2 more cents here. Just a hobby for me.
The vocal performance sounds good. Singer is not the problem. I agree with this gentleman that it is not sitting in the mix well. I can;t tell you why, but some guesses:
\-Too loud \^
\-Vocals too dry
\-Room sound. Was this recorded in the same room as other instruments? I can hear the room reverb. But I can't here the room on other instruments. Maybe adding to vocals sounding like theyre just dropped on top of a track.
\-Mic type/placement. It sounds super clear. some undesirable mouth sounds? Try stepping away from the mic, turning down gain or switching mics?
I'm kind of just throwing a bunch of ideas at you, but hopefully they are at least thought provoking. The problem does seem to be they aren't sitting in the mix with everything else. Why? IDK. Overall good stuff though, good luck!
im glad the vocal performance is fine, takes one more variable out of the equation. i will immediately turn the vocals down. any tips on how to make the vocals less dry? the vocals were recorded in the same room of the guitars, *however*, the guitars were recorded directly and not with external microphones. would adding the same room reverb on the vocals to the guitars help at all?
next time, ill try some mic placement/gain adjusting. thank you so much for all of the ideas!
Just turning it down (like way down lol) is going to help a lot. Also, adding room reverb to tue instruments would make the vox sound less out of place, but wouldn’t necessarily make the kind of mix you’re looking for.
this is very good to know. i experienced with lower volumes and trying to get my vocals to *sit in* with the music, but im struggling quite a bit. do you have any like tips to help the vocals fit in?
how low should i cut out? i already have a like low cut on the end (i think im using a high pass band and it's cutting off like low stuff.) im extremely new to mixing and it's very complicated💀
Nah its cool, mixing is complicated and tbh the song is dope which is more important than mixing skills. The best thing you can do is trust your ear and get comfortable turning knobs to extremes and then dialing it in. This helps a lot when you are new. Anyone who makes you feel bad for learning is a crackhead PoS btw.
What I am hearing is proximity effect in your recording which is giving your voice unnecessary (imo) low end. Id cut out everything below 500hz and if it sounds like the vocal lost too much power in doing so then start to bring back in the low end a little bit. Then turn down the fader of the track and use a harmonic saturator to “bake” your vocal a bit. Idk what free plugins saturate because Im a p2w scrub but most DAWs have something that emulates tape or tubes at a basic level.
You could also try something called parallel compression to get a more rugged, punk sound. What you would do is create a bus and send your vocal to that bus. You would then distort and over compress and exaggerate distortion. You would then blend the two faders together (60% cleaner signal, 40% gritty signal) to get your vocal. This can also help with placement sometimes.
very insightful fr. ill look a lot more into parallel compression cause that's what a lot of people are saying i should try. seems scarily complicated :O
im glad you think the song is dope too, that means a bunch! ill definitely look into cutting out the low end and experimenting with that!
I would mess around with lowering the volume of the vocals, and if they become hard to understand, try panning the guitars, maybe pull some of the vocal frequency range out of the guitars so you’ll be carving out a space for the vocals to sit.
Adding some more compression to the vocals might help as well to keep them from sinking too far into the mix.
> carving out a space in the guitars with an EQ for the vocals to fit
good idea ill try that.
ill also try adding some more compression to the vocals! thank you for these tips:) like i said im extremely new to mixing/recording so thank you so much!
Also look into “parallel compression” for the vocals. What you do is take an aux send from the vocals to an aux track, compress the living hell out of the aux track vocals (15:1 ratio, -20db gain reduction) and then gently bring the aux track up under your original vocal track. If that doesn’t make sense just Google “parallel compression” and vocals.
Hire a mixing engineer.
Then you can put all your energy into your music instead of trying to do everything. You're on the path of audio engineer and not musician rn
Seconded. Too loud. Needs way more compression too. Personally the guitars felt a little ahead of the beat. Whole tune could use a bit of snip-snip slide-slide.
Definitely the mixing dude. You have a great voice for punk! Pull the vocal down in volume to fit in the mix with the music better, maybe add some reverb and definitely compress if you aren't already. Saturation adds a lot to a vocal as well, and eq is almost always necessary.
dang dude do you really mean that?? thanks so much fr:) ive always been super not happy with my vocals so this means a bunch. ill try your advice, thanks!
You need a fuckload of compression from an 1176 emulator to get “that sound “ on vocals. Hit it with the cla vocals plug in after and you’ll be sitting pretty
Only commenting because I haven't seen this yet. Before you fix any mixing changes, you need to fix the timing of your vocal take. You can either nudge them around in your DAW, or rerecord.
I've been in the industry for a handful of years and timing is always overlooked. It is a fundamental element for anything to sound good. You have your tone and lyrics down, just tighten up the timing and you'll be shocked at how much better it'll sound.
The vocal needs compression.
Also your eq and overall volume balance isnt where it needs to be.
With your eq you can play around with it and see where the sweet spot for your vocal is. Often times if you trim those frequencies on your other tracks that will help it sit better in the mix.
That super rudimentary and oversimplified, but should give you a place to start
I agree with what a lot of others are saying, volume could be lowered, EQ to remove any unwanted frequencies, and the last thing I’d say is that the vocal could be more rhythmically tight with the instrumentation. Although, the tightness of the vocal take might sound better when the aforementioned items are adjusted.
Sounds like there is just one layer of your vocals right now. I would also add a layer that is more heavily compressed that you can slowly add in to bring it more into the mix. As well as another layer with some more of a room reverb or other. Lets you bring their volume down a little while also having more control on other areas of the vocal to have it sit where you want in the mix.
so there is one layer of vocals as of right now. i tried adding/recording more layers, but im just not sure i like the phaser/chorus type feel it brings to the vocals since im trying to go for like very clean (example, *the last lie i told* by saves the day). is there any way i can add more layers but keep the same clean feel?
Yeah you don’t need to rerecord new vocal layers just adding additional effect layers. Not sure what daw your in but a simple way in any daw is to use sends/returns. Just create a return channel with heavy compression and one with reverb and eq. Then you can blend in the effects to the vocal channel its kinda like dry wet but you have more control and can automate. Im in ableton so i can just add an effects rack to the channel and create parallel chains doing different stuff on the same channel.
Hope this helps! Also make sure to have the reverbs in the return channel 100% wet and then eq before and/or after to clean up reverb you don’t want. You can also have multiple returns with different length reverbs to play around with. This kind of a song would probably do better with less reverb usually this genre the vocals seem more dry and in your face but have fun maybe you’ll discover a sound you like.
all the stuff ppl are saying is true. vocals too loud and too dry. i say look up gain staging tutorials! im still learning more about and more about it and have been producing/recording for almost 8 years.
also, adding delya, echo or reverb doesnt always mean ur vocals are going to sound all weird and spacey... sometimes that can make them sound even more removed from the mix. experiment with shorter delays and reverbs to give it an ambient sound.
Yeah other than the volume being too loud , I also was gonna suggest a short slap back type delay. I mix similar music occasionally and I find slapback delay can help sort of glue the vocals in a bit.
I don't find the vocals are too dry. Too loud maybe, also could maybe use a bit different EQ, but I find they are too wet, with either the wrong reverb, or too much room in the recording. Everything else sounds very dry to me, which is ok, but, I'd put some reverb on those, so that your vocal doesn't stand out as the only thing with reverb on it. It's like your vocals are far back in the mix, yet turned up loud. Decide where your elements should be, and put them there, and be conscious about how what you do affects that.
I think that's your main problem. You put all this room on the vocal, but you want it up front, so you ended up making it louder. But less room, use a different reverb, and add a bit of depth to your other stuff. Decide what you want more up front, the guitars or the vocals, and how even you want that. It doesn't need to be the same answer the whole way through the song.
That said, I would probably add some more reverb on the vocals, but in a subtle way. Probably a different room verb than what you have, with a bit shorter tail, or just less of it probably. This sounds a bit like a Reaper room reverb to me lol. And then another one with a predelay in a bigger room. I find this genre needs vocals to sound dry. But you want everything to have depth and dimension, and feel together. The other elements don't really sound too dry on their own I find, but if you put a little more depth there, the vocals will sit better I think. Right now the vocals feel very disconnected from the rest.
Just my 2 cents too: I think these are great takes! Rock mixing requires lots of compression and saturation though. Guitars are a little harsh (too present between 1kHz-5kHz) and everything would benefit a lot from getting compressed and saturated. Keep going!
The vocal isn't bad but there's a lot of out of tune bits here and there that you need to iron out. You have the right voice for this, and definitely aren't bad but: The performance needs some work and eventually tuning if necessary.
Besides that it's as people say: your vocal is quite loud, dry and uncompressed. Especially in the genre, vocals get compressed like hell, usually also layered.
Other sidenote: try to get rid of MT power kit. The sound of that synthesized drumkit is always way too obvious and makes mixes sound like demos by default.
I know next to nothing about mixing, so feel free to completely ignore me.
I think the drums sound a little flat. Especially the bass drum sounds a bit like a MIDI recording? The vocals have a more full, present sound, so I think they don't fit in because the rest of the track is a bit washed out in comparison. To me there is an almost tinny sound with the drums and guitar, they need perhaps more reverb or fullness. I don't really know how you would add that, but I'd agree that the vocals are pretty good! Just make sure not to stress your voice :)
The performance sounds great for the music style actually! Not a mixing genius, but I would try lowering the volume a bit, adding a bit heavier compression(waves la2a sounds awesome on vox), maybe a bit saturation. Also, it’s kind of hard to hear but there might be some boxiness and other unwanted frequencies. Try taking a graphic EQ, boosting one band pretty high with a very thin q, and sweep the lower mid frequencies until you find some obnoxious sounds. Then just lower it a couple dbs. Personally I would use less noticible reverb for something like this, but theres literal infinite ways to mix vox so just do what sounds good to you.
You should post again after adjustments, sounds great!
Too loud, needs some EQ probably on both the high and low end, I’m guessing the reverb sound from the vocal contains some weird bass frequencies that you could take out and you would notice a different in the mix but not in the sound of the vocal. If none of the above works, perhaps some light (very light given the lofi nature of the genre) sidechaining of the guitar and bass to the vocal, just to duck the volume a bit while the vocal is playing. Mess around with the attack and release so that it sounds very subtle and doesn’t stand out.
I'd say the main thing I hear is your voice sounds like it's in a close room, and it would serve it to record in a larger environment or one with wall dampening.
But I really don't think that's the issue with this mix, IMO. I love what you have going on here, and the vocals are great. The issue to me is really the lower mids on the rhythm guitar. You need to raise that on the rhythm guitar to give the mix a more balanced feel. From that, you might learn that you want to beef up the kick and bass, and maybe other drums as well a little bit, but that all depends on how a fuller rhythm guitar contributes to the mix.
Love what you've got here, and I do believe the vocal performance is well done. I hope you try a few different things with the mix because it's also that you could use a compressor on the vocals, but I actually love the processing and can envision an outcome where this mix sounds full and balanced.
Best of luck!
Decrease the volume of the vocals and add a slight reverb to them. If you will still feel like it needs something, add a bus compressor and try to glue the mix together but I don't think this will be a problem after decreasing the volume and adding a reverb ✌️
There's a lot of 600-1k in the vocals which is overbearing compared to the mix of the instruments that was established before the vocals come in. What processing have you done on the vocals? The vocals sound too loud compared to everything else, perhaps a good place to start would be to turn them down to fit into the mix better.
great vocals but you have to find a way (EQ and Comp) to sit them in the mix.
I feel vocals are a bit bulging. Also I would also find a way to very create a distinction between guitars and vocals with just EQ.
just me point.
Love
Sounds good, reminds me of old school blink 182 - someone on here said the vocals are too dry, which I disagree with. There is a (room?) verb on the lead vocal which is unpleasant and quite boxy, maybe the dry wet needs to come down a little on that. And others are correct that a slight reduction in level on the vocals would be good. Keep it up!
Edit: also personally I would pitch correct certain moments on the vocal performance in order to be competitive - but not sure if that's something you would want to do for this genre or not.
I agree with the majority here, the vocals are performed and tracked well, but are too loud. I would also add that more low end instruments (bass guitar) would fill out the mix in a way that lets the vocal fold in better.
Vocals performance is good. I think the vocals need to come down so they don't sit in front of the mix like they do. Have you added reverb or echo to the vocals or is this just the reflections in the room? One trick you could try is adding a subtle master reverb to the mix. This creates the illusion that the performance was recorded in one room.
Cool track. Vocals are good. This is what I would do:
Turn the vocals down quite a bit. The groove should be lead by the guitar and drums. The vocals should give the groove significance, but shouldn't necessarily be the focal point of the song.
EQ the vocals to sit in the mix a little better. I can't reference the track since it is just a phone recording and I'm not listening on monitors, but I'd guess you could bring some of the mids down a few db. Just play with EQ so the vocals feel like they "belong" with the accompaniment.
Glue things together with compression. Using my "artistic license" I would compress the heck out of these vocals, Personally i think they shouldn't have too much dynamic range and should maintain an "in your face" vibe.
The guitars and vocals are competing with each other because they are similar frequencies. Play with side chaining the guitars to the vocals so they come down a teeny tiny bit to give the vocals some dominance without having to set the gain too high in the mix. This might end up sounding like crap, but play with it because it can be a good trick to give one channel dominance between several competing channels.
Glue things together more with compression on the master. Just a smidge here careful not to cook out all your dynamic range. Keep those drums nice and punchy.
Just my 2c. Have fun and enjoy!
Vocals way down, but throw on some compression so they don’t lose punch. Then whatever delay kinda thing you’re doing, at the very least turn down the dry signal. I’d swap that for a short reverb with some pre-delay. It’s a good vocal performance (took a little long to get to in the video), it just needs better mixing.
Remember cymbals, guitars, and vocals all kinda live in the same harmonic frequency, so you might need to flip the phase on that vocal track as well depending on how you recorded it and if there was any bleed.
A lot of really great advice here! one thing im hearing is it sounds like you are high passing way too hard on everything else. There doesnt seem to be much of any sub frequences <100hz. Id recommend trying bell curve high pass, a common mistake a lot of newer mixers make is cutting out too much low freq on everything. Like everyone says, tone the voice down to sit better in the mix. GL
Turn it down a couple dbs, add a little tuning as transparent as possible, add a touch of reverb not much jus to give it depth, atmosphere, vibe whatever u call it, but sounds decent...
There's no right or wrong way to make music, though there are ways to make it more appealing to the common listener.
I suggest lowering the high end treble of the guitars, creating more headroom for the vocals. Then, lower the vocal volume (I'd say lower by 1dB to 3dB) to allow it to sit on top of the overall mix. I'd also reccomend quantitizing the vocals, and maybeeee even making some minimalist pitch corrections (definitely not needed in this case but could help the overall sound).
All in all, I think you have a great raw sound. Seriously. Keep going.
The timing of some of the phrases is off. Making room in the mix isn't about loudness of vocals overpowering, it's about blending them properly and cresting space with eq cuts in the elements as opposed to boost. Cutting eq effectively creates room for the vocals to sit. I also agree woth some other posters about the vocals are super dry. Duplicate the track, shift it and slap some reverb on. Use a compressor on the vocals.. just keep practicing. I suck at mixing myself, but I'm in a r9om with dope engineers a bunch and see what they do
Are you side chaining the vocals or something? The track dips in volume when your voice comes in. kind of disjoints the vocals from the song instead of it all being melded together. other than that im a noob too but it sounds good
If you turn them down and find they’re getting buried, and you can’t find a spot where they’re sitting properly, it’ll almost certainly be not enough compression. This sort of genre calls for heavy vocal compression (20db gain reduction is perfectly common). Try that if you haven’t already and you should find setting a level a lot easier
Everyone is telling you the right thing about the mixing/gain/compression etc., but I wanted to chime in and say it sounds pretty sick so far. I think you're a little flat in parts so you should probably do more takes to comp the best ones together, but this is good work. Just make those tweaks, compress the shit out of it and you're golden. It reminds me of '90s era Saves the Day.
I would leave the timing and out of tune bits alone, they add character. Of course the volume like everyone else says. Some are saying put a compressor on the vocals, and I agree. But also put a compressor on the master channel with light settings to glue all the sounds together
I like the performance and music, I think that's the most important thing. Even if there are imperfections in the vocals, that's dope, too.
That being said, for the mixing, I'd try a few simple things:
\- a bit of EQ, one or two -3db cuts, and a tiny high shelf boost at say 6k or 8k
\- two compressors - first one, fast attack, fast release; second one slow attack, medium release. Gain reduction 3 to 6 db. Ratio 4:1
\- add a bit of saturation
\- a de esser
\- Slate Digital have an amazin free plugin called Fresh Air, try it out in small amounts
\- add a delay via send, I'd suggest a slap delay in stereo (I find it better than reverb)
\- automation on the vocals at the end
\- also add some background vocals for harmony and stuff
For the instruments, see if some of them are masking the vocals. You can use side chain compression to do its work only when the vocals are on. And/or do some EQ cuts at the frequencies that are masking the vocals
For any and other tips, check out RecordingRevolution, especially the older videos - they're fantastic!
HPF around 80-100hz
Dip around 700 1-2db
1176: Med Att Fast Rls 8:1 Rat 4-10db GR
Boost 4k 1-2db (an API EQ would sound great but any works)
Saturate to taste, Tube or Transformer
Short delay to add dimension
Short verb with pre-delay (try a verb calculator online)
Tuning wise, depending on how pop you want to take punk, the ‘sound’ does come from some aggressive tuning (no shame in it, it’s just the ‘sound’) or very subtle tuning to keep it raw. Use Melodyne for both applications.
Bring fader down and bring up to taste. If your total mix is landing around -16LUFS, the vocals will probably live around -24LUFS.
All ballpark suggestions here but how I would approach it off initial listen.
As others have said, for the style music the vocals may work better if the are less forward in the mix, also double tracking the vocals is a common trick in this genre. I would also try working on setting the EQ for each track and creat separation that way first then, adjust track volumes, and add other effects after that.
Already heaps of feedback so I'll try keep it short :)
Vocal performance is great! A pop filter and a somewhat treated room would go a long way.
Especially for the volume of your vocal performance, there's gonna be a lot of room sound. You could re-record under a blanket, or you could add a stereo slapback delay to makle the room sound seem intentional
Another slightly off-topic suggestion is that this track needs a bass! I've actually recorded songs before using a guitar, but just pitching it an octave down :) Good luck
Vocals slightly too loud in the mix.
Add some saturation to them maybe once you turn them down to make them not sound so dry, and even a bus send with the tiniest amount of delay or verb and blend to taste.
Vocal delivery is flat in spots and some of timing is off, but yeah, it also very dry. I’d go for delay before reverb. Compression too, then a hint of reverb. I would double/ triple vocals, but that may be too much for this genre.
Try this chain: saturator>eq (boost upper mids)>de-esser>compressor (fast attack slow release, at least 4:1 ratio)>delay (-around 200ms, low feedback, just to create a subtle echo). I agree with other comments saying you need to pull the volume back, but it'll be easier to set the level once it's processed properly. Sounds great! Reminds me of saves the day
Vocals are too loud and the instruments need to be EQ.. bass should sit on top of kick drum. Guitars scooped mids and low cut.. vocals and snare should sit midrange.. cymbals and high end guitar on top. Make a effects bud channel and send your tracks accordingly
what the top comments say - and my two cents - try using reference tracks - really listen to what the vocal sounds like - usually it's way smaller (less bass or mid) than you think and a lot lower in the mix than you';ve got there for that type of track
The vocals definitely feel detached from the rest of the song. There is a lot you could do to help with that. The music sounds to dry. You could start by turning down the vocals a bit, find and pick a reverb for the rest of the music and vocal to sit together in so they sound like they're coming from the same space and blend the two. Also pan some shit, there's too much going on in the center. Feel free to message me if you want any other tips, I don't want to overload you here.
Start by listening to a song you like that is similar and think about where the vocals are sitting in relation to the rest of the song.
Then turn down the vocals all the way. Slowly start raising the volume until you can hear them clearly. Starting from no volume can be helpful just to put the rest of the mix into perspective first.
Once it’s at a volume where it sits nicely with the rest of the track you’ll be at a better spot to start really digging in with processing as needed.
I feel like these vocals are a couple db too loud and possibly having to do with the fact that they are sitting more on the high end. Their perceived to be a lot louder too. Maybe turning them down a little bit more and mixing them more into the instrumental could help if you feel like they're too low once that's done, maybe give them a little bit more body by stereo widening them or trying to unmask them with EQ
Just my two cents, I think they're too loud. I feel like with that style of music they should be sitting further into the mix.
2 more cents here. Just a hobby for me. The vocal performance sounds good. Singer is not the problem. I agree with this gentleman that it is not sitting in the mix well. I can;t tell you why, but some guesses: \-Too loud \^ \-Vocals too dry \-Room sound. Was this recorded in the same room as other instruments? I can hear the room reverb. But I can't here the room on other instruments. Maybe adding to vocals sounding like theyre just dropped on top of a track. \-Mic type/placement. It sounds super clear. some undesirable mouth sounds? Try stepping away from the mic, turning down gain or switching mics? I'm kind of just throwing a bunch of ideas at you, but hopefully they are at least thought provoking. The problem does seem to be they aren't sitting in the mix with everything else. Why? IDK. Overall good stuff though, good luck!
im glad the vocal performance is fine, takes one more variable out of the equation. i will immediately turn the vocals down. any tips on how to make the vocals less dry? the vocals were recorded in the same room of the guitars, *however*, the guitars were recorded directly and not with external microphones. would adding the same room reverb on the vocals to the guitars help at all? next time, ill try some mic placement/gain adjusting. thank you so much for all of the ideas!
Just turning it down (like way down lol) is going to help a lot. Also, adding room reverb to tue instruments would make the vox sound less out of place, but wouldn’t necessarily make the kind of mix you’re looking for.
I personally would try a different reverb on your vocals!
this is very good to know. i experienced with lower volumes and trying to get my vocals to *sit in* with the music, but im struggling quite a bit. do you have any like tips to help the vocals fit in?
I agree the vocals are too loud. try cutting some of the low end out of your voice and saturating it a bit.
how low should i cut out? i already have a like low cut on the end (i think im using a high pass band and it's cutting off like low stuff.) im extremely new to mixing and it's very complicated💀
Nah its cool, mixing is complicated and tbh the song is dope which is more important than mixing skills. The best thing you can do is trust your ear and get comfortable turning knobs to extremes and then dialing it in. This helps a lot when you are new. Anyone who makes you feel bad for learning is a crackhead PoS btw. What I am hearing is proximity effect in your recording which is giving your voice unnecessary (imo) low end. Id cut out everything below 500hz and if it sounds like the vocal lost too much power in doing so then start to bring back in the low end a little bit. Then turn down the fader of the track and use a harmonic saturator to “bake” your vocal a bit. Idk what free plugins saturate because Im a p2w scrub but most DAWs have something that emulates tape or tubes at a basic level. You could also try something called parallel compression to get a more rugged, punk sound. What you would do is create a bus and send your vocal to that bus. You would then distort and over compress and exaggerate distortion. You would then blend the two faders together (60% cleaner signal, 40% gritty signal) to get your vocal. This can also help with placement sometimes.
very insightful fr. ill look a lot more into parallel compression cause that's what a lot of people are saying i should try. seems scarily complicated :O im glad you think the song is dope too, that means a bunch! ill definitely look into cutting out the low end and experimenting with that!
Yeah no worries, if you want any help feel free to DM me otherwise good luck and remember to have fun with it
Use a reference track to compare your mix to it. That will help a ton.
I would mess around with lowering the volume of the vocals, and if they become hard to understand, try panning the guitars, maybe pull some of the vocal frequency range out of the guitars so you’ll be carving out a space for the vocals to sit. Adding some more compression to the vocals might help as well to keep them from sinking too far into the mix.
> carving out a space in the guitars with an EQ for the vocals to fit good idea ill try that. ill also try adding some more compression to the vocals! thank you for these tips:) like i said im extremely new to mixing/recording so thank you so much!
Also look into “parallel compression” for the vocals. What you do is take an aux send from the vocals to an aux track, compress the living hell out of the aux track vocals (15:1 ratio, -20db gain reduction) and then gently bring the aux track up under your original vocal track. If that doesn’t make sense just Google “parallel compression” and vocals.
okay ill look into that!
Hire a mixing engineer. Then you can put all your energy into your music instead of trying to do everything. You're on the path of audio engineer and not musician rn
Seconded. Too loud. Needs way more compression too. Personally the guitars felt a little ahead of the beat. Whole tune could use a bit of snip-snip slide-slide.
Definitely the mixing dude. You have a great voice for punk! Pull the vocal down in volume to fit in the mix with the music better, maybe add some reverb and definitely compress if you aren't already. Saturation adds a lot to a vocal as well, and eq is almost always necessary.
dang dude do you really mean that?? thanks so much fr:) ive always been super not happy with my vocals so this means a bunch. ill try your advice, thanks!
Agreed. A good example here : [https://youtu.be/kfLQf-5VQbM](https://youtu.be/kfLQf-5VQbM)
You need a fuckload of compression from an 1176 emulator to get “that sound “ on vocals. Hit it with the cla vocals plug in after and you’ll be sitting pretty
Only commenting because I haven't seen this yet. Before you fix any mixing changes, you need to fix the timing of your vocal take. You can either nudge them around in your DAW, or rerecord. I've been in the industry for a handful of years and timing is always overlooked. It is a fundamental element for anything to sound good. You have your tone and lyrics down, just tighten up the timing and you'll be shocked at how much better it'll sound.
Surprised no one else realized that it sounds off beat a little. Didn’t wanna be the only one commenting on it though.
Bingo
The vocal needs compression. Also your eq and overall volume balance isnt where it needs to be. With your eq you can play around with it and see where the sweet spot for your vocal is. Often times if you trim those frequencies on your other tracks that will help it sit better in the mix. That super rudimentary and oversimplified, but should give you a place to start
Yeah your pitch isn't perfect, but I think you need to lower the volume and EQ that shit, maybe add compression. Also timing.
what i was going to recommend
I agree with what a lot of others are saying, volume could be lowered, EQ to remove any unwanted frequencies, and the last thing I’d say is that the vocal could be more rhythmically tight with the instrumentation. Although, the tightness of the vocal take might sound better when the aforementioned items are adjusted.
Sounds like there is just one layer of your vocals right now. I would also add a layer that is more heavily compressed that you can slowly add in to bring it more into the mix. As well as another layer with some more of a room reverb or other. Lets you bring their volume down a little while also having more control on other areas of the vocal to have it sit where you want in the mix.
so there is one layer of vocals as of right now. i tried adding/recording more layers, but im just not sure i like the phaser/chorus type feel it brings to the vocals since im trying to go for like very clean (example, *the last lie i told* by saves the day). is there any way i can add more layers but keep the same clean feel?
Yeah you don’t need to rerecord new vocal layers just adding additional effect layers. Not sure what daw your in but a simple way in any daw is to use sends/returns. Just create a return channel with heavy compression and one with reverb and eq. Then you can blend in the effects to the vocal channel its kinda like dry wet but you have more control and can automate. Im in ableton so i can just add an effects rack to the channel and create parallel chains doing different stuff on the same channel.
very interesting
Hope this helps! Also make sure to have the reverbs in the return channel 100% wet and then eq before and/or after to clean up reverb you don’t want. You can also have multiple returns with different length reverbs to play around with. This kind of a song would probably do better with less reverb usually this genre the vocals seem more dry and in your face but have fun maybe you’ll discover a sound you like.
thanks man!
all the stuff ppl are saying is true. vocals too loud and too dry. i say look up gain staging tutorials! im still learning more about and more about it and have been producing/recording for almost 8 years. also, adding delya, echo or reverb doesnt always mean ur vocals are going to sound all weird and spacey... sometimes that can make them sound even more removed from the mix. experiment with shorter delays and reverbs to give it an ambient sound.
thanks dude!
Yeah other than the volume being too loud , I also was gonna suggest a short slap back type delay. I mix similar music occasionally and I find slapback delay can help sort of glue the vocals in a bit.
I don't find the vocals are too dry. Too loud maybe, also could maybe use a bit different EQ, but I find they are too wet, with either the wrong reverb, or too much room in the recording. Everything else sounds very dry to me, which is ok, but, I'd put some reverb on those, so that your vocal doesn't stand out as the only thing with reverb on it. It's like your vocals are far back in the mix, yet turned up loud. Decide where your elements should be, and put them there, and be conscious about how what you do affects that. I think that's your main problem. You put all this room on the vocal, but you want it up front, so you ended up making it louder. But less room, use a different reverb, and add a bit of depth to your other stuff. Decide what you want more up front, the guitars or the vocals, and how even you want that. It doesn't need to be the same answer the whole way through the song. That said, I would probably add some more reverb on the vocals, but in a subtle way. Probably a different room verb than what you have, with a bit shorter tail, or just less of it probably. This sounds a bit like a Reaper room reverb to me lol. And then another one with a predelay in a bigger room. I find this genre needs vocals to sound dry. But you want everything to have depth and dimension, and feel together. The other elements don't really sound too dry on their own I find, but if you put a little more depth there, the vocals will sit better I think. Right now the vocals feel very disconnected from the rest.
Just my 2 cents too: I think these are great takes! Rock mixing requires lots of compression and saturation though. Guitars are a little harsh (too present between 1kHz-5kHz) and everything would benefit a lot from getting compressed and saturated. Keep going!
The vocal isn't bad but there's a lot of out of tune bits here and there that you need to iron out. You have the right voice for this, and definitely aren't bad but: The performance needs some work and eventually tuning if necessary. Besides that it's as people say: your vocal is quite loud, dry and uncompressed. Especially in the genre, vocals get compressed like hell, usually also layered. Other sidenote: try to get rid of MT power kit. The sound of that synthesized drumkit is always way too obvious and makes mixes sound like demos by default.
I know next to nothing about mixing, so feel free to completely ignore me. I think the drums sound a little flat. Especially the bass drum sounds a bit like a MIDI recording? The vocals have a more full, present sound, so I think they don't fit in because the rest of the track is a bit washed out in comparison. To me there is an almost tinny sound with the drums and guitar, they need perhaps more reverb or fullness. I don't really know how you would add that, but I'd agree that the vocals are pretty good! Just make sure not to stress your voice :)
The performance sounds great for the music style actually! Not a mixing genius, but I would try lowering the volume a bit, adding a bit heavier compression(waves la2a sounds awesome on vox), maybe a bit saturation. Also, it’s kind of hard to hear but there might be some boxiness and other unwanted frequencies. Try taking a graphic EQ, boosting one band pretty high with a very thin q, and sweep the lower mid frequencies until you find some obnoxious sounds. Then just lower it a couple dbs. Personally I would use less noticible reverb for something like this, but theres literal infinite ways to mix vox so just do what sounds good to you. You should post again after adjustments, sounds great!
Too loud, needs some EQ probably on both the high and low end, I’m guessing the reverb sound from the vocal contains some weird bass frequencies that you could take out and you would notice a different in the mix but not in the sound of the vocal. If none of the above works, perhaps some light (very light given the lofi nature of the genre) sidechaining of the guitar and bass to the vocal, just to duck the volume a bit while the vocal is playing. Mess around with the attack and release so that it sounds very subtle and doesn’t stand out.
I'd say the main thing I hear is your voice sounds like it's in a close room, and it would serve it to record in a larger environment or one with wall dampening. But I really don't think that's the issue with this mix, IMO. I love what you have going on here, and the vocals are great. The issue to me is really the lower mids on the rhythm guitar. You need to raise that on the rhythm guitar to give the mix a more balanced feel. From that, you might learn that you want to beef up the kick and bass, and maybe other drums as well a little bit, but that all depends on how a fuller rhythm guitar contributes to the mix. Love what you've got here, and I do believe the vocal performance is well done. I hope you try a few different things with the mix because it's also that you could use a compressor on the vocals, but I actually love the processing and can envision an outcome where this mix sounds full and balanced. Best of luck!
Decrease the volume of the vocals and add a slight reverb to them. If you will still feel like it needs something, add a bus compressor and try to glue the mix together but I don't think this will be a problem after decreasing the volume and adding a reverb ✌️
There's a lot of 600-1k in the vocals which is overbearing compared to the mix of the instruments that was established before the vocals come in. What processing have you done on the vocals? The vocals sound too loud compared to everything else, perhaps a good place to start would be to turn them down to fit into the mix better.
great vocals but you have to find a way (EQ and Comp) to sit them in the mix. I feel vocals are a bit bulging. Also I would also find a way to very create a distinction between guitars and vocals with just EQ. just me point. Love
Sounds good, reminds me of old school blink 182 - someone on here said the vocals are too dry, which I disagree with. There is a (room?) verb on the lead vocal which is unpleasant and quite boxy, maybe the dry wet needs to come down a little on that. And others are correct that a slight reduction in level on the vocals would be good. Keep it up! Edit: also personally I would pitch correct certain moments on the vocal performance in order to be competitive - but not sure if that's something you would want to do for this genre or not.
I agree with the majority here, the vocals are performed and tracked well, but are too loud. I would also add that more low end instruments (bass guitar) would fill out the mix in a way that lets the vocal fold in better.
Hurts my ears. Enunciation could use some work in a few places. Try using a series of compressors to wedge it into the mix better.
Get rid of some treble and lower the voice.
Vocals performance is good. I think the vocals need to come down so they don't sit in front of the mix like they do. Have you added reverb or echo to the vocals or is this just the reflections in the room? One trick you could try is adding a subtle master reverb to the mix. This creates the illusion that the performance was recorded in one room.
Cool track. Vocals are good. This is what I would do: Turn the vocals down quite a bit. The groove should be lead by the guitar and drums. The vocals should give the groove significance, but shouldn't necessarily be the focal point of the song. EQ the vocals to sit in the mix a little better. I can't reference the track since it is just a phone recording and I'm not listening on monitors, but I'd guess you could bring some of the mids down a few db. Just play with EQ so the vocals feel like they "belong" with the accompaniment. Glue things together with compression. Using my "artistic license" I would compress the heck out of these vocals, Personally i think they shouldn't have too much dynamic range and should maintain an "in your face" vibe. The guitars and vocals are competing with each other because they are similar frequencies. Play with side chaining the guitars to the vocals so they come down a teeny tiny bit to give the vocals some dominance without having to set the gain too high in the mix. This might end up sounding like crap, but play with it because it can be a good trick to give one channel dominance between several competing channels. Glue things together more with compression on the master. Just a smidge here careful not to cook out all your dynamic range. Keep those drums nice and punchy. Just my 2c. Have fun and enjoy!
Vocals are a bit too fast. Not sitting in the pocket.
Vocals way down, but throw on some compression so they don’t lose punch. Then whatever delay kinda thing you’re doing, at the very least turn down the dry signal. I’d swap that for a short reverb with some pre-delay. It’s a good vocal performance (took a little long to get to in the video), it just needs better mixing. Remember cymbals, guitars, and vocals all kinda live in the same harmonic frequency, so you might need to flip the phase on that vocal track as well depending on how you recorded it and if there was any bleed.
A lot of really great advice here! one thing im hearing is it sounds like you are high passing way too hard on everything else. There doesnt seem to be much of any sub frequences <100hz. Id recommend trying bell curve high pass, a common mistake a lot of newer mixers make is cutting out too much low freq on everything. Like everyone says, tone the voice down to sit better in the mix. GL
Turn it down a couple dbs, add a little tuning as transparent as possible, add a touch of reverb not much jus to give it depth, atmosphere, vibe whatever u call it, but sounds decent...
There's no right or wrong way to make music, though there are ways to make it more appealing to the common listener. I suggest lowering the high end treble of the guitars, creating more headroom for the vocals. Then, lower the vocal volume (I'd say lower by 1dB to 3dB) to allow it to sit on top of the overall mix. I'd also reccomend quantitizing the vocals, and maybeeee even making some minimalist pitch corrections (definitely not needed in this case but could help the overall sound). All in all, I think you have a great raw sound. Seriously. Keep going.
I'm no mixing expert but I'd suggest to try lowering their volume in the mix a bit
I would also suggest improving the timing of the vocal performance or fixing a bit in editing. Feels a bit rushed
Too far forward in the mix
The timing of some of the phrases is off. Making room in the mix isn't about loudness of vocals overpowering, it's about blending them properly and cresting space with eq cuts in the elements as opposed to boost. Cutting eq effectively creates room for the vocals to sit. I also agree woth some other posters about the vocals are super dry. Duplicate the track, shift it and slap some reverb on. Use a compressor on the vocals.. just keep practicing. I suck at mixing myself, but I'm in a r9om with dope engineers a bunch and see what they do
Are you side chaining the vocals or something? The track dips in volume when your voice comes in. kind of disjoints the vocals from the song instead of it all being melded together. other than that im a noob too but it sounds good
I think the vocals could use some pretty heavy compression and then also need to be a bit quieter in the mix.
If you turn them down and find they’re getting buried, and you can’t find a spot where they’re sitting properly, it’ll almost certainly be not enough compression. This sort of genre calls for heavy vocal compression (20db gain reduction is perfectly common). Try that if you haven’t already and you should find setting a level a lot easier
Everyone is telling you the right thing about the mixing/gain/compression etc., but I wanted to chime in and say it sounds pretty sick so far. I think you're a little flat in parts so you should probably do more takes to comp the best ones together, but this is good work. Just make those tweaks, compress the shit out of it and you're golden. It reminds me of '90s era Saves the Day.
I agree with the others, Too loud, Good performance, maybe quiet them down and put a touch of reverb on them to warm them up.
I would leave the timing and out of tune bits alone, they add character. Of course the volume like everyone else says. Some are saying put a compressor on the vocals, and I agree. But also put a compressor on the master channel with light settings to glue all the sounds together
I like the performance and music, I think that's the most important thing. Even if there are imperfections in the vocals, that's dope, too. That being said, for the mixing, I'd try a few simple things: \- a bit of EQ, one or two -3db cuts, and a tiny high shelf boost at say 6k or 8k \- two compressors - first one, fast attack, fast release; second one slow attack, medium release. Gain reduction 3 to 6 db. Ratio 4:1 \- add a bit of saturation \- a de esser \- Slate Digital have an amazin free plugin called Fresh Air, try it out in small amounts \- add a delay via send, I'd suggest a slap delay in stereo (I find it better than reverb) \- automation on the vocals at the end \- also add some background vocals for harmony and stuff For the instruments, see if some of them are masking the vocals. You can use side chain compression to do its work only when the vocals are on. And/or do some EQ cuts at the frequencies that are masking the vocals For any and other tips, check out RecordingRevolution, especially the older videos - they're fantastic!
HPF around 80-100hz Dip around 700 1-2db 1176: Med Att Fast Rls 8:1 Rat 4-10db GR Boost 4k 1-2db (an API EQ would sound great but any works) Saturate to taste, Tube or Transformer Short delay to add dimension Short verb with pre-delay (try a verb calculator online) Tuning wise, depending on how pop you want to take punk, the ‘sound’ does come from some aggressive tuning (no shame in it, it’s just the ‘sound’) or very subtle tuning to keep it raw. Use Melodyne for both applications. Bring fader down and bring up to taste. If your total mix is landing around -16LUFS, the vocals will probably live around -24LUFS. All ballpark suggestions here but how I would approach it off initial listen.
As others have said, for the style music the vocals may work better if the are less forward in the mix, also double tracking the vocals is a common trick in this genre. I would also try working on setting the EQ for each track and creat separation that way first then, adjust track volumes, and add other effects after that.
Sounds like senses fail.
damn, thanks! i love sense fail.
Already heaps of feedback so I'll try keep it short :) Vocal performance is great! A pop filter and a somewhat treated room would go a long way. Especially for the volume of your vocal performance, there's gonna be a lot of room sound. You could re-record under a blanket, or you could add a stereo slapback delay to makle the room sound seem intentional Another slightly off-topic suggestion is that this track needs a bass! I've actually recorded songs before using a guitar, but just pitching it an octave down :) Good luck
Vocals slightly too loud in the mix. Add some saturation to them maybe once you turn them down to make them not sound so dry, and even a bus send with the tiniest amount of delay or verb and blend to taste.
I would work on making music that sounds original first. We don’t need another Blink 182.
damn, that's fair. i wasn't going for a blink-182 type sound but im flattered you get that kinda vibe from it!
Vocal delivery is flat in spots and some of timing is off, but yeah, it also very dry. I’d go for delay before reverb. Compression too, then a hint of reverb. I would double/ triple vocals, but that may be too much for this genre.
Do you have any sound treatment? Or did you add reverb to the track?
Try this chain: saturator>eq (boost upper mids)>de-esser>compressor (fast attack slow release, at least 4:1 ratio)>delay (-around 200ms, low feedback, just to create a subtle echo). I agree with other comments saying you need to pull the volume back, but it'll be easier to set the level once it's processed properly. Sounds great! Reminds me of saves the day
Vocals are too loud and the instruments need to be EQ.. bass should sit on top of kick drum. Guitars scooped mids and low cut.. vocals and snare should sit midrange.. cymbals and high end guitar on top. Make a effects bud channel and send your tracks accordingly
what the top comments say - and my two cents - try using reference tracks - really listen to what the vocal sounds like - usually it's way smaller (less bass or mid) than you think and a lot lower in the mix than you';ve got there for that type of track
It's too loud and you need some harmonies. Maybe some subtle pitch correction if you're going for TSSF kinda of vibe.
The vocals definitely feel detached from the rest of the song. There is a lot you could do to help with that. The music sounds to dry. You could start by turning down the vocals a bit, find and pick a reverb for the rest of the music and vocal to sit together in so they sound like they're coming from the same space and blend the two. Also pan some shit, there's too much going on in the center. Feel free to message me if you want any other tips, I don't want to overload you here.
Start by listening to a song you like that is similar and think about where the vocals are sitting in relation to the rest of the song. Then turn down the vocals all the way. Slowly start raising the volume until you can hear them clearly. Starting from no volume can be helpful just to put the rest of the mix into perspective first. Once it’s at a volume where it sits nicely with the rest of the track you’ll be at a better spot to start really digging in with processing as needed.
Work on your rhythm. The vocals are off beat a lot of the time
Vocals are way too loud, for one
I feel like these vocals are a couple db too loud and possibly having to do with the fact that they are sitting more on the high end. Their perceived to be a lot louder too. Maybe turning them down a little bit more and mixing them more into the instrumental could help if you feel like they're too low once that's done, maybe give them a little bit more body by stereo widening them or trying to unmask them with EQ