Recording Vocals question

Think of "even" as relative.

After you "even" out the vocals you then need to place that evened out track in the mix.

Think of it as a two step process... even if it is just one complicated process.

If you use the track volume for your envelope than you might have to use a bus or an offset to place the track in a mix.

This is why I like to use clip gain envelopes for what we are referring to in this discussion as "evening" and I use a volume envelope to mix.

keep at it you'll get it.

best regards,
mike

Good question! Unfortunately, there isn't one answer, at least that I know of. That's because it depends on the genre, style and effect you're going for.

It's trendy these days for pop songs to use extreme compression (perhaps only a 3db range) on lead vocals. An expressive jazz vocal might have a 30db range. You'll need to establish your own targets by experimentation and measurement.

My own method consists of using volume envelopes for the coarse leveling and one or two compressors for fine-tuning. I like to get a pretty good instrumental mix before even touching the vocals, so that I can judge the vocals against the instruments. That's really the acid test: can I hear the vocals and understand the words clearly over the backing tracks?

Keep in mind that an EQ change can throw your carefully-adjusted automation right out the window. A little midrange boost can pull a rock vocal up and suddenly make it clear and distinct, often to the extent that you might need to drastically readjust the vocal trim and automation. For that reason I like to settle on the vocal EQ first, before volume automation.

I start by placing automation nodes in silent locations in front of each clip or phrase. Then I adjust each node up and down and try to get reasonable consistency without getting obsessive about it. The objective is to make sure the vocal can be clearly heard, so it's the vocal level relative to the instruments that's important, rather than one portion of the vocal versus other vocal sections. The dynamics of the instrumental tracks will dictate where the vocal needs to sit, not any predetermined target range.

You can only do so much with volume envelopes. Compressors take over where envelopes leave off. Envelopes do the coarse adjustments, compressors the little corrections. It's not unusual to use two compressors in series, the first with a gentle ratio and slow attack, the second with a much higher compression ratio and faster attack.

At the end of the process the dynamic range of the vocal might end up surprisingly small in pop, rock and country genres. Yes, even country music vocals are pretty severely compressed these days.

I guess this was just a long-winded way of saying "use your ears".

All good advice. In some particularly difficult songs I sometimes send all but the vocal submix busses to a master backing mix bus (instead of the master). The backing bus and the vocal bus feed the master. It gives me one more control to automate, compress, or eq the backing tracks as a whole against the vocal.

j boy

bitflipper




It's not unusual to use two compressors in series, the first with a gentle ratio and slow attack, the second with a much higher compression ratio and faster attack.

Good advice.  I'd mark many of the posts helpful, if I knew how.  You're describing how I track.  Mic into hardware channel strip where (minimal) eq and compression, with reasonable ratio and threshold, are applied, then A/D into DAW.  In the fx bin are Voxformer (for de-esser only) and Sonalksis compressor (the green one).  That's workable if the part's tracked well enough.  If not, more tools come out...

Another die-hard fan of the 2 compressor method here. But I do it the other way around:
-1st compressor acts as a peak limiter, so ratio is high & attack/release is fast
-2nd compressor acts as a gentle smoother, so ratio is low & attack/release is slow

I used to spend countless hours tweezing the clip envelopes. It works great, but it's a ton of work, the sound is not always even, and worst of all the dreaded SONAR CLIP ENVELOPE BUG will get you sooner or later.

That prompted me to switch to compression methods. Tweak the knobs once, then sit back & enjoy the show.

Spaceduck

Another die-hard fan of the 2 compressor method here. But I do it the other way around:
-1st compressor acts as a peak limiter, so ratio is high & attack/release is fast
-2nd compressor acts as a gentle smoother, so ratio is low & attack/release is slow

Out of interest what compressor are you using and would you mind sharing your exact settings? I'm always having peak problems with my vocals

 

hairyjamie

Out of interest what compressor are you using and would you mind sharing your exact settings? I'm always having peak problems with my vocals

I'm using external hardware compressors (1176), but the Sonitus plugin has a pretty cool 1176 emulation you might be able to use. Here's how I set the knobs (in parentheses is the theoretical value you can type into Sonitus)

Comp #1 peak limiter
Attack: 10 (fast ~0.02 ms)
Release: 10 (fast ~50 ms)
Ratio: 20:1

Comp #2 smoothing
Attack: 0 (slow ~0.8 ms)
Release: 0 (slow ~1100 ms)
Ratio: 4:1

I set all Input & Output knobs to 5, then I watch the GR meter while I sing & adjust the Input knobs so that the compressors aren't working too hard. If you're using the Sonitus plugin, I think you'd tweak the Threshold value, but keep it more or less at the default.

I wish I had an example using these settings, but all my current songs are in a state of total confusion.  In the next few days I might have something uploaded--this method has worked wonders with my outta-control vocals