Vocal Mixing - The Armistice Method

[WhiskeyJack]

I am being sort of selfish with this thread. It is a question i have been wanting to ask for a while now. Not to dismiss other peoples vocal mixing techniques or finished products or anything but my ear seems to really zero in on how Armi does his. When i listen to one of his tunes on my monitors there is just a ~something~ that grabs me with the way his vocals come together so i want to put him under a forensic microscope to see how he does it. I know a good magician never reveals his tricks but we are sort of like a magicians inner circle, so like, we can freely discuss it here right?

What is your deal man ? What are you doing? Walk us through it?

Are you treating all the other tracks to give your vocals the space the sit in or is there a certain processing chain you use to get them to sit in that space whats going on when i hear this. I notice it much much more on my monitors at home than i do with the ear buds or a set of cans on my head. Are the vocals last in your process? If yes, let's assume you have your whole song done, tracked performances are good, I am going to assume you have the all the instrumentation mixed and treated with whatever sparkle you got going on, now you have one raw vocal performance tracked and ready for the mix phase.

Go!

Edit: Adding Armi's html link in a PDF format for future generations. April 26th 2018

Armis Vocal Overview.pdf

[Armistice]

Well first I think "How would Jesus record this vocal?"

LOL WJ - I'm happy to run you through it but it's 8am Tuesday and I'm at work, so it won't be until much, much later.

I doubt there's any particular secret sauce - I've never considered myself any good at recording / mixing vocals anyway, but apparently you do so what secrets I have will be yours, in time...

[WhiskeyJack]

Well first I think "How would Jesus record this vocal?"

LOL WJ - I'm happy to run you through it but it's 8am Tuesday and I'm at work, so it won't be until much, much later.

I doubt there's any particular secret sauce - I've never considered myself any good at recording / mixing vocals anyway, but apparently you do so what secrets I have will be yours, in time...

[Armistice]

So firstly, I wasn’t aware until this morning that WJ held my vocal recordings in such high esteem – they’re about my least favourite part of the process and I don’t think I’m that good at it. Maybe everyone else disagrees with WJ on this one... oh well.

Secondly, it may be just a combination of circumstances rather than anything specific I’m doing – I don’t have a special sauce, however I have been thinking a bit about it today.

Also, following my or anyone else’s set of instructions can be fraught with peril because of the sheer number of variables at play. Coincidentally I had been thinking of doing a short video on how I play some guitar bits I’ve come up with lately, because I sense I don’t play exactly like other people – probably because of the acoustic thing. This seems easier!

I’m going to do it in bits, because I want to tease WhiskeyJack.... this is tonight’s bit. So before I even start with how I mix, let’s look at how it’s recorded – because there’s lots there that adds to the particular sonic quality of a track which you may not be able to do, or want to do, or think is unwise to do.

RECORDING VARIABLES

• Rode NT2 into REM FIreface

• Untreated 7m x 8m room (my lounge/dining/kitchen) with 2.8m ceiling, carpet on floor, plaster on ceiling and one wall, glass covered by very light curtain on another, brick with windows on another, the last wall is a galley kitchen with wooden cupboards and tiles – it’s a pretty big space for a home – and has the usual bits of furniture you’d expect

• Recording computer is in the hall behind me and I’m about 2m in each side, singing at the join of the glass and brick walls – kitchen behind me.

• Mostly I sing quietly because my voice sounds better the breathier I can get it, and because it’s an apartment and I don’t want to flag what’s going on to the neighbours if I don’t have to. There are louder sections obviously, but even then I’m not really belting. I’m also aware that the louder I get, the more reflections come into play. I’ve got better over the years at sounding loud without being loud.

• Even with my attempts at mic “technique” viz a viz moving further/closer there’s a fair bit of dynamic range in any track that has both soft and louder elements – a professional singer I ain’t

• I have a deep, baritone voice – marry that with softer singing, closer to the mic and there is simply always HPF-ing to be done because of proximity effect and because of what musical bed I’m trying to get this to fit into

• I can’t sing for long for reasons I won’t bore you with, so I do verse at a time, sometimes verse + chorus, but almost never more. About 6 takes usually. I have so many external noisemaking sources to contend with that if it’s not all done in an hour, it’s not going to get done

• I keep the backing track soft in my headphones, and I don’t put reverb on the monitoring mix – it’s much easier to know when you’ve stuffed up and should stop the take when you’re not drowning in “ambience” because you feel better about singing that way. I view this the same way as people who say “I can’t sing properly unless I’m strumming my acoustic guitar” – with all the sonic issues that raises. You can, you just haven’t learnt how yet, and as uncomfortable as it might be, it’s just another skill and you should pursue it. So no reverb. Both cans on, depending upon the track maybe I’ll half slip one off.

• And a lot of the time when I was learning to record singing and my own singing, I was also recording someone who I regard as a real singer, Richard, the other Jongleur. He really can sing and has a great voice. Puts me to shame. But he was a bit of a nightmare to record, and I learnt a lot from the exercise – in particular: the minute it enters your head that you may have fucked up, even if you didn’t, you’re about to. Stop. Start again.

• Extreme patience

• Always, always, always the last thing done. The tune is fully recorded and mixed, roughly, first. It's very rare that I'll add anything instrumental afterwards.

[Armistice]

MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT

I think some of these factors definitely come into play in how the vocal ends up sitting – it goes back to this combination of circumstances thing I mentioned.

• Very "electric guitar", but down the clean to crunchy end of the noise spectrum – never much distortion

• Often quite a few guitars – I never know how many until I’m done - rarely all playing at once, but there can be 3 or 4 going, doing different bits

• Mainly down the open position, low frets – adds to the low frequency load

• Not usually full chording, more single notes, runs, 2 and three note chords etc. There's a sparseness to it, even if there is a lot of it, if that makes sense?

• Usually wide panned and doubled – there’s almost never a guitar in the middle of my mixes

• I change guitars all the time but without thinking how they’ll fit together, just so they’re different

• I’m better now at getting decent starting EQ settings for the guitars, but that’s relatively recent – using a Kemper at low volume it’s very easy to get too much low & mid in the equation, which has had to be dealt with later – Bubba’s on my case about this relentlessly

So, in my head, I’m seeing both a physical and sonic space open up for the vocals, with the positioning and the EQing of vocals and guitars – sometimes drastically.

That should do for now WJ - perhaps not what you were expecting exactly, but I want to cover it all for you...

Any questions so far?

[JD01]

the minute it enters your head that you may have fucked up, even if you didn’t, you’re about to. Stop. Start again.

• Extreme patience

I definitely do this. Sometimes I'll only sing a couple of words and I'll just stop.
Takes me ages to get things right though as I'm a crap singer.

[SweetDan]

...what secrets I have will be yours, in time...

masterAndPadawan.jpg

[WhiskeyJack]

RECORDING VARIABLES
MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT

No questions thus far. Reading the first bit really sheds light on how much i don't take into my surrounding when recording my vocals. I usually set up an incredibly crude isobooth out of old blankets, sleeping bags draped over shitty bifold doors and it seems to do the trick but i keep forgetting that my PC is like 4 feet away and there is an overhead furnace vent about 2 feet over head and about 5 feet away and the furnace room is across the hall i am in.

I haven't bothered recording in the kitchen yet even though it is my favorite room in the house for my acoustic guitars. I should give it a try next time i have everything set up and drug up from the basement.

So far so good. I will reserve the major questions for any future installments. I guess i hadn't entirely considered that it wasn't entirely just vocal treatment that get's your vocals to pop out of a song the way they do. I suppose you would really need to create the space for them to sit in first. make sense and i feel like a dummy for even considering it was all just a vocal treatment.

[Armistice]

RECORDING VARIABLES
MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT

No questions thus far. Reading the first bit really sheds light on how much i don't take into my surrounding when recording my vocals. I usually set up an incredibly crude isobooth out of old blankets, sleeping bags draped over shitty bifold doors and it seems to do the trick but i keep forgetting that my PC is like 4 feet away and there is an overhead furnace vent about 2 feet over head and about 5 feet away and the furnace room is across the hall i am in.

I haven't bothered recording in the kitchen yet even though it is my favorite room in the house for my acoustic guitars. I should give it a try next time i have everything set up and drug up from the basement.

So far so good. I will reserve the major questions for any future installments. I guess i hadn't entirely considered that it wasn't entirely just vocal treatment that get's your vocals to pop out of a song the way they do. I suppose you would really need to create the space for them to sit in first. make sense and i feel like a dummy for even considering it was all just a vocal treatment.

LIke I said, I was thinking about it a bit yesterday at work and coming to the conclusion that there are probably structural factors at play here as well - anyway, it's early morning now so I'll get into the tracking/mixing bit tonight - I'll do a few screen shots of compressor settings and eq curves and what have you and see if that starts to crystallise something for you...

[musicturtle]

About 6 takes usually. I have so many external noisemaking sources to contend with that if it’s not all done in an hour, it’s not going to get done

I think it's great to do multiple takes without listening after each one. Treating each take as if it's "the one."

the minute it enters your head that you may have fucked up, even if you didn’t, you’re about to. Stop. Start again.

Yep. I think this goes with recording any kind of track. Uncertainty is the enemy of a good take, IMHO.

[Armistice]

Nothing tonight. I've just spent two and a half hours at a residents meeting (aka angry mob) trying to stop the local council routing a bike path through our driveway. I'll pick it up tomorrow. I hope.

[WhiskeyJack]

Nothing tonight. I've just spent two and a half hours at a residents meeting (aka angry mob) trying to stop the local council routing a bike path through our driveway. I'll pick it up tomorrow. I hope.

All good Armi.

I think it's great to do multiple takes without listening after each one. Treating each take as if it's "the one."

I do this as well. Great practice but i still get shakey results lol.

LIke I said, I was thinking about it a bit yesterday at work and coming to the conclusion that there are probably structural factors at play here as well - anyway, it's early morning now so I'll get into the tracking/mixing bit tonight - I'll do a few screen shots of compressor settings and eq curves and what have you and see if that starts to crystallise something for you...

Yes Agreed. Things are crystallzing as well i reread through all your stuff over my morning coffee and donut today and there is more at play than just "mixing your vocals" stuff you do that i don't really do. Stuff i don't ever consider so it's all part of the process and why i asked.

One thing i am really curious about and may attempt is to swtich up where i do my vocals. I think i should head into the kitchen and go from there. It makes sense. My stupid homemade iso may not really be doing me any favors. Anything is worth a try. Appreciate your explanations Armi. It is all part of the reason i asked.

[Armistice]

I will get back onto it tonight - something Bubba said in the IIAS thread for my latest track gave me an idea about how to show what's going on in a way that anyone could use to check their own mix. Might be helpful. Or not. We'll see...

[Armistice]

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

[Greg_L]

My goodness that's some savage EQ'ing.

[Bubba]

I agree it LOOKS a bit savage on the GUI, but when you compare the before and after frequency amplitude curves, the lows and low mids have only been reduced by about 4 dB. Or am I completely reading it wrong?

[vomitHatSteve]

I agree it LOOKS a bit savage on the GUI, but when you compare the before and after frequency amplitude curves, the lows and low mids have only been reduced by about 4 dB. Or am I completely reading it wrong?

I mean, when he says "nothing under 100", that's what's causing it.

They're gradual hard cutoffs, but they're still hard cutoffs where (e.g.) the main vocal has no frequencies below 150 and none above 11k.

I tried mixing like this on the recommendation of a friend who's work I respect a lot. (I've still got his notes kicking around), but it did not work for me! Everything was very mid-rangey.

[Bill L]

That's pretty much how I EQ stuff when doing live sound. All inputs start with the lows and highs cut and everything else is to taste. If I showed you my main output curve, you'd either be mortified or genuinely curious that there is any sound coming out of the speakers. When mixing a live recording, only the vocals get that curve, the drums individually get what they need, bass gets a little treatment (usually because I'm using a direct input and not a mic on the bass cab) and the guitars/keys EQ is barely, if ever touched. Horns and acoustic guitars or other acoustic instruments get treated as needed.

[Armistice]

The guitars are savage because I started with the wrong sounds - in more recent mixes, where I'm better at getting a good starting sound there's nothing like that amount as the frequencies aren't there to start with.

With the vocals, because of my low pitched voice and proximity effect, there's usually a shit load of very low stuff around. If I put the solo'd vocal track up it wouldn't sound like it was mid-rangy at all.

Perhaps this wasn't a great track to use because I recorded it so long ago when I didn't know as much, but it was there. I'm going to have a look at a more recent one to see what's going on, but I suspect the general thrust will be the same - there'll be a bit of a hole for the vocal to sit in.

[Armistice]

EARTH TO WHISKEY JACK!!!!

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