Generic Metal Song - need help with vocal processing

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:27 pm

Can't seem to get these vocals to sound quite how I want them to. Let me know what you guys think.

http://www.project2music.com/Connor/JLsong3.mp3

thanks!

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:59 am

hey man. first off i'd just like to say that you're doing an awesome job with your mixing and good taste of effects (reversed cymbals, distant guitar in beginning etc). it really gives the song a nice professional vibe. it takes alot of time to put that all into a song and it's good to see you're not cutting corners just to get it done.

ok....so with the vocals i would maybe suggest having the singing maybe a lil quieter. it might sit better in the mix-just down it like 1 db or something. -not too much more that.
you could add in some harmonies in the choruses to make it sound a little richer also.

but all in all, good job! good style. i love the guitar tone you're getting....are you using beat craft? i use that often and just thought i recognized the sound.
what stuff are you using if you don't mind me asking?

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:15 am

I would suggest taking off what sounds like a choruser or delay or something on the vocals. Start dry. Then add reverb. If you want the choruser or delay of whatever it is, use it sparingly, like in a chorus here or verse there.

but all in all, nice job. very clean and crisp.

props.

Andrew

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:04 am

"choruser"-lol

anyway dude, what is your vocal chain for this song.
i listened to it a couple times now.
it does sound like you got a good bit of reverb (or some delay) at times, then other times, i don't notice as much.
maybe it's just me, but i couldn't notice any chorus effect.

did you compress the vox?
i don't know if that may be what could do the trick for sitting better in this song or not.
i guess wouldn't hurt to give a little more compression a try?

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:28 am

What is that? Like 80bpm 32nd notes or 64ths or whatever... It's like lightning... I'm gonna try keep up ;P

Anyways, it's rockin' and bits of it make me go loopy with "charge"!

I see what you mean about the vocals, the guttural stuff is so phat and the girly sing song parts just don't cut it.

Cut them out, it's not cool anyways. Razz

Just leave the phat guttural stuff and find a real drummer (I'm more hoping this is a synth drummer out of jealousy). Go out and make people hurt themselves moshing.

Rock on.

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:55 pm

much thanks for the replies, guys!

Greener-
hahah that little thing at the end I think is 64th triplets or something ridiculous. Basically the story on this song is a friend of mine came up to visit from Arizona and he wanted to do a song, so we just threw this together one day. Since we don't have to play it live I decided to just go ridiculous with the double bass and etc. There's no way on earth I could actually physically play that at this point in time. I don't remember what the tempo is but when I open up the project I'll make note of it and let you know, if you are interested.

The clean vocals need to stay cause I want to put this up on my studio's myspace for advertisement purposes - so I want to make the whole thing sound as good as I possibly can.

jordy-
Again I would have to open up the project to check the current processing, but I'm about to head out for the day and the project is like 52 tracks with ridiculous amounts of processing and blah blah so it would just take forever to check, but from what I remember it was a hall reverb with a somewhat long delay on the clean vocals (perhaps too long, listening back on it now), and the same reverb with two different sets of delays on the screamed vocals. All vocals are double or sometimes triple tracked, and all vocals are compressed fairly hard.

The mic was, due to emergency circumstances, a rode nt5, through an allen and heath preamp.

also, the drums are programmed but they aren't beatcraft. They are just a bunch of samples I have collected over time.

andrewismism-
there is quite a bit of delay, but I like the delay vocal sound. I just have to figure out how to make it work right, haha. Maybe this just isn't the song to do it?

Thanks for all the compliments and advice everyone! I'm gonna re-mix this from scratch tonight or tomorrow and I will repost.

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:21 pm

Sounds nice!

I agree with andrewismism on the chorus effect. It is muddying up the vocals. Not sure if this is the double track or a 16th note delay you have going on.

Maybe side chain the delay effect and use a gate with a soft ~5ms attack time. Then use a ~5ms attack and short release on the main vocal. That way you have one strong transient instead of two that fight each other.

Also I think the vocals are being covered by the guitar a little much. try dipping the low mids, and the presence on the guitar, and the vocals should come more to the front.

I love the contrast in tone of the vocals.

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:27 pm

Clowd, as it's for an example piece I would agree that leaving the vocals in is better. It's the sound a lot of bands seem to be wanting. If you do note the tempo let me know. It sounds cool. Razz

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:21 pm

GeckoMusic wrote:

Sounds nice!

I agree with andrewismism on the chorus effect. It is muddying up the vocals. Not sure if this is the double track or a 16th note delay you have going on.

Maybe side chain the delay effect and use a gate with a soft ~5ms attack time. Then use a ~5ms attack and short release on the main vocal. That way you have one strong transient instead of two that fight each other.

Also I think the vocals are being covered by the guitar a little much. try dipping the low mids, and the presence on the guitar, and the vocals should come more to the front.

I love the contrast in tone of the vocals.

Cool suggestions, I'll definitely try that out on the re-mix. Thanks!

Greener wrote:

Clowd, as it's for an example piece I would agree that leaving the vocals in is better. It's the sound a lot of bands seem to be wanting. If you do note the tempo let me know. It sounds cool. Razz

Yeah it's like the hot trend now - thats part of why I like to make it a little different with the delays and stuff.

The tempo by the way is actually 85.5

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:37 pm

My beef with the main vox is that the attitude is not there. The growl has the 'tude but the main vox sounds indifferent. Like he couldn't care either way. It doesn't fit the lyrics. The song sounds great but I have to say, I hate the sound of that kick. It just doesn't work for me. It sounds like that 'tallica kick. Hate that. Of course, these are all personal things.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:28 pm

hueseph wrote:

My beef with the main vox is that the attitude is not there. The growl has the 'tude but the main vox sounds indifferent. Like he couldn't care either way. It doesn't fit the lyrics. The song sounds great but I have to say, I hate the sound of that kick. It just doesn't work for me. It sounds like that 'tallica kick. Hate that. Of course, these are all personal things.

fair enough. I'm pretty much in agreement with that, the clean vocals are definitely lacking passion... but I must say I am in love with clicky kicks.

anyway, heres a new mix, gotta make some tweaks and stuff tomorrow (and yeah these cymbals have to go. I made some room for them by lowpassing the guitars and they just sound like garbage)

tell me what you think, the vocals are a bit clearer but perhaps too loud now??

http://www.project2music.com/Connor/JLsong4.mp3

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:38 pm

Bring back the clicky clicks.

20c piece superglued to the head and a wooden beater.

I'm listening to JLSong4 and there is almost no vocal. wtf?

Sounds like only the guitar. with bleed for drums and vocals.

Sounds pretty crap too.

Am I missing something?

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:42 pm

Um.... I think you are missing something because the vocals are the loudest they have ever been on any mix of this I have done haha.

I'm confused?

edit: yeah I don't know man I'm listening to it over and over and I can't even imagine how it could sound like that. Make sure your speakers are plugged all the way in?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:20 am

My speakers are their usual cheap selves.

Have you checked the file you uploaded? I'm downloading it again now.

Now I can't download it again.

I'm thinking it's your end.

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:38 pm

ok try now, I ironed out all the problems with my webspace.

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