Bringing out instrumental and lowering vocals.. post production

[charleyruckus]

Hey, i'm an aspiring engineer and dropping a mixtape in a couple days.. I'm using sony acid pro 7, and Soundforge for post prod. Thing is the project files for one of my tracks thats going on the cd got lost when my comptuer crashed a few months back (i know i should have had it backed up, but i learned that lesson and now back everythign up periodically). The problem is the one track from months back (in which the instrumental isnt even available) is still on my comp, but just the final mixdown from the time. The vocals on it are way too hot, and i'm wondering if theres any way i can make it somewhat acceptable using mastering plugins.. Maybe eq? i've been messing around with it alot but i'm at the point where i'd likke an outside opinion. I would redo it if i could stlil get the instrumental but its not around anymore. Thanks in advance

[JoRillo]

Honestly trying to fix something specific like vocals with only the 2 track is probably going to mess it up more then help it. There are people that could probably do it, but since you have to ask I doubt your one of them. I would either not put the track out, or put it out and just be content with the way it sounds now. Or you can give it a shot with a few plug ins and see what you come up with, maybe you can prove me wrong.

Good luck either way.

Side note to all that - generally post production is a film term. You could argue that anything after making the track is "post production" but that's not really a term used in music very often. I guess some people might, but that is just my thoughts on the matter so you don't confuse people down the road.

[charleyruckus]

Hey man i appreciate the input and i'm glad you straightened that out for me. Like i said i'm still learning from anyone and everyone who has somethin to teach me

[Djkwame301]

try eq'ing between 1k and 10k...thats where the vocals live. dont cut too much tho and ruin the mix

[Storyville]

Three things that could help:

1) Use mid-side approach and lower the center signal - that will sink the vocals back a bit.

2) Use a transient designer to bring up the kick and snare.

3) Lastly, try either compression with a band-filtered sidechain that reacts predominantly to the vocals, finding target ranges to eq the vocals, or try some very tactful multi-band compression.


Ok, so that's actually like six things, but some combination thereof will help.

[Howie J]

Originally Posted by Djkwame301

try eq'ing between 1k and 10k...thats where the vocals live. dont cut too much tho and ruin the mix

Little high my friend...that, and a 9000 Hz spectrum for vocals?? Kind of wide.

Yeah, coloratura sopranos at the top of their range end close to 1K. That, and overtones. The fundamental notes of male and female vocals "live" from 150 Hz(male) or 250 (female) to just shy of 1 kHz. Only overtones from there on up.


Howie J

P.S. Mariah Carey's vocals at the end of "Someday" doesn't count...

[DTake]

Depending on how you mixed the song, you could try looking into the waves center plug.

[charleyruckus]

ALright trying thse all.. Probably not going to make the final cut unfortunately because its dubbed (pand 50/50 in some parts, so drawaing out of the center isnt exactly doin. i originally used 2:1 compression (to the point where the reduction is around 5 db) on thewhole thing, and on the vocal tracks... still getting comfortable with compression after 2 yrs of practice. Gettin there.. i'll show you guys a mix sometime where i wont get in trouble to give u an idea of where i am at abilty wise