Need help mixing poorly recorded vocals.

Posted on

Dub head
Member Since: May 03, 2004

I'm mixing a song for a good friend of mine as a gift from him to his soon to be wife. Because it is a lovey-dovey (oh god I just puked) song the quality really doesn't matter too much, it's the thought that counts. Anyways, I recorded the acoutic guitar with my setup and that came out great. I then sent it to him and he layed vocals, bass, and percussion over it. Here is my problem; he's not a singer at all and sang too lightly, low, and even a little out of tune. There is no time for him to re-record anything (he gets married saturday!). So here I am stuck trying to mix vocals that are very quiet, low sung, and semi-out of tune. Could anyone suggest any pointers for making the best out of this vocal track?? Thanks a ton!

Cheers!

-Al

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Member
Since: Sep 11, 2004


Oct 13, 2004 04:24 pm

Turn it down in the mix.

Member
Since: Jan 18, 2003


Oct 13, 2004 04:33 pm

find someone here who uses antares auto-tune, send them the track and have them process it to get it in tune.

use a compressor or limiter to get those volumes up and at a constant level.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Oct 13, 2004 10:56 pm

Or you can process the vocals with at least a 4 voice chorus effect. If they are really bad try going to an 8 voice. Or just chorus it once and then do it again. This will mask the daylights outa anything out of tune. Make sure the chorus is mixed so you get mostly the effected voice and not much natural voice and it should be all good.

As for the vocal being to soft, just normalize it a bit and that should bring it up.

Frisco's Most Underrated
Member
Since: Jan 28, 2003


Oct 14, 2004 02:50 am

oooh, good trick. I will have to try that on some of my bootsy vocals.

Dub head
Member
Since: May 03, 2004


Oct 14, 2004 10:58 am

Thanks everyone for your input!! I ended up using a trial, full working version of Autotune 4 (worked okay since I don't know how to use it properly), I eq'd, added some light dimensional type reverb, and brought up the volume a bit. It ended up sounding decent. Not great but decent. I'm a musician, not a miracle worker ;) Thanks again!!

Cheers!

-Al

Member
Since: Jan 18, 2003


Oct 14, 2004 02:11 pm

dont forget to use some compression!

(that's what my avatar is shouting)

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Oct 14, 2004 11:45 pm

And he is compressed allright. :-0

And coolo, chorus used to be the way to hide a bad vocal. I always kinda liked it for thickening things up a bit.

Frisco's Most Underrated
Member
Since: Jan 28, 2003


Oct 15, 2004 01:47 am

Yeah, I use chorus a fair amount, but I usually only go for 2 voices. I guess I'd try more, but the chorus that comes with CEP sucks up so much computing power after 2 voices, I don't like to go past that. Maybe I need to find a better chorus effect.

Dub head
Member
Since: May 03, 2004


Oct 15, 2004 07:01 am

oh, I added compression ;-) I thought that was just a given. :-)

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Oct 15, 2004 09:43 pm

I will check but I think in the freeware section there as one of those guys writing plugs that has a multi voice chorus that is pretty light on CPU usage. YOu can surf em if you like. I may not get to it till Sunday.

Member
Since: Sep 17, 2004


Oct 16, 2004 03:54 pm

I know a great way to mix bad recorded vocals...RE RECORD. usually works for me! other than that i dont know what to tell you. good luck tho!

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