Hi Peeps,

This is a song that has an orchestral intro then a piano/vocal song. Im having trouble getting the vocals to sit right. Could use some EQ suggestions as
vocal timbre changes quite a bit and also im really struggling with what reverb to use, it either sounds too reverby or too dry. Would love some suggestions, educated or uneducated.

http://soundcloud.com/spa...y-v2-rough-mix/s-fyRU1

Many thanks

Bibs

The vocals sound like they are flat... or more accurately, lacking sparkle. They sound totally different from the music. 

The music, BTW is absolutely beautiful and the performance on the vocals is pretty decent. 

Just my take..... personal opinion... the vocals need to be EQ'd to bring out the highs a bit more. It seems they are lacking that spaciousness and air that will make them sparkle and fit the music.

Others are having similar issues.... in this post for example>>> http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2720372
Listen to the original for a minute or so...let her get to the chorus..... then drop down to post 10 and listen to the EQ'd version. I think you'll see or hear what I mean. 

Hi Herb, thanks for that, i had a warm eq preset on the vocal bus id forgotten to take off, so the link above now represents  the totally un EQ'd vocal, definitely more sparkle, but im sure it needs tweaking.

Cheers
Bibs

Yeah... the vocal part at 1:56 is nice.  It's higher and louder so the EQ sounds good there.... but still in the lower parts that sparkle would help the words intelligibility. 

On the cheap computer speakers I'm listening on it sounds good in the higher parts now. 


Unless you automate the EQ... which I don't do..... you need to find the EQ that works well for the entire vocal track....

Bibs, the vocal sounds excellent on my system.  It's full and lush, and it sits very well above the music.  Don't overdo this, the vocal performance is strong and carries the tune.  The lush backing music is nice, too.  I rarely disagree with Herb, but I DON'T hear a lack of sparkle.  I'll be curious to hear other's opinions on this, but don't get in too much of a hurry to change this.

Hi! Very nice job on the tune. You will probably get many variables when it comes to what you should do. I notice already in the posts that one of us says it sounds great on his system where others are offering tips on what to do. There are such differences between what we hear on our personal monitors as opposed to your monitors. I see you have some quality monitors you are working with. Try finding a track by an artist similar to what you are working on and playing it back thru your system. Then compare your track. What is lacking or boosted too much?
Reverb-wise maybe try a little pre-delay setting. Pre-delay will determine how long a time it takes for the reverb to kick in. Thus, you have the vocal a little drier for a short time. This tends to make the vocal stand out a little more before the reverb wash kicks in. The tune sounds pretty good on my system. Good luck, You are definitely headed in the right direction, Hang in there! 

hey bibs - very nice song - I hope you're ok, you sounded like a broken man by the end of it :)
I listened to the whole thing at a low volume and had to keep manually turning my volume up and down because of the peaks and troughs. I don't think the vocal effect is wrong as such but you may need to work on the overall mix level to try and keep it more consistent

you could likely use enveloping at this point to get the lower volume vocal parts up a few db to smooth it out and make it audible a tiny bit better.... 

  I agree the vox sound good in the parts I mentioned. 

I think its off to a great start, I can only echo what a few have already said about getting some "sheen" on the vocals and a db boost on the vocal passages at 2:15-2:20 & 3:09-3:15.
 Can't wait to see were this ends up.
Good luck
Kev

This sounds really good ....You need to level things ...If I was you I`d dbl track the vocals don`t worry about sparkle or shine your vox represent the exact emotion of the lyrics.