question is should I rerecord the vocals, what do you think of their sound when it comes to the recording. I have think I have them loud enough so that you can hear them in all situations.
info:
this is not mixed. just slapped together at this point
I have purchased the slate mic and am running it at this point through a preamp that I find a little weak so I have to turn it right up to get anything.
I go back an forth on them on if i like them or not. depends on my mood and how much I am squinting.
I am happy for you to give feedback on anything even though there is a long way to go with this mix. It would give me some targets.
Thanks for your time.
Just listening on my crud speakers at work, but the vocal sounds pretty damn good to me… I’d have to listen on better speakers to give a truly informed opinion, though. What are you unhappy with about the sound?
Later in the song some words are getting lost, but I would imagine that is a mix issue, not a sound issue. The vocalist is quite dynamic, so you need to control that with compression and/or automation.
I guess the thing you have to weigh up is sound vs performance… If you re-record, are you confident the vocalist can get as good/a better performance than the one you have? If not, then IMO the performance always trumps the sonics.
Thanks for the listen and the feedback. the issue i am getting is when i push the vocal with compression i get a significant amount of high freq noise and then I start thinking the whole vocal sounds like that. If you are happy with it on cruddy speakers than I reckon I can do what is necessary to push them harder and get not bring up that noise.
Hi Intro makes me feel good already. Piano too loud on the first pounce…kills her sweet voice. In fact, try losing the piano once. wow nice song. Some strings would be nice. BGV’s perfect volume.
I noticed i had to turn the track down to 22 and mine are usually 32 ish.
It is a beautiful song dude and she could sing me to sleep anytime. Not to offend I hope.
5 minutes is too long IMHO Not sure if there was a bridge in there? Love to hear her vox and bgv’s for a ten second bridge. Yup, I really liked it. That piano has to come down on the first note a bit. congrats
ps…I don’t really know what I am talking about at most here know that.
Ok, yeah that’s why I need to take a listen on a decent system. The vocal is coming across on this system as very “airy”… I’d need to take a listen on some headphones probably, but sometimes a little bit of high frequency noise can act as an “exciter” on a vocal. As long as you very carefully mute the noise in between the words and phrases, you might be able to get away with it.
Thanks for the listen and the feedback. I will definitely be bringing that volume down on the piano. Unfortunately this is a song that she wrote a while ago and is pretty set on the flow of it, that is a great suggestion though.
yeah I have a buddy who plays the cello who is interested in adding some recording. unfortunately (well fortunate for him but not for the recording.) he has recently had a baby so when he is around he is working in the shop with what little time he has.
Interesting to mute between. I have had airy vocals because of something I did wrong from the start. I tried muting between, but it sounded weird. At least for me. I do some unusual things. I take those areas and lower them a bunch (sometimes like 12 db) and that seems to work. I also don’t rely much on EQ. I take those higher vox notes and individually lower or raise them. (time consuming) Have to be careful how much tho. Anything over or under three doesn’t sound natural. No I don’t have schooling in this area. ha ha
I think the vocal is fantastic. At least upon first listen it sounds great. Piano and acoustic guitar are good also. The drum arrangement bugs me though, doesn’t seem to fit the song. Vocal presence is very strong, sounds extra enhanced, though not necessarily a problem. I suggest this song as a reference, though it may be quite different, I think it has some comparatively compelling elements.
This sounds pretty great to me Eric. Its a good song and performance and it sounds like everything is there to get a decent mix. I have a hunch though, that she could absolutely sing it again if she needed to. Good stuff! FWIW…
Thanks so much for the feedback. She gave me me this song as a reference. So i think what we are ending up with is something between what you suggested and this one.
I’m listening through my crappy iPad speakers but the vocals sound good to me. There’s a few spots where you might want to smooth out the volume level but only subtlety. I don’t hear any big issues with the vocal.
Thanks so much for the feedback. This is what I needed to hear I just get so numb to what I am hearing that I second guess myself so it is great to have this site to have other ears help out.
Sometimes when it goes to the 5 chord (the Eb), the root note is jumping out more than on the on the 1 chord of the 4 chord. It doesn’t sound dynamically consistent with the other chords in the song. Is that an upright bass? When you mix it, I would put a multi-band compressor on that bass track and just target that one note. (I know you said it’s not mixed though).
I’m gonna take wild guess and suggest that some of the problems I hear in the vocals are a result of the guitar not being compressed enough. The guitar feels like it’s competing with the vocals through the whole track, but not in a way that can be easily reconciled by making a volume adjustment. Once the guitar gets brought under control, I think it will be a lot easier to get the vocals to glue in there better.
It’s really hard to say if this is a grounds for re-shooting. I think this comes down to you as the producer making the call on how good of a performance this was vs what you think the artist is capable of delivering.
Start with only her vocal. One by one bring in the elements. You might say whoooaaaa…that is the culprit. Also cut up to 3 db on all the elements just when she is singing. I do it all the time but i am a radical. good luck
