Vocal tracking

TacosWhenTwisted · 19th January 2009

Should vocal tracking/mixing come after the instrumental is already mastered or at the tracking/mixing stage?

It kinda would not make sense to do it after mastering because what if changes need to be done to the mix?

MASSIVE Master · 19th January 2009

"Mastering" is something that's done to a collection of finished mixes before they're sent off for replication.

If someone had the (bad) idea to crush an instrumental before the vocalist could get at it, that isn't mastering. That's senseless.

If you're tracking vocals, it would make sense to do that during tracking. As the name implies.

Chris Lago · 19th January 2009

You record the instrumental, then you do the vocals. You EQ, Compress set the levels and whatnot, and then you do a mixdown to do the mastering of the whole song. Don't ever do a mastering and then track the vocals after... It just doesn't work that way.

Edward_Vinatea · 19th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by TacosWhenTwisted

Should vocal tracking/mixing come after the instrumental is already mastered ?

If you did that your vocal will sit on a very compressed mix and still remain 'unmastered'. And in addition, you'd have to do mastering {or whatever extra post-production step that you wish to call it} twice, no? That's why it's never done that way.

Quote:

It kinda would not make sense to do it after mastering because what if changes need to be done to the mix?

Rule of thumb: Send only a complete mix that you are happy with for the mastering process.

19th January 2009	#1
TacosWhenTwisted Gear addict Joined: Jan 2009 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 419 Thread Starter	Vocal tracking Should vocal tracking/mixing come after the instrumental is already mastered or at the tracking/mixing stage? It kinda would not make sense to do it after mastering because what if changes need to be done to the mix?

19th January 2009	#2
MASSIVE Master Lives for gear Joined: Mar 2004 Location: Chicago (Schaumburg / Hoffman Est.) IL Posts: 2,708 Verified Member	"Mastering" is something that's done to a collection of finished mixes before they're sent off for replication. If someone had the (bad) idea to crush an instrumental before the vocalist could get at it, that isn't mastering. That's senseless. If you're tracking vocals, it would make sense to do that during tracking. As the name implies. __________________ John Scrip - Massive Mastering, LLC - www.massivemastering.com Spoon-feed a newb some answer and he'll mix for a day - Get him to think about it and figure it out for himself and he'll mix for a lifetime --- JS

19th January 2009	#3
Chris Lago Project Code CL2465 Joined: Dec 2008 Location: Who lives? Posts: 10,767 3 Reviews written	You record the instrumental, then you do the vocals. You EQ, Compress set the levels and whatnot, and then you do a mixdown to do the mastering of the whole song. Don't ever do a mastering and then track the vocals after... It just doesn't work that way. __________________ http://www.chrislago.com http://www.youtube.com/chrislago http://chrislago.bandcamp.com/

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