Vocal mixing

[Hale-Bopp]

For the longest time, I feel like I've been struggling with getting my vocals to really sit in the mix on any one of my songs. I listen to vocal mixes by other remixers here and for the most part, they sound spot on. I'd like to achieve that as well.

I'm asking for anyone with experience in mixing vocals to help me out here. Take a listen to my latest track and see if you can tell me what I need to do to get my vocals to sound like they're part of the song, and not out there floating on their own.

LINK: http://hale.voidaudio.net/music/mario_kart7.mp3

The chorus seems to be where the vocals stick out the most. I try messing with the volume, but I'm not feeling it. I play around with EQ and I only mess it up more.

What do I need to do? Are there tricks, tips or secrets to making vocals sit in the mix? I feel like I can only experiment so much until I'm even more lost than I was before. Please help!

[avaris]

Yeah I can def see how the vocals feel like they are floating.

IMO I am not insanely experienced w/vocal tracks but here is what I think:

The vocals seem to sit rather wide in the mix. Try to use a stereo imager to make them dead center. Make them almost mono.

Another big thing is your voice, your voice has a very strong mid range. So IMO you gotta be really careful with the other instruments you put in the same range.

This is a great song by the way. If someone never played this game they would think the lyrics would never be about racing. The composition and flow is spot on and extremely well done.

[zircon]

Honestly this sounds fine to me. The only thing you might want to try is more compression on the vocal channel to level things out throughout the mix, they get noticeably louder in the chorus which probably contributes to your feeling of it being "disjointed" or floating.

[dannthr]

I agree with Zircon, also, you might want to cut a little back on the verb--let them be a bit more upfront.

You're going to find that the wetter a track is, the farther away it seems. Likewise, the dryer, the closer. You need to change the spatial position.

If you don't want to compress it, you could also try just raising it a bit--maybe some mild normalization.

You just need to bring it out more, it'll sound solid when you do.

Also, if you decide to mono it, don't mono your chorus, they sound great.

[Moseph]

I'm listening through a not-so-great setup right now, but the overall mix sounds bass-heavy to me. I'm using EQ to cut by about 3 db in the frequencies below 750 hz, and that seems to tighten everything up a bit -- vocals included -- so you might want to play around with that.

[Hale-Bopp]

k, I thought I'd try out some of your suggestions, so I implemented the following:

- less reverb
- compression (4:1)
- lead vocal slightly more mono

LINK: http://hale.voidaudio.net/music/mario_kart8.mp3

EDIT: oops, posted this just after Moseph's post. I seem to remember some bass issues actually when I listened to the song on a different setup. I might have to try your suggestion as well.

[Fray]

Both versions already sound great. I think the compression helped.

One thing I did notice, though, is that the lead instrument parts sound a little too quiet and lack punch, whereas the vocals have it. Of course you need to keep the instruments out of the way most of the time, but, for example, starting at 1:05 there's a question-and-answer going on between the guitar and the vocals -- it seems like the guitar should have roughly the same presence, but it doesn't; it's much quieter.

This is a badass remix by the way.

[Hale-Bopp]

Yet another excellent suggestion. The guitar has something to say there and I wasn't really letting it have its say. After boosting it a couple of decibels during that part, it actually makes so much more sense.

You guys are awesome! I'm learning a ton as I go along here. I think I'm just about done with this track.

[Hale-Bopp]

This could very well be the final version:

- bass/boom reduction on entire song
- guitar level tweeked in spots

LINK: http://hale.voidaudio.net/music/mario_kart9.mp3

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Sounds great!

[Fray]

Sweet, glad that helped. I think people are going to flip when this hits the front page :)

[avaris]

Listened to this all morning, and I normally don't listen to this kind of music. 8-O

[Hale-Bopp]

haha, thanks guys. :)

This one's finally done. Next...