SM58.
Semen.
Everywhere.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13745148/Suffo% ... 0cover.mp3

Also, this my first time trying to mix/master vocals.
As it stands I only have some compression on there.
It's the stock ReaComp VST and I've got the ratio at about 5:1.

No EQ or anything, primarily because I have no idea what I would be doing with DM vocals..
Any suggestions?

Sounds good to me but I'm not really familiar with this style of vocal. They're a bit loud in the mix for me. For a good compressor, Kjaerhus Classic Compressor is great and has a vocal preset. I find it a nicer interface to use as well, the ReaComp is a bit weird.

Some parts in the mix are REALLY loud, especially doubled or tripled up parts.
But, because I record with the mic in hand there is a lot of inconsistency in volume, so there are also spots where you have a hard time hearing my vocals.
Would the cure to this be compressing the living fuck out of the tracks?
Or find a new way to use my mic?

I tried my best to keep all the "main" vocals on a single track and the multi-tracked stuff in their own separate channels, but it gets pretty messy..
I completely forgot to, but panning some of the multi-tracked stuff might clean up those parts a little bit..

nice. Like Todge I use Kjaerhus Classic Compressor a bit as well, but also use ReaComp.

I tend to compress the balls out of everything, if you've ever seen my Soundcloud you can see how crushed my waveforms are I always have a hard time getting vocals to fit in the mix though, it's the hardest bit for me (after getting guitar toanz that sound fat yet defined and not fizzy).

Alright, I'll try a more extreme ratio on that bitch.


What would you guys recommend setting-wise on Reacomp for DM vocals? (I'm looking at you Geoff and Eric )

Re: comp settings, it's dependent really on the singer's mic technique and how you want it to sit in the track overall. Threshold, attack and release are equally as important. For vocals in general I go for a fast- very very fast- attack and a fairly long release and tend to beat on them hard ratio-wise (10:1 or more) and set the threshold as necessary for the level the track was recorded at and what's not introducing unwanted nastiness into the track. There's a point at which you'll pull the threshold down and it'll sound all shitty and distorted and nasty, and that's as far as you can take it. (Unless you want that sound?)

Since you mention handheld- part of that can be fixed simply by working on it. An active or dynamic singer around a mic on a stand can be equally as inconsistent. Vocals... can get you into riding the faders down to the syllable, seriously. Automation is scary because you're getting into the heavy lifting aspect of mixing, but if a vocal's all over the place, you might have to.

I am listening on my girlfriend's laptop so I can't say much on it yet. Though I do think you are a bit loud in the mix. If you put all the vocal tracks in a group and compress the group's track it might help with loudness during layered parts.

You really do nail Frank Mullen.

BTW... I heard some tracks on youtube of new Abominable Putridity. I'd make a thread but it would only be relevant to you and I...

Yargh, it is definitely too loud.
I suppose that'd be a result of the vocalist mixing it.


I'll try that!
How would I do that exactly though?
Just drop the tracks into the same channel and they will all play simultaneously?

YEAH, DUDE!
Matti Way is a perfect match for AP, I'm glad their Slamz are intact, last time I heard they were thinking about moving towards the deathcore sound as it apparently blowing the fuck up in Russia.

Cranking up the ratio helped quite a bit, it's sitting at about 1:10 right now and sounds quite a bit better.
And thanks for the tips on the attack, release and threshold.


Hopefully it doesn't come to super nit-picking with the automation.


I'm gonna play around with this shit some more later on.

Yr wlcm.

I'll do 0.1 or 0 ms attack on vocals if the compressor will let me. Chaining a comp and a limiter isn't the worst idea ever on occasion. You can totally destroy the actual dynamics on vocals in a lot of contexts; reduce the actual dynamic swing of the things to that of, say, a high gain guitar or analog synth (that is, to say, roughly nil) and be fine much of the time. The fast attack thing with a vocal is 'cause there's generally not a lot of transient information there like on a drum or acoustic guitar or whatnot that you'd want to keep. You want to clamp down on it right away, tell it to get down and stay down. I'd have to check my notes/the threads, but I remember there being Sta-Levels and Level Devils involved on the Garda mixes, which are oldschool tube broadcast limiters (for when you really want to tell dynamics to fuck off) and they may have been on vocals. (If I could get my hands on a Gates Solid Statesman for cheap off Ebay- they do come up every once in a while- that would totally be mine.)

Especially given your context- death metal- you can probably do some really egregious shit to the vocal tracks. The thought struck me that something like an emulation of an 1176 on all-buttons-in or the SSL Listen Mic Compressor might actually be really cool, something really filthy sounding to grit the vocal up even more. Or a tape saturator along with the compression.

I have always wanted to run DM vocals through a super hot tube preamp at some point, something with a lot of low-midrange chunkiness..
The only thing is I would fear it completely gobbling up those frequencies for the geetarz.

Maybe one day I will have the chance to try this shit out.

Click the little folder icon beside i/o, trim, FX etc on a channel. It will become a folder and any tracks under it are grouped within it. If you assign VSTs to the track that is the folder all the tracks within it are effected...

Alright, dope.
Thanks, nigga.

And I, because I fully 100% back anything Matti Way is involved with. Brotha wore an Abnormality shirt in a Pathology band photo.

Good shit, son.