Jun 06, 2004 05:33 pm late mids high guitars high bass low drums idunno....
Bringing vocals out of a live recording
Posted on Jun 06, 2004 02:14 pm
Dan
Member Since: Nov 21, 2002
so i recorded a live show we did yesterday. Vocals didnt really come through. does anyone know any rough tips on EQ and compression to bring the vocals out a bit? thanks
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Jun 06, 2004 05:33 pm late mids high guitars high bass low drums idunno....
Jun 07, 2004 12:39 am All depends on what you have riding around in the same frequency range. Usually a boost around 1 to 2 K will add some presence to vocals, it may also help a little in this case. The only other suggestion I can think of is use a multiband compresser such as in a mastering package. If the vocals sit in a fairly open frequency range you might also get a little out of compressing and boosting only that range.
I've moved to using a lot of spot mics when doing live recording just for that reason. Takes a little putsing around. Make sure you measure the distance from each spot mic to the main array in front of the band and add a millisecond of delay for each foot to line things up. Also be prepared to verb the spot mics to match the room accoustics from the main array. The results can be very pleasing with a very live feel but a studio quality mix.
Jun 07, 2004 01:12 pm An exciter or maximizer plugin or outboard piece applied to the track might help, Im not sure.
They are superb when applied to separate tracks before mixdown, as they give a defining space for each part, especially vocals. I have never applied the bbe plugin that I have to a problem mix though, so Walt is pretty right on there. About the only thing you can do is try to pull it out of the mix using eq. I assume its a one track, stereo or mono, right?
Jun 07, 2004 03:40 pm well yeah, its REALLY rough. and probably one of our worst live performances ever, but it was tons of fun, and an all around good party. It was one mono mic sitting somewhere (probably behind the PA speakers, dont remember much), going into my tascam portastudio, figured id might as well get some use out of that old thing. Included on the tape is the complete bastardization of freebird, we were just so off that day, we had to borrow the bassist from the other band (good bassist, but he didnt know our originals and forgot how to play the covers), i had to do all of my slide parts with a zippo lighter (which ive done before, open it up and leave it lit while playing, good trick for the crowd), drummer and singer were out of it. it was an off day, but it was pretty funny, most of the crowd agreed.
Still gonna keep on turd-polishing though.
Jun 07, 2004 05:10 pm Yeah, it's pretty tough to bring out vocals after mixdown. If you boost the right frequencies it can help, but it might just end up sounding more harsh or just bring up the other instruments in that frequency range.
Jun 07, 2004 06:28 pm yeah, not expecting much from this, but thanks, your tips helped make it a bit better
Jun 07, 2004 06:34 pm After live takes a couple of times I had GREAT luck with a simple 10-band EQ bringing the vocals out of the mix quite well...or, quite well by comparison anyway. Hook up a parametric EQ, boost the mid band, sweep the low band to it's lowest option and set the Q to the narrowist, then SLOWLY sweep the frequency of that band higher and higher until you find the center frequency of the vocalist (should be pretty obvious). When you find that sweet spot, then widen the Q until other instruments start interfering too much and dial back a bit...then boost away.
Of course much of it depends on the vocalist and the original recording, but that method has worked very well for me a couple of times...but then, cleaning up nasty recordings is what I do best (or so I am told)...it's most of my business.
Good luck.
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