R&B/Soul Track in Progress

[Lawrence]

Here's something about halfway through development on a solo project.

Steal A Kiss

The singer is from the local group Serieux. There's still a lot of work to do on it including writing a bridge, bringing in a sax solo and developing some vocal excitement.

Lawrence

[JackInslee]

very nice instrumentation. all synthesized i assume. the vocals are amazing. reallly warm. i love the verb used. some notes he's a little off, but overall he's got a great sound.

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by JackInslee

very nice instrumentation. all synthesized i assume. the vocals are amazing. reallly warm. i love the verb used. some notes he's a little off, but overall he's got a great sound.

Actually the music is a compilation of different loops. The guitar parts sounds like a real guitar loops, the rest do sound like synthesized parts but they work for this genre.

The vocal verb is 3 different effects... a Lexi MPX1 verb at 1.8 seconds with 90ms pre-delay, a mono delay set to about 70ms with no regen and another mono delay set to about 1/4 note with about a 15-20% regen. I was able to dial in a nice warmness on the vocal by scooping out a section centered at around 1k and a little dip around 250 to keep the mud out of the parts where his voice goes low. The delays help the overall effect. I use delays a lot to get little phasey things happening to get the tone I need on a vocal. It works well if you get it them just below the "obvious" level.

The vocal chain was... MXL-V69 Mogami -> DBX 576 tube pre... line out-> Behringer ADA-8000 line input converter-> d8b lightpipe input-> direct digital to SX. That's my standard vocal chain although I'll change the mic to AT4055 or NTK sometimes depending on the singer. The Behringer is a really nice converter if you use the line inputs and don't use the mic pres, they kinda suck, but the converters are nice.

The mix was done on a Mackie D8B. Thanks for the compliment.

Lawrence

[Lanstar Zero]

Why do you use the Behringer converters? The d8b ones are probably quite a bit better!

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Lanstar Zero

Why do you use the Behringer converters? The d8b ones are probably quite a bit better!

Actually... no. At least not to me. The d8b's converters are very usable but I like the ADA-8000 better. I originally bought the unit because it was priced low and the reviews of the converters (using the line input, not the mic pres) was very good. I prefer them to the d8b's 'verters for vocals. Some who have both the d8b and the ADA-8000 say they can't tell the difference between the two. I can with my setup.

Remember the d8b was made quite a few years ago and converter design has jumped leaps and bounds since then. It's not hard to believe that the design of the ADA-8000 is superior to something made 5+ years ago. Especially when Behringer has no R&D overhead to speak of... they mostly lift everyone else's work. $299. Great value.

Anyway... I use my ears to tell me what I should (or shouldn't) use and the ADA-8000 won out. To my ears they sound a tad warmer than the d8b's.

I guess the question is: Is there anything about the vocal track of the song I posted that suggests I used "cheap" gear? Nobody cares if it sounds ok.

Lawrence

[Capt. Kirk]

Lawrence,

I listened to this over on Mackies sight and I might say it sounds increatible. I have a d8b and I also have the V69 mic too. I have been extremely impressed with that mic. I use the Presonus Digimax LT for conversion into a HD24 and I like both converters better than the d8b. Mine was one of the last ones built.

Do you do alot of this style of music? If not, you sould be.

Good work

Kirk

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Capt. Kirk

Lawrence,

I listened to this over on Mackies sight and I might say it sounds increatible. I have a d8b and I also have the V69 mic too. I have been extremely impressed with that mic. I use the Presonus Digimax LT for conversion into a HD24 and I like both converters better than the d8b. Mine was one of the last ones built.

Do you do alot of this style of music? If not, you sould be.

Good work

Kirk

R&B Ballads are what I study the most. I'll turn out the lights and put on something like MJ's "Lady in my Life" or Quincy Jones's "Secret Garden". I love mixing that kind of music. My IPOD is full of songs like that.

Unfortunately there's not a lot of artists doing that anymore it's all "Urban" ballads now, a cross between Hip-Hop & R&B & Dance kinda. Not the same emotion or musical development.

Thanks for the compliment.

Lawrence

[djavid15]

Beautiful song! I'm suprised at the behringer. Makes me want to pick one up! What type of room are you tracking in? It sounds wonderful! What type of treatment are you using? I don't know, beh stuff sounds fairly decent to good to me on some things, and i let myself be swayed by their terrible business skills (or lack of). I own their b300 active pa's and they are very good sounding, but one shorts out constantly. I don't know if it's the actual speaker or if it's a short in the cable. It scares me to do dj gigs with them for fear of a malfunction. That's the only thing I hate about them. Much luck to you, and continue creating soulful music! I am personally hurt that all the soul has been sucked out of music within the last few decades. I'm a huge fan of old-school funk and soul, and I've just been searching for music that satisfies me, and this song really does. Thank you!

[nukmusic]

Maybe one day Behringer is going to put together a list of its gear and a set of well know engineers, artists, and songwriters................then do the dam thing. All on Behrigner gear, from creations to final mastered mixes.

would be a great way to promote their products

P.S. smooth song

[Lawrence]

I'm suprised at the behringer. Makes me want to pick one up!

The converters on that unit are pretty good. People laugh at the name but they've got a winner here. You don't really see many of them anywhere for sale used. People who've bought them kept them.

What type of room are you tracking in? It sounds wonderful!

My tracking room is not the greatest so I kinda made it dead with foam and bass traps, I also took most of the corners out. I record close miked dry (i.e. no room sound) vocals.

I create the "space" on my mixes with artificial delays and reverbs. I just gotta scoop out some of the midrange in the returns to get that "digital" sound out of them. That's what I do more than anything when eq'ing a mix... scoop until it warms up. Very little boosting, always cutting away the stuff that makes a mix harsh or cold. Most of that is in the midrange freqs.

Lawrence

[hethaerto]

Sounds nice. Any chance you scooped out the lead vocal, too?
The lead vocal sounds scooped, thus hard for me to enjoy to it's fullest.

[Lawrence]

Yes I did scoop a liitle of the vocal away. I made a choice between clarity and substance and struck what I felt was a good balance. On the final mix I may back that down just a tad for a just little more substance/presence on the vocal. That something to consider for sure.

I do appreciate your honest comments. It's a work in progress and I'll keep your comment in mind during the final mix. I'm still learning so don't be too hard on me. :)

Thanks!

Lawrence

[Billster]

Good stuff ! Nice song indeed and a good voice

Can´t tell anything about the sound though, because I´m listening with my ipod headphones right now (you know it´s late and everyone´s asleep...)

Do you have technical problems with your d8b at all ? I surely had a lot of problems with mine and sold it finally, although the overall concept isn´t bad after all.

Keep on swinging

Bill

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Billster

Do you have technical problems with your d8b at all ? I surely had a lot of problems with mine and sold it finally, although the overall concept isn´t bad after all.
Bill

I had to replace a fader pack once but other than that it's all good. Bought one from Mackie, took the back plate off and did it myself. One ribbon cable, one PCB, a LOT of tiny allen-head screws to get the control surface apart! Took about 30 minutes.

I've learned what not to do over the years. For instance my d8b won't boot if I turn the LCD monitor on first. Go figure. No other issues.

Lawrence

[Billster]

My d8b was making strange noises from time to time, like a 8 khz beeeeeep. Man that annoyed me like crazy ! I also didn´t like the automatic toggling between noise and no noise (I don´t know what that was called, but it was basically a gate at a very low threshold. You have to boost that monitor gain to enjoy it).

And the monitor gain poti was kind of broken as well after one year. I had to turn it veeeeryy slow, otherwise it just wouldn´t work.

I also had a couple of other issues (e.g. the faders), but I don´t want to bore you with that...

Cool that it works for you ! Post some more of your music, it´s fun listening to it

Bill

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Billster

I also didn´t like the automatic toggling between noise and no noise (I don´t know what that was called, but it was basically a gate at a very low threshold. You have to boost that monitor gain to enjoy it).
Bill

That's what Mackie called "channel filters". What they do is gate each channel individually based on the level of noise present on each chanel when the desk boots.

Bad idea. Really, really, really bad idea. They can be, and should be, permanently turned off.

Lawrence