Techniques to bring out vocals in mix

[B.A.S.E]

Originally Posted by MadforBrad

the fact of the matter is hat i had to turn down my speakers and the percussion fighting the vocals was the culprit. You can justify it aesthetically till pigs fly. All I can say is that I had to turn it down as it had a very harsh EQ profile.

So when someone asks , how to make the vocals louder, having your listener reach for the volume button is usually not a good sign. not to mention my monitoring is calibrated using the k 20 system so it was not loud at all to start with.

I was commenting on the hihat, I agree as pertaining to the cymbals...
anyway, as far as the vocal enhancement goes, the "idea" is still not so bad imho.
But for something to be used regularly, I don't know. Here it does sound like vocals treated with delays and not necessarily a true stereo recording. A bit artificial..

[jruberto]

Originally Posted by Sampire

every once in a while there is that beat that is so large it just buries vocals and I have to resort to compressing the hell out of them or if that fails, widening them with a delay to get them to stand out sufficiently......now, lately I've been finding widening vocals with delay (even if not needed to stand out) preferable.....they just come to life to me.....widening them makes vocals tickle my ears as if someone was actually talking right in em lol....I'm leaning toward everything being huge now and can see myself getting carried away with delays, widening everything!....or at least some drums and vocals......now....I had recent complaint from a customer though that this sound is not preferable to them as it does not sound natural and he hasn't heard these effects in other rap music......

Just because you use a stereo delay to make it pop out more (or for whatever reason) doesn't mean you have to overdo it and make it sound like it has delay. Keep pulling the mix control back until you don't even notice that it's there. Then bypass it & see if you can hear the difference. Aha, you've got it. I often wind up around 6% mix, sometimes as low as 3% if I'm not going for an effect & just want to widen/thicken. Also, if you filter out some highs on the delays you can use a good bit more of it before it becomes really apparent. Also no need to necessarily pan the delays all the way to the corners, try bringing it back towards center a little bit.

I also will EQ the "beat" to make a little more frequency space for the vocal if needed.. sometimes in the low mids if it's a deep bassy voice & it needs to occupy a little more of the 250-300Hz, and often around 2k. Sometimes higher, 5k 10k. Varies widely. Close your eyes & listen for what is masking the vocal or competing with it, then use your EQ to reduce the frequency where there's a "fight". Beatmakers can get a little crazy with the hi-hats..... I've also been successful in requesting a new mix of the track with a couple mix notes if stuff is totally out of control. Varies widely.

[Chris Lago]

The only techniques I know, to bring out vocals in a mix, is to get a great singer/rapper, let them sing in a microphone/pre/compressor combination that will allow them to sound huge right off the bat, then Pultec for EQing in a mix. If you start off with a thin vocal sound, it's not going to pop out, no matter what you do... Unless you use a pultec to bring it in the front of course. And subtle effects is best, if you put too much, it will bring the vocals back. If you want to bring out anything in the front of a mix, keep the specific track as dry as possible.

[mkharvey11]

When dealing with overcompressed rap tracks, brought in with just a 2-track file, I like to treat them carefully with a Waves C6 Sidechain.

Low bandpass: set freq centered on kick, positive range #, threshold set to boost where kick hits, adjust gain so kick sits in the mix clear.

Low: compress low end a bit to smooth and balance with kick hit settings, or leave alone and only adjust gain.

Low-mid: compress a bit to smooth and balance the level of the middle of the mix, or leave alone and adjust gain.

Hi-mid: MOST IMPORTANT! Solo and find snare freq. range. Use a positive range value to expand, set threshold where snare hits, lower gain. Results in snappy snare while lowering synths and other sounds in that range.

Hi: Also expand like hi-mid to bring out percussive sounds like hats, etc, while ducking out some of the clutter.

Hi bandpass: (Vox send to a bus) Set input to sidechain from vox bus. Center in the 1500-3000 Hz range, creating a ducking setup with a negative range value, lowering the synths, etc. in that freq. range temporarily whenever words are spoken. Keeps the overall power/ loudness of those sounds while letting the vocal cut.

After all is set up, some adjustment may be necessary, as the bands affect one another.

If all that STILL leaves no room, I go ahead and compress the vocal to shit!

Hope this helps.

[lemonsquash]

I hate it when HAAS delay / pseudostereo is used too much..

It really gives me a headache