My band just finished recording this in my small home project studio, which I’m very grateful to have. It’s our interpretation of an R&B song by Sam Cooke.
I tracked and mixed it using an old Digi 002 with Pro Tools 7.0.
I’d really appreciate your ears on the mix. Do you think the vocals should sit more up front, or do they feel right where they are? https://youtu.be/WeqlD-rdYOI
Continuing the discussion from Tune Share (Share Your Sound!):
Nice work, especially for a home setup. I don’t have a strong take either way on the vocal level, but I’m curious how others are hearing it. How far were you from the mic when tracking, and were the vocals recorded at the same time as the instruments?
I am digging the live sound feel and perhaps there is a way to lean into that. Instead of trying to polish it, I’d think of ways to make it sound even more live. I was going to ask about vocal recording too. If you recorded separately, maybe you could push one of the vocals up a touch and even add a little saturation–get that old timey overdrive grit on the vocal, and have the other more touched with room reverb to act as more of a backing presence. Just an idea to mess with. Performances sound great!
Thanks Christopher. For vocals, I chose mics based on each singer’s natural range and tone. The female vocalist was tracked with a Shure KSM9, and the male vocalist with a Neumann TLM 49, as each mic complemented their respective vocal frequencies best.
I placed a pop filter about 1 inch from the mic, and had each singer perform roughly 6 inches back from their assigned microphone.
At first, I tracked the female vocalist live with the band and then brought the male vocalist in later to overdub his part. Technically it worked, but the performances didn’t feel like they shared the same space or moment.
I scrapped those vocal takes and instead re-tracked both singers together in the room, allowing them to interact and feed off each other in real time. The result was a much more natural, cohesive, and emotionally connected vocal performance. I used the drum shield and some acoustic foam attached to the top of the drum shield between them to minimize vocals bleeding into each other.
Thanks for your feedback Chris. Totally agree. I was trying not to polish the humanity out of it 
. I really wanted to keep that live, rough edge feel.
You nailed it on pushing one of the vocals up a bit. I was thinking the same. It’s meant to feel like a true duet, not lead and backing, and your comment confirmed what I was already hearing.
I’m going to revisit the balance and mess a bit with some room reverb and a touch of overdrive grit as you suggest to bring the vocals more up front. Thanks for the great ears!
