Do you GROUP over lapping lead vocals or process them seperately?

[luctellier]

This is a really good question that I was wondering myself 2 years ago. I used to buss all the lead vocals to one group (LV-1, LV-2 to LV-BUSS) and do the processing on the buss to save some CPU. But when you put a generous amount of compression on this vocal buss, some over lapping parts will get squashed and you'll start missing some words. Vocals are one of the most important part in the mix and you always need to hear every words clearly. I made some testing and decided to process all the vocal tracks separately.Of course, they have the same processing and if I change something on the EQ of one track, I'll paste the plugin on the other track to have the same settings.

Hope that helps,

LT

[Amun Ra]

Try both. Listen carefully for what works best in context. Then use that technique.

[mavano]

When one part is overlapping another part I don't judge them as 1 and the same lead vocal anymore... I process each on its own. I wouldn't even group them to the same buss (well, maybe at the end like "All Vocals")

It depends a bit on the context though. If the last "Blah" from the first part has the same function as the first "Blah" from the second part then just delete one of the two. If it has a different function but the two parts on a whole have the same function cut/paste the first "blah" from the second part to a seperate track and blend to taste. While cut/pasting the rest of part two over to the same track as part one...

There is no "right thing" though. Do what feels and sounds best to you. And try to do that consistently.

[TheMarqueeYears]

Great, thanks for the replies

I think I should try both ways and have a listen, but as DSP isn't an issue anymore for me I think I will probably take LT's route and process the tracks seperately.



TMY

[Unclenny]

I generally bounce the two tracks to a new track and take care of any transition issues through volume automation before applying any compression.

[mattg082]

Originally Posted by luctellier

This is a really good question that I was wondering myself 2 years ago. I used to buss all the lead vocals to one group (LV-1, LV-2 to LV-BUSS) and do the processing on the buss to save some CPU. But when you put a generous amount of compression on this vocal buss, some over lapping parts will get squashed and you'll start missing some words. Vocals are one of the most important part in the mix and you always need to hear every words clearly. I made some testing and decided to process all the vocal tracks separately.Of course, they have the same processing and if I change something on the EQ of one track, I'll paste the plugin on the other track to have the same settings.

Hope that helps,

LT

I still buss my vocal to a aux to have volume control after i mix them and for automation afterwards all split into verse, chorus ect. I do however add a seperate compressor to each one before it hits the buss and usually put a eq on the buss. I thought the same with using most all fx/ compressor on one buss but there is a huge sound difference adding compression before the buss I don't know about eq so much though. Bussing to a AUx for Vox for me is still a must because i would go nuts not to be able to control automation in post edit and have to do it on 10-15 vocal tracks every time:p