Effects on vocal track

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Permalink Reply by Carsten Trotzkowski on May 2, 2008 at 11:57pm

Hello, Gyanenda, what would you like to know in detail? Do you refer to a special song? As in most parts of music, there are thousand ways and philosophies how to do it right, but only some general rules how to do it in special. At last, it is all a matter of experience and taste.
Different music styles need different approaches. If you try to mix an unplugged song, you might simply want to re-add the room response that got lost by the microphones. To get the exact recording of such a live gig, it would be a good idea sending the same amount of signal from every instrument and vocal to the reverb. This will rebuild the room and might be the right thing for authentic traditional, classical or folk music.
For rock or pop music, in many cases you have to seperate vocals from the instruments. For this, you might want to pull up the vocal by an insert compressor first (one for each track, or one for a subgroup) and then apply the kind of effects that fit the style. For rock 'n' roll maybe a short doubling (to be heard best an John Lennon's last superhit: Just Like Starting Over), for a ballad a broad long reverb (like in those celtic new age ballads), and so on.
In general, you have to know that too much reverb in the song will make it all very heavy, and it tends to steal the punch out of the recording (you will find that in the 80ies songs of the group "Asia"). If you ever experience that - but need something to freshen up the sound - try delays instead of reverb - this might even help on slight intonation problems.
The ratio between "send" and "return": You have to peak meter the input of the effects chain, i.e. the sum of all signals at the loudest part should remain some db below zero (headroom to full level). This way you avoid unwanted distortion in the effects path, but use the effects where they sound best (and add less white noise, if you are using hardware analog effects). The "return" will be adjusted by your ear: Ambience vs. punch, desert vs. dreamland, looking glass vs. panorama etc.
But as I said, there are many different philosophies (e.g. Phil Spector vs. Alan Parsons) and special situations needing special solutions (like in our real business). These are simply my experiences up to now, and I have to learn a lot, loo. You will very likely find dozens of mixing mistakes in my song drafts on this site....

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Permalink Reply by Gyanendra Verma on May 6, 2008 at 6:51pm

Thanks Carsten

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Permalink Reply by Brian McDonald on May 6, 2008 at 5:14pm

Hi Gyanendra, I use a few things as my guide in this.

First, I listen to the performance and structure of of the vocal lines completely dry to set in my head an understanding of elements such as contruct, speed of the changes of melodic intervals between notes, mood, clarity, performance, etc.
Second, overall, I never listen for the effects, but instead, I listen for the vocal tracks what helps them sing out best of all. If you are going for a natural sound of a particular room, next time you're in a room like the one you are trying to emulate, sing the song through there to get the sound in your head, then go back to your mix and get as close as you can. If you want a special effect, then your creativity is your guide to your benefit and detriment :-)

The amount of send to an effects buss should never hit peak with digital systems, so set the master gain to a place where it sends enough signal, but never peaks out.
The amount you return to your vocal tracks will be what you want to play with to find the right amount of effect.

One more thing that helps me as I am doing a final mix on a song is to make several test recordings of the song with vocal up, vocal down, effects up, effects down. I then play the mixes on boomboxes, car stereos, go to audio stores and listen on lots of different systems. The result is usually for me, adjusting the amount of effects on the vocals, whether it be delay, reverb or other effect.

Cheers,
Brian

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Permalink Reply by Gyanendra Verma on May 6, 2008 at 6:52pm

Great Tips Brian, Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Dominik Heer on May 21, 2008 at 10:39pm

The Sendlevel defines the working-point of the effect-device. You should meter it with an accurate level (highest possible without clipping). The return amount defines how much of the effect you add to the track. With DAWs the difference is neglectable. Kind regards, Dominik

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