Vocal Mixing - The Armistice Method

[Greg_L]

LOL.

[WhiskeyJack]

EARTH TO WHISKEY JACK!!!!

Dude, I spent hours on this for you. Read it!

Sorry Hombre i was busy as shit the last few days and not near a computer. (days off taking care of life stuff) Having a beer and giving it a read now.

[WhiskeyJack]

OK - so firstly - I don't really know the answer to the question posed. I don't pretend to be a great recorder or mixer or have particularly good ears - however, for the sake of it, let's assume that there's something in what WhiskeyJack is hearing.

So I don't know what it is but I thought I'd go looking, based on a knowledge of the song, and my playing and singing, as to what it might be.

Everything I say about this might be crap - it's just a theory, but i'm getting a good idea, after a big look, at what WJ's getting at.

So here's the reference track that I grabbed all this from - Isn't It A Shame - the song that prompted WJ's request.

Isn't It A Shame.mp3

And here are my various thoughts on what's going on - I go diving into frequencies to see what I can see - and yes, it should always be about the ears, but I have a scientific brain so I'm turning to a more visual analysis.

https://aps5rz.axshare.com/home.html

Feel free to chuck in any thoughts below.

There's more I'll discuss that's perhaps not so technical but this has taken me almost 90 minutes so that's enough for one night. I'll do the rest another time.

Ciao

Jesus. That is awesome are we gong to be able to save that link your provided for posterity?

That is all what i was wanting to know. I sort of see why i can't get my vox to pop the way i want them to and your's just kind of pop. I don't ever EQ carve like that. I leave everything roughly where it is sitting, taming / shelving high's and lows when my ears think it necessary to do so. I think my problem is i rely pretty heavily on reverb and a delay or whatever else to get them out where i think i want them but they never get there. I will have to be a bit more mindful of the actual freq ranges. I will have a tinker here in the coming days with some of my stuff and see if i can spit shine like this.

I am kind of thinking when a vocal track is nestled into and around everything like that the effectiveness of any coloring/spatial effects like verbs etc. are is increased.

I like this post and very much appreciate the time you kicked into it. I have learned something here today.

[Armistice]

I don't think EQ carving per se is the answer - I'm EQ carving that way on that song because I got the original sounds so wrong - too much bass, too much mids - in particular using a brand new Kemper device I didn't really understand* and with all the guitars I use you get in particular this huge mid build up - I've always been aware of the lows issue and HPFing that off, but the mids are because people are telling me, Bubba in particular, not because I worked it out myself.

Tunes I'm doing now, the actual tracks will be much closer to what's required in the first instance - so I'd say look at the results via the Span pics up the top rather than the method via the EQ pics at the bottom. The main EQ pic worth looking at is the vocal one - where I've gone looking for the frequencies that annoy me, found several and sort of shallow notched them. Again, I don't know if this is "normal" but it seems to be working.

There are some other things I'm doing which I'll write about when I'm back at the recording PC - tomorrow. I've tried a variety of methods - doubling, parallel compression, delay etc. to try and get it all shiny. Don't really know what I'm doing there either, but I'll write it out for you.

This has been an interesting exercise for me to - sort of crystallised in my head in a logical fashion what it is that I've been doing. Stay tuned for more Monday my time.


*One of the issues with recording with a Kemper is that you tend to record at low volume and so you're not really getting a true picture of the sound you're recording, which you'd hear more clearly if you were using an amp. Probably the case with sims too. When I was using an amp I wasn't EQing so much. And I'm not now that I've worked this out either. Being way more careful with the EQ controls to try to get close to the right sound to start with.

[WhiskeyJack]

so I'd say look at the results via the Span pics up the top rather than the method via the EQ pics at the bottom. The main EQ pic worth looking at is the vocal one - where I've gone looking for the frequencies that annoy me, found several and sort of shallow notched them. Again, I don't know if this is "normal" but it seems to be working.

Right on. That makes sense. And there is another logical aspect that your span ref pics are more guidelines. Your voice and my voice (or anyone elses voice) will obviously have very different characteristics but in general those are good places to kind of get started trying to nestle something into. Very good.

I think i am going to make this a sticky too. Keep it at the top. I don't think i want to go looking for it all the time.

[Armistice]

so I'd say look at the results via the Span pics up the top rather than the method via the EQ pics at the bottom. The main EQ pic worth looking at is the vocal one - where I've gone looking for the frequencies that annoy me, found several and sort of shallow notched them. Again, I don't know if this is "normal" but it seems to be working.

Right on. That makes sense. And there is another logical aspect that your span ref pics are more guidelines. Your voice and my voice (or anyone elses voice) will obviously have very different characteristics but in general those are good places to kind of get started trying to nestle something into. Very good.

I think i am going to make this a sticky too. Keep it at the top. I don't think i want to go looking for it all the time.

The link stays up until I take it down, so it's not going anywhere but it might be good to make it a PDF or something - that was just the quickest way I could think of to present the information - via the prototyping program share site I use at work...

[WhiskeyJack]

Ok ill make a PDF of it later and ill just attach it either to your post containimg the link or of i cant edit / attatch to another persons post ill stick it in my OP.

[WhiskeyJack]

PDF added to OP.

[WhiskeyJack]

Does this sticky belong here in the mixing forum or in the new sing sing forum? What say you?

[CrowsofFritz]

Does this sticky belong here in the mixing forum or in the new sing sing forum? What say you?

Probs the singing one.

[WhiskeyJack]

[mention]Armistice[/mention] where do you feel your threads home is most approriate?! Or does it matter all that much.

[Armistice]

Erm... The link in it no longer works as I killed off a bunch of things that I used that account / software for, so unless I can find the file on my old laptop - new one doesn't have the software - and republish it, it isn't much use to anyone, so leave it where it is for now, and I'll do a hunt during the week.