Disturbing feedback on Vocal levels/mix
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Posted on Jul 13, 2013 09:07 am
stratwizard
Member Since: Nov 19, 2008
Hi everybody...
I recently started publishing my work online so its the first time I am receiving feedback from people I don't know.
I used a service provided by reverbnation to send out my songs to be rated by random people (50 people in total). What was disturbing about the comments was that there was a noticeable number of people saying that they were having a hard time hearing the vocals. These comments were not only for one song but all of the songs (total of 10 songs) that I submitted. Since I am inexperienced with mixing I started doubting myself on whether or not I made a huge rookie mistake when mixing in the vocals and I don't know about it...
I trust the ears of the people in this forum. Have I done something wrong with the vocals in my mix???
Here is one of the songs that I received the commnents on but all other songs there were similar comments...
Thanks
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J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Jul 13, 2013 01:43 pm Hmmm, I do feel like the vocals could come forward a bit. Maybe 2 or 3 dB? There's a lot of stuff going on, and they're just a tad buried. I also feel like stuff going on in the sibilant range might be obscuring them a tad, maybe with the drums/hats obscuring the vocal sound a little?
However, my room isn't the greatest, so take that with a grain of salt. (plus my room has a nasty spike in the sibilant range) I felt about the same way hearing them on the cans though. (Shure SRH 440 headphones)
You could try bringing the vox forward a couple dB, and backing the drums off a smidge. That might help the vocal clarity. I don't feel the guitars clash with the vocals, but the drums might be fighting with them a little.
cooloFrisco's Most UnderratedMember
Since: Jan 28, 2003
Jul 14, 2013 01:13 pm Listening on my laptop again, and taking Jbots notes into account, possibly the hi hats and other cymbals are fighting with the vocals a bit. You could try cutting the eq of the mics that captured the cymbals a bit below 8kHz. I don't think the issue is so bad, though, as I can hear and understand every word that you sing. Boosting the vocals a bit might not be a bad idea though.
Jul 20, 2013 10:25 am Thanks guys. I feel more confident, especially when coolo said that he can understand the words...
I am doing some trials to see how to accomplish that cut on the cymbals... When I try to do any change on the overhead and room mic EQs it effects the entire sound of the kit...
Jul 22, 2013 12:15 pm This actually sounds good to me. Ironically, I often have people say that I mix vox too loud... It's all a personal preference, but I guess that the general population should win the vote since they are essentially the "customer" :)
