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Mutlu
by Gary E. Andrews - 04/15/24 07:08 PM
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Joined: May 2009
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I know what sounds good to me, but I just wonder if there is an industry standard for pop or country mix of vocal over music.(I specify these two genres because they are my main styles.)
I'm always afraid that my vocal volume is too loud, because I want the words to be clearly understood.
I'm sure there must be some sort of trick/method for determining "OK, that's it". Everyone chime in with your methods of determining the volume, please.
I usually start with a title or maybe a little rhyme or phrase. - Harlan Howard
Co-writing = Compromise!
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Joined: May 2001
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I don't think there is any trick to it. You just set the levels you are happy with. A lot of Publishers say don't bury the vocals under the music. Another thing is don't try to add too much music to a recording. When I listened to songs for the J.P. Folks Awards some were so loaded it took away from the recording.
Moderation is best.
Ray E. Strode
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Joined: Jul 2002
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I agree less really is more. Also what I like to do is set the vocal vol first at it's highest level without cliping and then arange everything else in order below that. I always worry about not getting the mix "hot" enough.
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Leave plenty of space in the centre for the vocals as well.
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What Ray, jt and Vikki say came through very clearly to me recently when I spent some time listening to just the music on a couple dozen current tween pop songs. The music was really very sparce.
Tom
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Joined: Nov 2002
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I always worry about not getting the mix "hot" enough. There is a volume control on every piece of audio playback equipment I've ever used. It works really great. If it's rotary, I just twist it to the right. If it's a button, I press the one that shows an up arrow.
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In country you don't want hot mixes, because you'd want to listen to the song again. In pop you do, because it's gone out of style before the second playback!
Kidding for sure, but not far from the truth (otherwise it wouldn't be funny). I read somewhere that 'the loudness wars' are over, and engineers actually are getting requests from record labels these days about not overcompressing the tracks.
Of course there are all the science about loud being percieved as better, so it won't go away. But much better to listen to a deep and well balanced mix, coming from moderately used high end gear (we can all dream..).
To reach big volume, you can do it in stages, though. A little compression on the way in, more compression when it's there, and a little more in the mastering.
Mostly the volume stuff is done in the mastering, I think. So don't worry about it and send the tracks off to a mastering engineer (like Mike Caro, for example)..
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For rock, from what I read and heard, you want the vocals just loud enough so that you can understand the lyrics. The instruments should be loud relative to the vocals for rock to give the song its power and drive, but you still need to understand the lyrics.
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When I started home recording--it was in 4 track days, when you had to be sparse, or recording quality suffered badly.
Now, I personally struggle not to over -do tracks and instruments, because it is so easy to overtrack using digital. For the most part, my vote: less is more!
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I still believe that the big dogs must use some industry standard level for vocals vs. music...otherwise, you would hear many different levels on the radio...I don't hear it, sounds very uniform to me. It's probably a computer-generated level...or maybe I'm just worrying about this too much LOL
I usually start with a title or maybe a little rhyme or phrase. - Harlan Howard
Co-writing = Compromise!
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The guys I know set vocals at 0db and then adjust the music balance and levels to suit. Vocals should always sound a bit proud of the music. I constantly have arguments with my engineer as I feel the music is sometimes a bit too quiet compared to the vocals especially on up tempo or loud rock. As far as I am aware there is no hard and fast rule, special software or other studio gizmo that dictates or adjusts levels. It is down to listening and then adjusting levels accordingly. That is why a good pair of ears is needed in a studio. The reason radio sounds uniform is that almost everything is mastered at 0db.
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