Hey this is C Dog from Shut Down Productions out of Northern California http:// we have been recording vocals for probably about a year now and we are always looking for good tips and advice on gettin the best quality we can out of our situation. Let me explain to you what we have. Our recording area is a 4' X 6' booth that runs to an 8' ceiling. It is built with 2" thick wood and every crack is sealed. It is also lined in professional studio foam, all walls and ceiling. We have a blue baby bottle mic that runs into a Focusrite voicemaster platinum preamp. From the preamp it runs into our Korg d16xd mixer. We do some basic editing on the Korg and run it into our computer running Cubase SX3. In Cubase we do most of the editing and effects. I have a link to a single verse in a song that I would like some comments on as far as how I can make the vocals sound more mixed in with the beat. My beat is only one track so it makes it more difficult to mix it but that is the only thing I have to work with. Here is a link to the verse call Endless Ammunition http://briefcase.yahoo.com/kirchhogfarm@sbcglobal.net
It does have some explicit lyrics so don't be frightened, hehe. We are doing our best to utilize the best out of our equipment but there is only so much the manuals can tell us. I would appreciate any recording, mixing, eqing, effect tips that anyone can offer. My ears are gettin a little burn't out so hopefully yours can help me :D
thanks
C Dog
Comments
Thanks Dave Hey Dave, I sure appreciate the time you took to d
Thanks Dave
Hey Dave, I sure appreciate the time you took to download my sound clip. I am always open to any kind of tips I can get. I have had a great time getting into vocal recording and mixing. Recording.org has been a great assisant to my vocal recording projects. I am learning that a good set of ears is one of the most important assets in this field. Thanks again for the tips
C Dog
I agree with David. The vocals a little heavy in the midrange.
I agree with David. The vocals a little heavy in the midrange. Try experimenting with a few different mic positions in future recordings. Since you want the vocals to be up front in hip hop, you don't want to back off the mic too much but may want to raise the mic and angle it downward at the artist's nose. If the baby bottle has a low cut roll off switch, you want to enable it. If your tracks are already mixed down, you will normally find usable results when cutting rather than boosting eq in the frequencies where your vocals need a little luster (like 2k or 4k). It's like carving out a niche in the track for your vocal to cut thru. Overall, I thought the recording was well done for a voicemaster preamp. The artist also has a very good flow. Keep up the good work.
Whats up Rubemac, thanks for the input. If it wasn't for these
Whats up Rubemac, thanks for the input. If it wasn't for these forums I don't know where I'd be. I am goin to experiment with the beat and see if I can cut out some of the conflicting frequencies. I am also goin to toy around with my mic placement. Is it ok to turn the mic upside down? I have messed around with the mic placement in the past. The baby bottle came with a small pop filter and I was experiencing bass resonance on all my p's and b's. So I put a standard bigger black pop/wind filter on it and it seemed to fix it. I just hope it doesn't hinder the recording, what do you think?
Yeah, These vocals sound clean, and vocals are mixed pritty nice
Yeah, These vocals sound clean, and vocals are mixed pritty nice.. but i do agree with the others on the mids. get that fixed eq he vocals and it sould sound nice.
We built our booth in the corner of the room so we use to types
We built our booth in the corner of the room so we use to types of foam because the real studio stuff is pretty expensive. We used dense grey packing foam on the two real walls and the ceiling. That foam was only about 40 bucks of of a packaging website. For the two other thick plywood walls we used real studio foam bout 4" thick. That was about $100.
- C Dog
Just a word of caution - I see some bad things developing in you
Just a word of caution - I see some bad things developing in your acoustical design. You should run any plans by the guys in the [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.recordin…"]acoustics forum[/]="http://www.recordin…"]acoustics forum[/] before you implement them. For example, not all foam is created equal. The reals studio stuff costs more than stuff you would get for shipping or sewing because it has verified acoustical properties. Also, rigid fiberglass or rockwool is relatively inexpensive and will do a great job; however, it is not a good barrier material and will do little for soundproofing.
I undertstand that the packing foam is nothing like real acousti
I undertstand that the packing foam is nothing like real acoustic foam but until I have the cash to do every wall with it I will have to make the packing foam work. Even though it is not acoustic foam I think it does a pretty good job of absorbing the sound. I plan to get more studio foam in the future.
Welcome to RO, C Dog. Your vocals are sounding pretty hot to
Welcome to RO, C Dog.
Your vocals are sounding pretty hot to begin with, but with just a few subtle EQ changes, they could be dead on. I think a HP @100 Hz with a gentle Q, a 2-4 dB narrow cut at 300 Hz, and a medium narrow 1-2 dB boost at about 2k would nail it. Perhaps a complimentary cut at 2k in the instrumental wouldn't hurt either. That thick lower midrange may be acoustically related depending on how thick your foam is (4" should be best here) or it may be because of proximity effect. In the latter case, backing off a couple of inches may be the difference between using low end EQ or not.
Keep up the good work.