greekmac7
Thanks guys,
Ok so if I record the Vocals, then mute everything and bring the other instruments in one by one - hows that for a plan?
Also, why does mixing the vocals at a low volume work better than mixing loud?
Build your center first. The vocal, then kick drum then bass and finally snare. That should pretty much be the song right there. If there is a good pulse and rhythmic interplay, you can move on. There will be some conflict with the snare and vocal, so work the EQ on those. This is the C in LCR. Now you can bring in the other instruments, likely rhythm guitar or keyboard, whatever is the chordal framework. This needs to go mostly L&R and have the middle cleared so you don't conflict with the work you did in C. There are many ways of doing this, i.e. wideners, copying a track and slipping it a few MS then pan both hard L and hard R. Another method is 3 versions of the same track LCR and brighten the center, hi pass it out of the kick/bass range and lower its volume then move the others L&R. Another approach with 3 copies is to sidechain a compressor and have the vocal key the middle copy to compress when the vocalist is singing. The list goes on.
Keep building up the rest of the song to the sides but any featured parts, when the vocalist is not singing can move to the center. This is a general guideline and there are other approaches where you start with the drums but it's hard when you bring the vocal in later because then, you are having to craft a hole in the mix and you can end up chasing your tail for hours.
The reason you mix low is you get a better sense of balance at low volumes and you can balance the vocal volume against the mix better. As well as other things. If the mix sounds good at a low volume, it will generally sound killer when you turn it up.
Also mono anything in the center, actually as many tracks as possible except for drum overheads, keyboards, anything you want wide can be kept in stereo, make the rest including kick, snare, bass and vocal mono.