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Kat Wright - Contact
#1
Vocal track is a bit questionable on this one. Not the performance...the recording.


.mp3    KatWrightContact_b.mp3 --  (Download: 9.91 MB)


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#2
I think the drums get really masked throughout the song. I'd boost them up a lil more.
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#3
High end of the cymbals is a bit sizzly. Could it be a mastering EQ artifact? With that though it seems to be missing clarity on the low end (kick and bass). I think that agrees with Shul's comments. It's not as bad as I am making it sound though.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
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#4
(29-07-2019, 05:31 PM)Mixinthecloud Wrote: High end of the cymbals is a bit sizzly. Could it be a mastering EQ artifact? With that though it seems to be missing clarity on the low end (kick and bass). I think that agrees with Shul's comments. It's not as bad as I am making it sound though.
The lead vocal was cut with tons of drums(especially kick) on that track. If you choose to put the lead vocal in the mix, it will horribly impact the tightness of your drum sound. Please solo the lead vocal track flat and give it a listen all the way through and let me know what you think about the overall eq, plosives and bleed. Then, eq the vocal to your liking and repeat the soloed listening exercise. And...for the final step, get a good drum mix together, then add that vocal track at roughly the level it will be and hear what that does to your drum sound.

It's possible that every issue that you mentioned would go away if I just muted the vocal track...It's that bad. Because if you eq the muddiness out of the vocal, you might have just introduced sizzling cymbals. I just went back and listened to the vocal track - soloed this time with the eq in and it's full of cymbal wash ( a little on the bright side) and tons of kick. While I am very grateful for the tracks that Telefunken provides, they really need to figure a way to keep all (ok, most of) the room noise and plosives out of the vocals. These Kat Wright vocal tracks also have a very muddy sound. I don't know whether that's a Telefunken M80 series artifact or something the tracking engineer is doing...either way..I don't think it's going to help sell mics.




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#5
(30-07-2019, 03:04 AM)NewtonThomas Wrote: The lead vocal was cut with tons of drums(especially kick) on that track. If you choose to put the lead vocal in the mix, it will horribly impact the tightness of your drum sound. Please solo the lead vocal track flat and give it a listen all the way through and let me know what you think about the overall eq, plosives and bleed. Then, eq the vocal to your liking and repeat the soloed listening exercise. And...for the final step, get a good drum mix together, then add that vocal track at roughly the level it will be and hear what that does to your drum sound.

It's possible that every issue that you mentioned would go away if I just muted the vocal track...It's that bad. Because if you eq the muddiness out of the vocal, you might have just introduced sizzling cymbals. I just went back and listened to the vocal track - soloed this time with the eq in and it's full of cymbal wash ( a little on the bright side) and tons of kick. While I am very grateful for the tracks that Telefunken provides, they really need to figure a way to keep all (ok, most of) the room noise and plosives out of the vocals. These Kat Wright vocal tracks also have a very muddy sound. I don't know whether that's a Telefunken M80 series artifact or something the tracking engineer is doing...either way..I don't think it's going to help sell mics.

We are all facing the same problems/limitations/issues of the leakage into Kat's vocal mic. And there is no one single method of handling those problems in this recording nor any recording either from Telefunken or any other live recording regardless of where it was performed.

What is apparent in everyone's solution is the character of the voice and the result of those decisions on the rest of the mix. In this case, a certain amount of compromise must be tolerated to balance an acceptable sounding vocal track and the artifacts which are a result of one's approach. For me, I wanted to add some top end to her vocal but the result was artifacts in the cymbals so instead of boosting high end I cut upper and mid mids. I also did a significant amount of hi-pass and some minimal low-pass filtering as the first thing in my vocal chain (see below).

One thing we are all tempted to do is to take a knife to the wave form and slash out all but her vocal passages. The consequence of this is too stark a difference in the ensemble when she is singing and when she is not. The only time I did this was at the very top of the song, which smoothed out the tom intro beautifully.

One thing I do, pretty much as a rule is to listen to open mics, especially vocals and over-heads and room mics and do whatever hi-pass filtering seems appropriate while minimizing any loss of tone the mics are there to record. Judicious use of hi-pass filtering is vital to clarity in a lot of recordings, especially live recordings. Part of the due diligence we must expend as good engineers and mixers. CLA states that is what his assistants are there for. After all, what's the use of an assistant if you can't get them to do hi-pass filtering on every input for you? (from 'On Golden Pond')

Here is my vocal chain for Kat's voice:
Input channel:
PreSonus Pro EQ (for HP/LP filtering only)
The Glue Compressor (SSL Buss type @ 2:1, .3 ms attack 60ms release) Full envelope following
Izotope Neutrino (clarity enhancement)
PreSonus De-esser (mid-band de-essing)

Vocal Buss:
Acon Digital, Multiply (5 ms in-line delay with moderate stereo spread) This is a Hass type effect for width and depth
API 550B Stereo EQ w/ a little bit of 1.5K and 250 notched out
Klanghelm MJUC Jr. Variable Tube Compressor (Just to top off the wave form)
PreSonus De-esser (for high end de-essing)

That is much more than I usually do and only because it was needed. I actually like the breathy-ness it gives her voice.
PreSonus Studio One DAW
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