Thanks for the comments. I think you might be right about the lead vocal as I tend to think that everyone elses mix has the vocal a bit too loud, and it's unlikely that everyone else is wrong. Opinions may just be different though, I don't think every mix needs to have a "star" lead vocal in front of the band. Maybe my monitoring is bringing it forward a bit? I'm using Yamaha HS50M's and Shure SRH840's. I did intentionally push it back a bit though.
I tend to like to get any brightness from just a few sources in the mix as I find it sounds cleaner, generally. Typically it'll be piano's, percussion etc., rarely vocals, guitars or anything that has a tendency to get harsh or sibilant. I've just had a look through my EQ's and the only high end reduction is a gentle roll off on all the backing vocals, a bigger shelf on the vocal delay return and a roll off on the reverb return. I have fairly big HF boosts on the overheads and piano tracks.
What sort of FX artifacts are you hearing? The audibility of the effect rather than the sound of a space? I didn't worry too much about it being audible as I quite like the sound of it. I will be trying out a different reverb next week so we'll see how that goes, it's not said to be the most transparent thing available though.
Chris
I tend to like to get any brightness from just a few sources in the mix as I find it sounds cleaner, generally. Typically it'll be piano's, percussion etc., rarely vocals, guitars or anything that has a tendency to get harsh or sibilant. I've just had a look through my EQ's and the only high end reduction is a gentle roll off on all the backing vocals, a bigger shelf on the vocal delay return and a roll off on the reverb return. I have fairly big HF boosts on the overheads and piano tracks.
What sort of FX artifacts are you hearing? The audibility of the effect rather than the sound of a space? I didn't worry too much about it being audible as I quite like the sound of it. I will be trying out a different reverb next week so we'll see how that goes, it's not said to be the most transparent thing available though.
Chris