Recording Vocals Problem please help

[zikon]

Hey everyone. Been a while since i posted here.... anyways...

I am using FL studio, with my samson CO1U mic, and asio plugin, to record vocals to my songs.

I have 3 songs I made.

The first uses VST's and 2 vocal tracks, (melody and harmony) and when played back on speakers, the vocals sound very distant, and quiet, yet when I listen to them on headphones, they are louder, (like they should be when i recorded it)

The second song, uses 2 tracks recorded with mic. An acoustic guitar, and vocals. (only melody) the guitar actually sounds fairly ok, but again the vocals are low and quiet in volume, and sound really bad (kind of like under water, or i'm drowning.) but when listening through head phones, its good. they are loud, or equal volume with guitar (like they are suppose to be)

The third song was just a quick record so I dont forget it and i can rerecord it better later, so its just one track mic recording of both acoustic and vocals (pretty much like a live recording on one track) When played through the speakers, it sounds normal like when i listen to it through the headphones. Vocals are clear.

It seems like something happens, when I try to record 2 mic tracks. When I listen to it in FL with headphones, sounds perfect.. I love it.. when i put it on ipod and listen with headphones love it, but when I listen to it on some speakers, it just sounds distant, watery, like i'm drowning on 20 gallons of water.

Is this a problem with my mic? ASIO drivers? Something when formatting to mp3?

Please help me out. I'm wanting to cut an album, but I cant if I make one and the people listening, cant hear the words....

Thanks...

[Anti-Syne]

Just a quick suggestion, it maybe a phasing issue that isn't coming across on headphones as the speakers are kept separate, but on monitors you might be getting the distant sound because the sound waves are interfering with each other in a deconstructive way

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interference_%28wave_propagation%29

Try reversing the phase of your vocal recording maybe? (i've never used fruity loops but i assume it can do this)

[Rozovian]

Dunno how FL handles audio, but it should be easy to test. Find the audio files you recorded, listen in QT player or some other player outside of FL. Then check how FL handles those files.

Not sure I'm reading you right, but from what I understand you've got muddy vocals on speakers but not on headphones in two out of three examples.

Possible solution: Mix the vocals louder and clearer. zircon mentioned somewhere that he got some feedback once about how one of his tracks, with vocals, sounded like it was mixed on a loud monitor level. That makes the mids, where the vocals are, sound more clear, but when listening on lower volume they're less distinct. Could be just a difference in output levels between the speakers and headphones. Could be reverb that's normally spread to the sides with the vocals center that's just diffused on speakers.

Could also be some weird behavior in FL. Render the song, listen on speakers and headphones through QT player or something. Basically take Fl out of the equation.

[zikon]

Ok well here is another variable to throw in. Its not on ALL speakers it sounds like this. FL studio will play the vocals just fine. Headphones play the vocals just fine. My $99 sony stereo plays the vocals just fine, my phone, ipod nano 5th gen and my dads stereo, when all played without headphones, sounds crap vocals. I dont think its to do with sound waves.

It sounds like a worn out cassette tape. Since it seams like i've heard this vocal thing on some of those as well..

It just seems that one certain speakers, the vocals sound nasty. Low volume, girgly, very bad. But they arent. They sound crisp clean clear on headphones, in or out of FL studio.

Thats what makes me want to think its a rendering problem.

All song vocals i recorded are good through headphones, but depending on speakers, it could sound good, or bad.

I've heard that some speakers push more power than others that boost the signal or the vocals. My phone and ipod nano speakers, will play other music that has vocals just fine.. Clean loud and crisp, so i know those devices arent defective. Its just the music I render with FL. And only those songs, that I use 2 mic recordings..

Is ASIO some how messing up the 2 recordings during render?

When I get home I'm going to try some more extensive troubleshooting.

[SonicThHedgog]

on the vocals try the haas method to resolve some of the wave propagation

[Rozovian]

on the vocals try the haas method to resolve some of the wave propagation

I think we've established that it's not a phase issue. Haas method is for crafting or correcting panning phase.

zikon, you suck at structuring your posts.

Let's see if I got this straight, correct me if anything's inaccurate.

Always good = headphones. So it's not the mic. If it sounds good on headphones, it's recorded good. Also sounds ok on some speakers, like that $99 stereo. Is this only out of FL or are you testing with rendered files as well?

If therender sounds good on headphones, the problem is probably the speakers, or possibly your expectations for how it's supposed to sound (ipod and phone speakers aren't really top of the line monitors ).

Bad speaker = your phone, your ipod, and your dad's stereo. But only your music, other music still sounds fine on those. Does it sounds fine on headphones out of these?

You could post an example of a track that doesn't work, we might hear an issue with it on our setups and figure out what's wrong... or what isn't.

[Kennedy]

zikon, I believe it may be a combination of those things mentioned above. Bad speakers/phasing etc. Every speaker system has a unique frequency response/curve for reproducing sound. For that reason frequencies that are out of phase in one, may not be as prominent in another. Also, keep in mind that some sound systems employee additional effects to your audio such as SRS etc. These systems actually use phase techniques to shape audio. ...which of course isn't always desirable.

I don't know how you are previewing things on all these different sources, but as I think Rozovian mentioned, you might want to make sure everything is exported first, and that you are using the same source to preview with. (i.e. an ipod and an mp3etc.)

The best way to nail this is if you could save one of your smaller examples as an fl bundle file and post it here.

That way we could at least try to replicate the problem to figure this out for you^_^