Have I squashed this vocal?

[soundonground]

This is near enough my first ever recording/mixing project.

I used a Baby Bottle>PreSonus TubePre with Logic 8 processing & Lexicon 960 vocal plate Space Designer IR for reverb.

Piano was a Bright Bosendorfer from the Ivory Pianos collection.


Basically I want to know if I've over compressed here? I did quite a lot of volume automation on the vocal as well.

HERE IS THE LINK:

http://media.soundcloud.com/backlane...2-mix/download

[kittyflipping]

I can't hear a thing...

[alehoe]

sounds good man

[soundonground]

Originally Posted by kittyflipping

I can't hear a thing...

What? are you having compatability issues with the mp3? Or is that sarcasm? e.

[The Recordingist]

i dont see an mp3 link?
id love to hear what a baby bottle sounds like

[soundonground]

i'm soooooooooo stupid! I forgot to post a link to the track.

Sorry about that, but anyone who can, have a listen and see if you think of any constructive criticisms.

[AlexK]

Sounds pretty squished to me. I hear quite a lot of proximity effect/low-end boost going on there too. Maybe roll it off gently below about 250Hz?

[Marando]

I have no problems with the way it sound, I would not call it squashed, perhaps intimate? I like that!

[soundonground]

I recorded the vocals pretty close up because the room was really bad, and I was looking for dead. I also kind of like a bit of proximity effect.

However, I was mixing by the sound of Tori Amos' latest record, Midwinter Graces (examples available here: Midwinter Graces - MP3 Music Streams on IMEEM) and kind of liked that warm bassy sound.

[soundonground]

PS. I wondered about it being squashed because it seems to jump out when played against other tracks in my iTunes library, but I think I'm probably immune to detecting over-compression, being of the iPod age...

[SANDS]

sounds ok me,

like where the piano is sitting, the vocals are right in your face, I would rather hear the vocals a little more roomy and a bit lower in the mix, but that's just me, I'm not a commercial music listener and I couldn't get into anything from Tori Amos since Boys for Pele, So I'm probably not the target audience.

not a fan of the mid-bass vocal bump either, seems that is the trend to push 250ish to make it feel like they are right there in your face. The Death Cab for Cutie albums, Plans, for example is a great example of that bump. Might be what you want.

Overall I think it works, the piano is a little sterile in parts, little clunky and choppy, maybe a tweak on the programming could help. I would also kill the high end attack on her vox on a few places too, maybe around 5-6k.

Great job though, please don't take my post as an attack, I think it sounds good overall.

[soundonground]

Originally Posted by SANDS

sounds ok me,

like where the piano is sitting, the vocals are right in your face, I would rather hear the vocals a little more roomy and a bit lower in the mix, but that's just me, I'm not a commercial music listener and I couldn't get into anything from Tori Amos since Boys for Pele, So I'm probably not the target audience.

not a fan of the mid-bass vocal bump either, seems that is the trend to push 250ish to make it feel like they are right there in your face. The Death Cab for Cutie albums, Plans, for example is a great example of that bump. Might be what you want.

Overall I think it works, the piano is a little sterile in parts, little clunky and choppy, maybe a tweak on the programming could help. I would also kill the high end attack on her vox on a few places too, maybe around 5-6k.

Great job though, please don't take my post as an attack, I think it sounds good overall.

Hey Sands,

thanks very much for that. I understand that your mixing suggestions are not written in stone, though it's really important to hear it all the same.

Re: piano performance/sound I agree, it's not right, but with that particular session I was focusing on getting the right vocal sound.

What exactly do you mean by high end attack on the vocals- does this refer just to EQ, or compression?

Final question - how does the compression sound, IYO?

[alehoe]

Originally Posted by The Recordingist

id love to hear what a baby bottle sounds like

same, but not through a presonus tube pre

[soundonground]

Originally Posted by alehoe

same, but not through a presonus tube pre

But what did you think of it so far?

[alehoe]

it does loud like it's got a little too much compression

did you ride the vocals? i think it's better to go that way with this kind of stuff

takes a lot longer but the results are a lot more natural

also i think it's a bit too dry

[soundonground]

I did ride the vocals a bit, but that was after compression, just to add a bit of dynamic to certain lines of the song. Yes, it is quite dry, again that was what I was aiming for, but I may try to find somewhere inbetween with my next sessions with the same singer. Anyone got tips for recording/mixing this act in future. I think it's mostly a piano/vox setup with some bass/strings/guitars overdubbed at a later stage.

[alehoe]

a friend of mine has been mixing an album that's mostly acoustic (piano, guitars and vocals mostly)

he rides the vocals well then compress a bit

it sounds very good for the style

[soundonground]

What would be everyone's first suggestion for miking this singer?