Recording and mixing my first R&B song.

[morejaylesswar]

I'm pretty stoked. I'm not sure where this thread belongs, though.

Anyway, I recorded her last night. I had a really fun session. I learned a lot about recording something other than a rapper. This is the first time I put the stuff I've learned in threads into effect.

That's code for: Purchased some Ken Lewis videos and now I'm feeling like I deserve a Grammy. LOL!

I have some questions, as always.

http://soundcloud.com/morejaylesswar/mary-jade-edited-unmixed
(You may have to turn your speakers up... The track rests at about -16db.)

I haven't done any mixing. I did my preliminary editing. You know, I've learned that stuff is important. So, I did voluming, panning, and cleaning her takes by cutting out the loud breaths and other spaces in between actual vocals. We're recording a 2-track because the guy who made the beat didn't give her the files. I'm not sure what that situation is. She said she's working on it.

Okay, so here we go...

How do I preserve the quiet notes, while really taming the louder parts?

When I compressed, it sounded really weird. Like, I can hear when the compression cuts off. It was DRASTIC. I lowered the threshold and it sounded unnatural. I think the louder parts add a great emotion, while the softer parts add a realness. I like the transition. I want to make sure it's represented well in my mix.

What kind of EQing would you do, from listening to this, to make it sound more exciting?

I think the vocals sound clean now, just really dry. Nothing exciting or interesting in the sound. I did my best mic placement and soundproofing that I could after reading the threads. I positioned her in a pretty good place.

How do I push the background vocals to the background, but make the lower harmonies sound a bit more present?

The lower harmonies sound inaudible to me, but when I turn them up, they are way too strong. What would you do about that? I'm really confused on how to mix background vocals because, well, I've only mixed overdubs from rappers.


I'm excited, nonetheless... Really excited.

[Bender412]

The Official "Please Check Out My Mix/ Music" Thread

[morejaylesswar]

Thanks.

[Musiclab]

what you should have done is cut the vocal with a good hardware compressor.
Compressed lightly on the way in to bring the dynamic range in. Then you can hit it a little harder with a compressor in the mix. When you say voluming, do you mean normalize, if so go back to your unprocessed file, that's absolutely unnecessary.

[morejaylesswar]

Originally Posted by Musiclab

what you should have done is cut the vocal with a good hardware compressor.
Compressed lightly on the way in to bring the dynamic range in. Then you can hit it a little harder with a compressor in the mix. When you say voluming, do you mean normalize, if so go back to your unprocessed file, that's absolutely unnecessary.

The correct word was leveling. I didn't realize that I said "voluming." I didn't process anything whatsoever. All I did was edit before I began the premix stage.

The funny thing is that I do have a hardware compressor, but it's bypassed in my chain because I don't understand it enough. I could see it going to work as she sang. I watched the LED lights for most of the time she recorded (after getting her levels to a point where she wasn't peaking, of course). I really wish I knew how to use that thing. It seemed really interesting to see what it reacted to and how much it went to work on certain parts.

[morejaylesswar]

I was able to mix it to her liking. I posted it in the Low End Theory's "Post your low end mixes" thread.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/7499217-post1205.html

[Charlie-O]

2 words for be ingle up subtle nuances while taming louder takes:

Automation and fader rides.

[Musiclab]

Originally Posted by morejaylesswar

The correct word was leveling. I didn't realize that I said "voluming." I didn't process anything whatsoever. All I did was edit before I began the premix stage.

The funny thing is that I do have a hardware compressor, but it's bypassed in my chain because I don't understand it enough. I could see it going to work as she sang. I watched the LED lights for most of the time she recorded (after getting her levels to a point where she wasn't peaking, of course). I really wish I knew how to use that thing. It seemed really interesting to see what it reacted to and how much it went to work on certain parts.

describe how you "leveled" the vocal. Also what kind of compressor do you own?

[Melvin III]

Originally Posted by morejaylesswar

I'm pretty stoked. I'm not sure where this thread belongs, though.

Anyway, I recorded her last night. I had a really fun session. I learned a lot about recording something other than a rapper. This is the first time I put the stuff I've learned in threads into effect.

That's code for: Purchased some Ken Lewis videos and now I'm feeling like I deserve a Grammy. LOL!

I have some questions, as always.

http://soundcloud.com/morejaylesswar/mary-jade-edited-unmixed
(You may have to turn your speakers up... The track rests at about -16db.)

I haven't done any mixing. I did my preliminary editing. You know, I've learned that stuff is important. So, I did voluming, panning, and cleaning her takes by cutting out the loud breaths and other spaces in between actual vocals. We're recording a 2-track because the guy who made the beat didn't give her the files. I'm not sure what that situation is. She said she's working on it.

Okay, so here we go...

How do I preserve the quiet notes, while really taming the louder parts?

When I compressed, it sounded really weird. Like, I can hear when the compression cuts off. It was DRASTIC. I lowered the threshold and it sounded unnatural. I think the louder parts add a great emotion, while the softer parts add a realness. I like the transition. I want to make sure it's represented well in my mix.

What kind of EQing would you do, from listening to this, to make it sound more exciting?

I think the vocals sound clean now, just really dry. Nothing exciting or interesting in the sound. I did my best mic placement and soundproofing that I could after reading the threads. I positioned her in a pretty good place.

How do I push the background vocals to the background, but make the lower harmonies sound a bit more present?

The lower harmonies sound inaudible to me, but when I turn them up, they are way too strong. What would you do about that? I'm really confused on how to mix background vocals because, well, I've only mixed overdubs from rappers.


I'm excited, nonetheless... Really excited.

the one you reposted in the thread sounds good to me. if the client is happy = good job thats all that matters in this business right? have em comin back

and the song in your signature is nice

[butterfly]

....hey Jay, to be honest I think it's going to be tricky to make any eq, comp decisions til you get the beat broken out to at least stems. You may find you need to eq the drums and synths to get the vocal to sit in the track at the moment it's sitting on top. Really the key to this is compression, eq and fader rides on the vocal. You'll probably want to hi pass the lead at 100 or so and then suck out some low mids at 250-300 or so. Then find a couple of areas to boost for upper mids and air. You can use a de-esser but i would deal with plosives, consonants,sss's etc by just drawing them down manually. Do your eq cuts before you hit the compressor and boosts after. You probably want a nice opto compressor for this kind of vocal.....waves rcomp is good. Set att and rel by ear. And then get to riding that vocal......that really is crucial. Set up a couple of verbs's maybe a hall and a plate.....eq these too, to take out the bottom end and the mids and probaly some of the top end too and take care in setting the pre delays right. Delays again, maybe quarter notes, half notes, eighth's and again eq'ed in the same fashion as the verbs.....to be honest there's a ton of stuff you can do with fx.......experiment. Pensado's place has a ton of tips. For backing vox.....pan em all hard left and right and using a channel strip take out a lot of the bottom end and suck out a lot of low mids, now to get them to sit behind the lead vox.......maybe cut a little of the high mids too....there will be a presence area in the lead vox maybe around 3 kh where when you cut a couple of db's out of the back vox they will sit better behind the lead vox. Also use less predelay on the reverb you send these to. Hope this helps.