Production/engineering question

[Chrisc_o]

I was faced with a tricky question/situation during a vocal session today and I was wondering what most of you slutz would do in a similar situation. Here is the spiel:

I was tracking vocals on top of a rough mix. The bed tracks were recorded by yours truly, and consisted of tracks recorded live, one take, at the band's rehearsal space. The space in question consisted of several rooms available at the same time, permitting good amp-drum separation, but with less than perfect timing conditions, causing a less-than-thorough sound check prior to tracking. We are talking hard rock consisting of bass, drums, and one guitar.

After a good pre-mix of the backing tracks, and while setting levels and adjusting tone of the vocal track in studio, the vocal was clearly punchier and more present than the backing tracks.

The build up to the question: seeing as the instrumental tracks sounded quite good considering the circumstances, and there being no limit to tone experimentation, in either time or available hardware for the vocal tracks (we are overdubbing the vox in a familiar and decently equipped project studio, with pretty good isolation and acoustic treatment), there is invariably a discord between the live and slightly distant yet energetic sounding bed tracks, and the excruciatingly clean and in-your-face vocal track, I found myself pondering the possibility of using mics of lesser-quality, or forcing less-than-ideal mic technique to better blend with the backing tracks (i.e. make it sound less than perfectly professional). This train of thought being brought about by the singer commenting on the difference of feel between the music (which seemed to kick ass upon review prior to vocal tracking) and the test vocal track.

The question: in the case of overdubbing an instrument, is the goal of my fellow slutz to get the overdubbed instrument to blend with the vibe of the tune as much as possible, assisting in the propulsion of the tune as a whole, or is it to make the most of the instrument in question with the goal of obtaining the highest quality possible for the task at hand?

In annexe I will add that, since I am responsible for each step of production in this case it made my decision quite easy (basically, I know that I can bump the music up a notch if necessary as I had foreseen this flexibility in tracking, so I applied some lo-fi EQing and FX use to force a temporary blend prior to final mixing, preserving the vibe for the session and inspiring a good performance), but it made me think about the times where I did not have this luxury.

Alternate phrasing of the same question: if one should find himself/herself in a situation where they are contributing but a small piece of the productional pie, should their rep depend on making their individual part sound as kick-ass as possible, or will their worth be decided upon the analysis of the final result as a whole?

[Curve Dominant]

Originally Posted by Chrisc_o

The question: in the case of overdubbing an instrument, is the goal of my fellow slutz to get the overdubbed instrument to blend with the vibe of the tune as much as possible, assisting in the propulsion of the tune as a whole,

If that's what you want to do, you could set up speakers in the room with the vocalist, and feed the instrumental tracks into those speakers while tracking the vocals. This is a technique that's been used before, for the purpose of getting an overdubbed track (like a vocal) to "blend" with the bed tracks.

the vocal was clearly punchier and more present than the backing tracks.

You could make that contrast "the sound" of the mix, which could be a cool effect for the song, providing the song will be well served by that effect. Try adding some subtle BPM-timed delay to the vocal, and see if that works.

or is it to make the most of the instrument in question with the goal of obtaining the highest quality possible for the task at hand?

Yes, or maybe, or no, depending on what you want, or what works best for the song, or what the artist likes the result of, or what the artist's friends or bandmates thinks sounds the coolest. And, as the engineer and/or producer, your instincts should rule the day. IOW: You have a situation you have to deal with, so make the best of it, and get the most urgent sound from it that you can with what you have to work with.

Always remember that there is something called "artistic license" which, as a collaborator with the artist as you are, you have at your disposal. That means: You accomplish a recording that FEELS right to you, something that nobody can tell you is right or wrong based on some abstract technical slide-rule.

That said, there is almost nothing that can't be glued together with dedicated mixing kung fu. Parallel compress the vocal together with the bed tracks, and blend the compression into the mix. Stuff like that. Delay and reverb tricks. Re-amping the whole mix into a large room. There's a pretty large palette of tricks that can achieve whatever it is you're listening for. Experiment. That's the fun and interesting and explorative aspect of this craft.

Just always keep in mind that the vocal is the most important part of the song, and so having it stick out like a sore thumb is sometimes a good thing for the song. The bassist might get pissed off, but really, who the **** cares what the bassist thinks? (I play bass, so I can say that.)

Happy hunting,

-Eric @ Studio Curve Dominant

[Jack Ruston]

Are there no close mics on the drums and amps? Can you not dry the mixes up a bit and bring them forward?

This for me is the raison d'etre of the DI/Reamp technique. I always concentrate entirely on the drum sound and then take DI's of guitars and bass so that they can be concentrated on later.

J

[Chrisc_o]

Originally Posted by Curve Dominant

Try adding some subtle BPM-timed delay to the vocal, and see if that works.

What I used for the session was a combination of a very short and dense room 'verb, and I blended in touch of amp sim to dirty up the sound a bit.

Originally Posted by Curve Dominant

Yes, or maybe, or no, depending on what you want, or what works best for the song, or what the artist likes the result of, or what the artist's friends or bandmates thinks sounds the coolest......

...there is almost nothing that can't be glued together with dedicated mixing kung fu. Parallel compress the vocal together with the bed tracks, and blend the compression into the mix. Stuff like that. Delay and reverb tricks. Re-amping the whole mix into a large room. There's a pretty large palette of tricks that can achieve whatever it is you're listening for. Experiment. That's the fun and interesting and explorative aspect of this craft.

Kung-fu, I like that!

Originally Posted by Curve Dominant

Just always keep in mind that the vocal is the most important part of the song, and so having it stick out like a sore thumb is sometimes a good thing for the song. The bassist might get pissed off, but really, who the **** cares what the bassist thinks? (I play bass, so I can say that.)

Oddly enough the singer is the bassist! To add insult to injury, I am a bassist as well!

[Chrisc_o]

Originally Posted by Jack Ruston

Are there no close mics on the drums and amps? Can you not dry the mixes up a bit and bring them forward?

I have 9 close mics on the drums, two room mics for the drums, the bass was DI only, and the guitar consisted of three separate amps being run at the same time, each in a separate albeit non-accoustically isolated or treated room.

The issue for me in this case is the fact that we needed to track 10 songs in 8 hours, including set-up, sound check, and tear-down. It eneded up taking us 9, actually. Drums were not tuned, guitar amp tone was not checked thoroughly, ..... many small details that can make all the difference were neglected as the band wanted to waste no time (i.e. they had a limited budget). In their defense they were well aware of the consequences, and they have worked with me before on a full-scale project, so we all knew what to expect. In my defense, my brother is the singer and I wanted to do him a solid by accepting the gig, and I haven't recorded a full band live like this in a while so I wanted to do it to keep my chops up, not so much for the moulah.

All that being said, the question was hypothetical, and not necessarily pertaining to vocals. I wanted to know if you would value your rep enough to accept the sore-thumb sticking out and proudly state that you tracked the best-sounding part of the song, or would you prefer to have your part go unnoticed in order to benefit the song, knowing that no one would notice your contribution, thereby not helping establish the level of quality that others can come to expect of you.

Basically I have my answer for my particular session already, I just thought it would be cool to throw the question out there.