Thanks for taking time to check out my mix. I'm not sure if the vocal levels are 100% correct and sitting in the mix right, there is also areas where I feel are a bit congested but I'm not sure the best way to combat this since I've tried panning, EQing and other effects but nothing really sounds right. Any creative suggestions? I'd love to hear any ideas on ways to improve it.
Posted Sep 10, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC
This sounds really nice, EQ'd quite well. I think the background vocals kinda make it a bit congested and I'd suggest going back to the original mix and taking care of that there if you can and then bouncing that and turning down the vocal track as a whole when mixing the two track; I don't think the panning is an issue though. This is what I do for 2 track mixing and it works pretty well for me every time: grab a Youlean Loudness Meter (free plugin that analyzes the LUFS (loudness units relative to full scale)), put one on the instrumental and one on the vocal track. Play the loudest part of the instrumental (I'm assuming the hook in this case) and note where the Integrated LUFS level is. After that, play the vocal track at the same point in the song where you played the instrumental at and look at the Integrated LUFS for the vocal track. Turn the vocal track up or down as needed, about 6 to 10 LUFS lower than the instrumental track. It should sit pretty well then.
I can’t thank you enough!! I’ve been pretty much guesstimating based off my ear but it’s super nice to just have a quick way to check levels and get everything even.
No problem! Glad I could help.
Sounds really fresh man! Good job! The vocals imo needs to back down like 1-2dB at max and the high end from high hats could use a small boost at 9-11k just to make it sound crisp as a mf! :) Overall, I think it sounds awesome!
Appreciate it! I’ve already brought the vocals down some when I was revisiting the mix a few days ago but I’m definitely gonna add that small boost tonight!
Crap I think you missunderstood me then, do not boost the vocals, bring them down at the first chrous and the last one just a thad! :) Keep the great work up tho man! Sounds amazing!
This sounds pretty good to me, well done! Low sounds really punchy, perfect for this style of music. If it were me, I'd bring the vocals down a little in the mix, and listening on headphone, the hard panning of the backing vocals sounds a little weird to me, but on speakers/monitors I'm sure it would sound fine. Any questions feel free to ask!
Perfect! I hadn’t thought about the hard panning so thanks for the heads up! Do you have any tips or a process for matching vocals when mixing a 2 track? That’s what I’m working with on this one.
I'd say make sure they're balanced, (something, preferably the same thing) on both sides. Or you could forget hard panning, and go in the middle, try it with headphones and pan it back central until it sounds natural ish. One other approach to double takes is to put tons of effects, far too much reverb, delay, maybe some distortion and/or chorus if the track is right, and then blend that with the original signal. Maybe not the conventional approach, but could be worth investigating. Anymore questions let me know!