Vocals Quiet but Clipping?

Hi, 
I've recently bought X1 Producer, giving me a long overdue upgrade, but in my second mix I'm having a problem with the vocals in the mix.  I've adjusted the gain on all of my tracks to -5 dB and the vocals are very quiet compared to the rest of the (synthesised) instruments, so I compressed it as I usually do, which didn't help.

I then really heavily compressed the vocals to no avail, all it does is make the vocals sound heavily compressed, and quiet. I'm not exactly a novice, I've been mixing my own and other's pieces for years now, but this has me stumped!

So, is there anything you can think of to help me? Is there an obscure option in Sonar X1 I might have accidentally ticked?

Thanks,
Labrat256

I assume you have cut good vocals before, right? I say that because I used to have similar problems but they were always related to 1-poor preamp or 2-mic/preamp mismatch.

konradh


I assume you have cut good vocals before, right? I say that because I used to have similar problems but they were always related to 1-poor preamp or 2-mic/preamp mismatch.

Yep, I've used the same recording setup as I always have and I usually have no problems. Earlier on today I mixed some vocals from the same artist for the same album without any problems at all, this is just...odd!


It wasn't clipping at the recording stage. Apart from the fact that the singer was singing quietly and up close to the mic, everything was the same as usual and all of the levels were the same, it was recorded between -7 and -16dB. Every attempt to make it louder with gain or simple mixing clips it. 


Thanks for the suggestions though!

Do you have it going through a difference bus or output that is turned down low?

Lance

And how would applying a compressor make it louder????

By compressing the peaks and increasing the make-up gain maybe?

Do you have vocals outputting to a buss and the volume down or some sort of processing happening on that buss? If the recorded levels are -7 to -16dB there's no reason for them to be quieter than the rest of the tracks unless there's some sort of processing going on somewhere, either on the track or a buss.

Having just answered in jimmerlox thread I should have mentioned that here too. Check offset mode to see if you've inadvertently changed something there. Press O to enter/exit (you'll see a + beside the volume faders). Have a look at levels there.

If you have changed them in offset those changes won't show out of the mode but will have an effect. i.e. reduce the volume of a track/buss.