Blessings--thanks everyone! I'm taking this one down now.

Josh & Taylor were in my studio again today and recorded this beautiful song.  As you all know, I can't mix anything really well, but I have so little experience with vocals, I need even MORE help with them.  Any advice would be appreciated.  I know there's mic noise (or something!), but I don't know how to get rid of it.  But anything else you want to chime in on, I'd be much obliged.  Thanks.  

Lead vocals:  Taylor (voice major)
bgv & piano:  Josh ('her' Josh, not mine)  :)

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=789731&songID=11270776

2nd mix:  Tried to fix the vocal problems mostly.  See post farther down.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it?
I can hear the buzzing sound, but it's intermittent. Possibly a bad connection on the mic? Is it handheld or mounted on a stand?

Hey Janet,
WOW . . . what a performance. I'm listening on computer speakers so I'm not going to be much help. GREAT job you have done. On my end the only thing I think you need to do is pull the vocals back in the mix. I can't hear the piano that well when they start singing.  I'll leave the rest to the forum experts.  What a WONDERFUL song. THANKS for the listen.


Kev

Thanks Kev.  I'll pull those vocals back.  I wondered about that.  I did pull the piano up a bit when they both came in, but obviously not enough.  Thanks again! 

Hi Janet...this is great! I would probably pull the vocal back just a bit...maybe put a slight verb on it...low pass like 12k a little bit so it's not as breathy. You may also want to watch for "plosives" and invest in a pop filte/wind-screen as we have a few hard p's and b's hitting at times..but other than that, this is really well done. To stop this without having to redo the track, split the clip at the plosive and fade it in so it takes the hard blast out of it. So you'll have a fade on the plosive and the actual word will come through without that going on. For example...

Say I sing the word "people" and the p sound comes out as "puh" really hard. I need to grab a fade in on that p sound so that the "puh" is less apparent and it just sounds like "people" without such a hard p sound...understand? You just use the fade in on the start of that. If it's inside a clip, you split the clip at that point then do your fade in there. Hope this helps a bit....really enjoyed this though...and give yourself a little credit...you're doing great at this mixing stuff. Compare what you were doing years ago (which in my opinion STILL wasn't bad) and then listen to you now. You're making gains each time...so just enjoy it. :)

-Danny

+1 on verb for the voice, also try and get a bit more body into the piano. great tune.

Thanks Danny!  I've got a pop filter on the mic.  I'll see if the compressor is doing that.  Otherwise, I'll start editing them out.  Fun...

Thanks for that, Scott.  Hopefully that won't be hard to remedy.  :)

Thanks Mark.  All right already...I'll add more 'verb!!!  LOL.  But can you explain what you mean by more body into the piano?  I don't have it 100% wide like I usually do...is that what you're hearing?  Hm...also didn't give it my typical 'darker' eq bump.  Maybe that's it.  Thanks again for stopping by.  I really appreciate it!  

Janet....sometimes even with a pop filter...some words come out as plosives. It can be the mic...or it can be the delivery in which the singer sings....it's always different. You know how anal I am about stuff like this and I even get this on my end no matter how hard I try. You just have to edit it when you hear it. Even with the best mic and techniques...sometimes these things find a way of squeaking through. The only way to totally get rid of it besides editing is to go further away from the mic...but then you sometimes get a sound that is a bit distant. The one thing I liked about what you have here was the up close and personal sound. This comes from being close to the mic when singing. The further away you go, the less the plosives can do their dirty work...but you also can get more of a "room sound" which can be a little distant and less up close and personal. It depends on what you're going for really as well as how good the mic is.

I'm not a fan of my U-87 on my voice. For some reason...as great as that mic is, it only works for me when I sing in the key of G. LOL! But, it's so sensitive, I can be further away from it and it will still give me that up close and personal sound without plosives. With other mics I have, sometimes being right on them is what makes them sound good...but then you have the plosives possibility. You just edit it out when it shows up if you can. If you can't, you just recut that part of the track and try to have the singer hit it a bit less hard. This stuff happens and is tough to totally stop because so much factors in. It's actually good you experienced this so you can learn how to edit it. Editing is just as important as the mix itself...so each little thing you experience is a good thing and then you can learn how to fix or deal with it. Good luck. :)

-Danny

I'm listening on my laptop speakers, so I can't really comment mix wise? But she's too hot, seems like way to hot? And too dry. I would moisten her up and cool her off a bit. 

What a beautiful song. 
 
Advice from someone who dosen't know what he's talking about...  The background vocals come in too loud.  I think they need to be cut by quite a bit, and possibly panned more to the right so that they are softer but not lost.  possibly a little fade in/out so he dosen't seem to jump out of nowhere?
 
It is probably blasphemy to use a pad on such a clean clear sound, but I think a little bass pad from about 1:30 till about 4:15 to fill some lower frequency would sound good.  Kind of swelling up then fading off toward the end.  Probably not what you were trying to achieve though.
 
Glen
 

Janet,
Re; the pop filter: try placing the filter at a 45 degree angle from the mic and singer's mouth. That tends to cut down on the pops a lot.

Wow this tune took my breath away Janet , sounded really nice to me .
As always your piano playing is perfection , good job in all areas . Vocals were superb , enjoyed listening to this song !

Radio

Thanks James.  It's not me playing....I did have to move 3 whole notes of his, so he's not totally perfect.  lol

Thanks Grant, I appreciate it.  They did one more song yesterday so hopefully I can get the first mix better than this one was after all the great advice from here.  :) 

Thanks Robby.  On the first mix, I increased the volume in Audacity, but wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not.  So this one is lower...I wasn't sure if I should push it with Ozone or not.  I guess you just confirmed it.  Thanks! 

Hi Janet. This is a really pretty song. Josh plays a wonderful piano and the song is well written. Plenty of advice on the vox above and my opinion is Taylor has a beautiful voice and sings well so any minor tweaks to this can only enhance an already great performance. The piano sounds great 99 percent of the time but I noticed that when chords are raked fast like at :33 there is a very slight harshness to it. It's really strange because it only happens with that particular technique in the song. Very enjoyable listen.