Whats the problem??
- Thread starter yungboss
- Start date
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Beat This!The Beat This! results are in, see what went down.
spartan265
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
compress the vocals more. for the type of rap your doing you want em almost over compressed. then throw a limiter on them. then make sure you use panning to separate any instruments that could be occupying the same and/or similar frequencies to your vox. you can check this with a frequency analyzer. that will make things clearer and your vox 'pop' more.
spartan265
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
oh.. and unless your using a decent mic and pre amp.. your vox will never sound that great. shit in shit out. as they say.
thedreampolice
A backwards poet writes inverse.
"then make sure you use panning to separate any instruments that could be occupying the same and/or similar frequencies to your vox"
This actually does not make sense, panning and frequency are two different things. Roll off the lows in the vocal to clear it up and compress at a high ratio, most hip hop vocals kind of pump a bit because of the compressor, what mic and how are you recording? Man not to be hard on you but the mix is tough to listen to. Also what to you really mean by "pop"
This actually does not make sense, panning and frequency are two different things. Roll off the lows in the vocal to clear it up and compress at a high ratio, most hip hop vocals kind of pump a bit because of the compressor, what mic and how are you recording? Man not to be hard on you but the mix is tough to listen to. Also what to you really mean by "pop"
Honestly man, I hear plenty of potential....you just sound a little green on the mixing tip.
First - what are you tracking through? ie. Mic, Preamp, Interface.
Second - what does your gain structure look like? ie. are you tracking at a pretty low input gain, or are you real close to the red (0db)?
"I recommend coming in at around -3db, but thats just my personal taste."
If your gain structure is looking good, and your signal path is reasonably clean (at least pro-sumer stuff) you should be good on the gear tip).....others might argue against this, just my opinion...but if your looking pretty good in that area I think you would simply benefit by focusing more on your mix/engineering strategy.
My ears are telling me you could benefit from rolling off some of your low-end on your vocals first of all. On "Bang-Up" I can hear obvious low-end stuff like mic-rumble and a little bit of the room. By just rolling off your low end to at least somewhere around 30hz you'll automatically remove a lot of that garbage....but really each take is different so use your ears and try rolling dramatically until its mostly hi-stuff, and then come back to the low end until it feels good - thats a good starters tip
Then in regards to your beat - just try to focus on the balance of your track with the vox. Try not to listen to both isolated, instead try to listen to both "together" as much as possible...In general, your vox are basically just sitting somewhere around -3db to -6db to low, at least to my ears in headphones....so what I would do is first get your beat sounding right, afterward start mixing your vocal in, make sure its not battling with any other instruments in the beat - if it is, take whatever actions are needed to remedy that, then at this point you should have at least a decent scratch mix and be able to hear everything more generously.
First - what are you tracking through? ie. Mic, Preamp, Interface.
Second - what does your gain structure look like? ie. are you tracking at a pretty low input gain, or are you real close to the red (0db)?
"I recommend coming in at around -3db, but thats just my personal taste."
If your gain structure is looking good, and your signal path is reasonably clean (at least pro-sumer stuff) you should be good on the gear tip).....others might argue against this, just my opinion...but if your looking pretty good in that area I think you would simply benefit by focusing more on your mix/engineering strategy.
My ears are telling me you could benefit from rolling off some of your low-end on your vocals first of all. On "Bang-Up" I can hear obvious low-end stuff like mic-rumble and a little bit of the room. By just rolling off your low end to at least somewhere around 30hz you'll automatically remove a lot of that garbage....but really each take is different so use your ears and try rolling dramatically until its mostly hi-stuff, and then come back to the low end until it feels good - thats a good starters tip
Then in regards to your beat - just try to focus on the balance of your track with the vox. Try not to listen to both isolated, instead try to listen to both "together" as much as possible...In general, your vox are basically just sitting somewhere around -3db to -6db to low, at least to my ears in headphones....so what I would do is first get your beat sounding right, afterward start mixing your vocal in, make sure its not battling with any other instruments in the beat - if it is, take whatever actions are needed to remedy that, then at this point you should have at least a decent scratch mix and be able to hear everything more generously.
spartan265
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
"then make sure you use panning to separate any instruments that could be occupying the same and/or similar frequencies to your vox"
panning and frequency are to completely separate things,the point i was trying to make was:
if two things occupy the same frequency range and you cant really afford to sacrifice either (by eq'ing one to make room for the other) then sometimes taking advantage of the stereo spread by panning one slightly left or right decreases masking, coz the separate signals are hitting your ears from different directions it helps your brain to process them as separate sounds, instead of one muddy cacophony.
panning and frequency are to completely separate things,the point i was trying to make was:
if two things occupy the same frequency range and you cant really afford to sacrifice either (by eq'ing one to make room for the other) then sometimes taking advantage of the stereo spread by panning one slightly left or right decreases masking, coz the separate signals are hitting your ears from different directions it helps your brain to process them as separate sounds, instead of one muddy cacophony.
thedreampolice
A backwards poet writes inverse.
"if two things occupy the same frequency range and you cant really afford to sacrifice either"
Then you need to eq something.
Then you need to eq something.
yungboss
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
Honestly man, I hear plenty of potential....you just sound a little green on the mixing tip.
First - what are you tracking through? ie. Mic, Preamp, Interface.
Second - what does your gain structure look like? ie. are you tracking at a pretty low input gain, or are you real close to the red (0db)?
"I recommend coming in at around -3db, but thats just my personal taste."
If your gain structure is looking good, and your signal path is reasonably clean (at least pro-sumer stuff) you should be good on the gear tip).....others might argue against this, just my opinion...but if your looking pretty good in that area I think you would simply benefit by focusing more on your mix/engineering strategy.
My ears are telling me you could benefit from rolling off some of your low-end on your vocals first of all. On "Bang-Up" I can hear obvious low-end stuff like mic-rumble and a little bit of the room. By just rolling off your low end to at least somewhere around 30hz you'll automatically remove a lot of that garbage....but really each take is different so use your ears and try rolling dramatically until its mostly hi-stuff, and then come back to the low end until it feels good - thats a good starters tip
Then in regards to your beat - just try to focus on the balance of your track with the vox. Try not to listen to both isolated, instead try to listen to both "together" as much as possible...In general, your vox are basically just sitting somewhere around -3db to -6db to low, at least to my ears in headphones....so what I would do is first get your beat sounding right, afterward start mixing your vocal in, make sure its not battling with any other instruments in the beat - if it is, take whatever actions are needed to remedy that, then at this point you should have at least a decent scratch mix and be able to hear everything more generously.
Mic=Tascam TM-78
Pre Amp/ Interphase= Tascam 122 MKII
I would say um tracking at a low input sinse i am in tha green. Literally my pre-amp uses the colors; Green, Orange, and Red....Red signifys clippin.
It looks like your using a condenser and interface primarily intended for podcasts.
I would recommend considering a mic and interface that lends itself to more professional recording applications but if your just starting out you might as well use what you got and make the best of it for now. (Just upgrading those components will make a world of a difference though)
When your setting your levels, do you have visual feedback on your computer through a control software that came with the Tascam? If so try and use that as your input level reference since its most likely a peak meter. Then try to come in as hot as possible without clipping somewhere around -3db and watch that meter as your vocalist does his thing so you can make sure your around that zone.
Then after you track your vocals in go ahead and roll off the lows and mix to taste in your DAW.
I would recommend considering a mic and interface that lends itself to more professional recording applications but if your just starting out you might as well use what you got and make the best of it for now. (Just upgrading those components will make a world of a difference though)
When your setting your levels, do you have visual feedback on your computer through a control software that came with the Tascam? If so try and use that as your input level reference since its most likely a peak meter. Then try to come in as hot as possible without clipping somewhere around -3db and watch that meter as your vocalist does his thing so you can make sure your around that zone.
Then after you track your vocals in go ahead and roll off the lows and mix to taste in your DAW.
thedreampolice
A backwards poet writes inverse.
Ya even a SM57 would be better.
yungboss
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
iite cool....umma look into a better mic and interphase. As for the visual tracking umma have to look into that as well and work on my EQing. It's tha worst but umma have to get used to it.
Also I have a feeling that my com. isnt up to par in tha specs department. When I use FL Studio i turn tha latensy to tha highest level and my midi controls become delayed. In Audition, I have to record my verse, export, import, record my hook, export, import, etc. etc. Overall I'm thinking this is what's causing the bad quality MP3 final file and also tha bad vocal mix. Tell me if I'm going somewhere with this?
Yeah thats bad man, you need a decent interface with reliable drivers, and if your computer is spec'd low theres no way around that other then saving up for a leaner machine. You can try to tweak your settings but its not gonna get you very far.
