my mic is on a table next to my super loud laptop fan). To fix the noise, I throw the vocals through Edison (a recording software in FL, for those who don't know), and denoise them.

I'm fairly convinced that it's either my mic or my denoising process that makes it impossible to mix my vocals. But it could also be that I don't know how to mix vocals at all. If anyone has any tips for recording vocals, a setup for recording vocals, denoising vocals, and/or above all else how to mix vocals, that'd be swell!
~By Jove~
User avatar
Reaux
 
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Dec 2014 03:30
OS: Windows 7
Primary: FL Studio 11

Re: Tips on Mixing Vocals?

Postby eery » 23 Dec 2014 09:43

Well, denoising tends to make stuff less quality, which might be why you find it harder to mix. The best you could do would probably be just make a good recording enviroment, i.e. have a rug on the floor and other sound absorbing things in your room. Youd really be best of having at least a wall (make one out of cardboard or something, cover it with clothes) between your computer and your mic. if the noise isnt so bad when you dont sing, check out noisegates. They dont remove the quality, but also remove noise in a different way, and doesnt remove any noise when you sing.

Mixing vocals is like the toughest thing I do in music, I feel. I dont know much about it, and some users could probably give you better advice, but this is my process. I tend to make a overdub, recording the vocal once, then another where I get the vocalist to sing over themselves as close as they can. Then I pan one to the left, another to the right. I run a shelving EQ or a Highpass filter to remove stuff under 500hz or so, since vocals usually dont need stuff down there. Optionally at this stage I will apply pitch correction, depending on how good the vocalist was, and if I feel it will help the track in any way (each dub should be on its own mixertrack with each own pitch correction). Then I compress the whole thing, usually with little attack, to preserve some dynamics. Multiband compressors would probably be preferable, but I find them cumbersome. Then I do a EQ to bring out what I want in the vocals. Then reverb and all the other mess.

On stuff that occupies the same frequency space as the vocals i.e. pads, leads and some snares and claps, its important to make cuts in the EQ to make more space for the vocal. In most music, the vocal is the most important element, and the mix should breathe in order to fit one in.
Image
eery
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 244
Joined: 23 Mar 2013 21:01
Location: Norway
Primary: Fruity tools 11
Cutie Mark: dank

Re: Tips on Mixing Vocals?

Postby CitricAcid » 23 Dec 2014 10:00

You could get a laptop cooling pad and change your fan settings. And you could get a USB extension cable for the Yeti, so you can take it further away from the noise, and behind a barrier preferably. Make sure your Yeti isn't in omni mode (I think it has an omni mode), so it doesn't pick up noise from elsewhere in the room. I would also identify other noise sources you can eliminate. When I record, I turn off the heater, air conditioning, and refrigerator.

When recording, use a pop filter and record at a consistent distance from the microphone. As for mixing tips, all I know is that compression sounds good on vocals. Just don't go overboard.
Image Image Image
User avatar
CitricAcid
 
Posts: 286
Joined: 20 Sep 2013 09:35
Location: Detroit, MI
OS: Windows
Primary: Cubase
Cutie Mark: Music scroll

Re: Tips on Mixing Vocals?

Postby S.P.P » 23 Dec 2014 14:46

Acoustic treatment is very important when recording vocals like the other guys said, as vocals are a very quiet instrument in comparison to others and so a lot of background noise is audible. Set up a makeshift vocal booth out of Styrofoam and/or thick duvets and blankets. Your pop filter should be about 3-6" away from the mic, and you should be almost kissing the filter. And make sure your mic is using it's cardioid pattern.

As for mixing, wide EQ boost at around 3kHz and compress a little as the ear is susceptible to that frequency range (speech), and this will enable vocal clarity whilst masking background noise behind other instruments. Use a gate before the compressor to knock out any noise floor while there is no vocal on the track. Double-tracking can make your vocals sound beefy (Ken Ashcorp does a lot of this to good effect so check him out for examples), but that requires you to nail each take; so if you're not confident doing that use a subtle chorus effect as a cheap alternative.

Other than that it's just good use of compression and EQ to make the vocals sit nicely in the mix; but that comes with experience, not information.
User avatar
S.P.P
 
Posts: 1090
Joined: 26 Mar 2013 04:08
Location: England
OS: Windows 10
Primary: FL Studio, Ableton, Pro Tools


Return to Resources, Software, and Mixing Advice



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 7 guests

cron