My approach is to export headphone vocal mix to a single WAV and delete all those tracks that can generate delay.
This way I start with a complex template in Sonar Producer (which I occasionally revise) with many synths and studio modeling at some busses (I will use it after vocal sessions for mixing), but for vocal purpose I first make comfortable mix, export it for a wav file, import it back to Sonar, save project as a vocal sub-project file, delete all synths in it and record vocal using Cakewalk Music Creator on a Pentium 3 PC with 500 MB memory (this PC located in other room, so, I have no noise room for singing). I still have midi tracks, and melody line shows up in staff view to follow while singing, but midi tracks have no output in this vocal file, as synths are deleted and the only playing track is vocal mix wav.
You can have an idea of my vocal mixes with my draft recodring of my first album, all 34 tracks are on Beatles melodies with my original Russian lyrics. A week ago I made a kind of Birthday Gift to my brothers with "field concert", and used my second rehearsal export for a soundtrack. The video is 1h 44min, but there is a transcript, so, you can jump between the songs, Beatles titles are labelled in English, so, you will have an idea of what I prefer for vocal mixes: usually it is a piano, but there could be some substitues, when piano does not provide a clear pitch to follow. Note: I don't work on this hobby project song-by-song, it's one project, so, this second vocal rehearsal is a result of a second vocal session for all songs (of ~6 hours long).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVXFIM_6ys8 HD video is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vBxv3HBzo
post edited by alexisrael - 2011/05/03 02:18:00