Slau,
What Sweetwater actually told me is, lower the karaoke track in iTunes
before importing it to PT.
I'm not totally sure how to do that, but anyway, then, once that is
lowered to fit my vocal level, import into PT, then add my vocal track,
but here's the catch. They told me, then, also add a stereo master
fader. Then, take that master fader, and only use it as a gain adder.
Meaning, you're not really per sé doing anything with the master fader
more than using it to add gain. Then, move that master fader volume from
it's default 0DB location back up to reach the normal audible level.
Presto! Done!
I was always under the impression you really don't want a master fader
though unless you're literally doing mastering type techniques. Or is
that just it though: you kind of *are!* doing a mastering technique by
doing this. All be it, you're not really doing anything substantial with
the fader more than adding gain, but... still... Is that a way to go, or
like me, can you see some potential problems with this method. I'm not
really planning to add any final processing to the over all master mix
like compression, dithering, final e queueing etc.
Chris.
On 12/12/2019 11:27 AM, Slau Halatyn wrote:
Turn down the mastered track to a manageable level to accommodate your
vocal recording. Once you've recorded the vocal, process the vocal to
a comparable quality of compression and remix the two. You'll probably
end up having to limit your vocal some if the music was mastered
particularly hot.
On Dec 12, 2019, at 11:21 AM, Christopher Gilland
<clgillan...@gmail.com <mailto:clgillan...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Guys, we've discussed this before, I think, quite some time back, but
the answers I got were kind of vague, and honestly, and this is of no
offense to any of you all, weren't very helpful at the time. That's
no fault of you all. It might have just been my knowledge/experience
at that time was not of such that I could fully grasp the concepts.
Here is the situation again though. Trust me, too. I've Googled like
crazy. I spent over about 3 hours last night Youtubing, and just
Googling in general and am coming up pretty much empty handed.
I normally record lead vocals on top of already purchased
instrumental tracks, so I'm not really normally working with stems.
Once in a while, I'll do something which takes more than 2 tracks,
one for the music, one for my vofal, but that's rare. Regardless,
this is occuring.
In the past, I made a really really bad habbit of cranking my input
gain on the mike input way up. Well, OK, fine. Not way up, but up
enough to get good audible level going into PT. I obviously needed
the level to be balanced with the music track.
Problem is, that music track usually would have been mastered at gain
unity 0, which you know, anything above that, you're clipping. This
means anything I drove on top of the music track, that's gonna push
my master over that 0 no no limit. But! I had to. Or so I thought.
It's the only way I could get any good volume on my mike input.
So, a few things. First my hardware. This way you know what we're
working with. This interface is popular enough, surely you all know
enough at least about it to help. I'm running a Focusrite scarlet 2I2
interface, and the first generation of a Blue Bluebird microphone.
Let me be clear. This is the Bluebird, not the baby bottle. Again,
the first gen, not the 2nd, nor the beta.
Now, I'm trying to break that habbit of running my gain so hot. I'm
finding that with where my input dial on the scarlet now is set, I'm
on my peeks hitting probably around -13DB or so on average, and
again, that's on the loudest peeks of my vocals. Obviously, that's
much much better.
The problem is, when recording, obviously having the level that low,
I can't hear myself hardly at all in my cans. I normally have to get
around -2 to 0DB in my peek meter on the output of the vocal track in
PT before I can really hear myself well.. Also, when playing things
back, it's barely audible.
Obviously, same problem with my keyboard using a virtual synth, or
for that mind, patching it directly in the scarlet. As for my vocal,
I get that to hear it well in my cans, and on the final mix I could
pop a compressor on the vocal, like the Gray compressor, and set it
to a preset like steady, which very very significantly does boost the
volume. The only issue is, no, I'm not clipping, but adding
compression for the simple reason to boost that output gain is a
horrible! idea in most cases. It's adding color, sometimes
saturation, etc. that I definitely do not want into the mix taking
away the natural beauty of the vocal characteristics.
Yes, I could get a pre like a cloud lifter, but that's gonna present
the same issue. You turn up that input, bam! now you're clippen
again. I don't think the issue is on my input side. - I'm fully
convinced of that. This is an output thing. As level wize, my peek
meter in PT is showing just fine at -13 roughly.
I know I also could turn down the music track. Wayyyyy down. Then,
add a stereo master fader track, and turn it's output volume slider
way way up to compensate, but is that really the best methodology? I
have to run that thing with no plugs on the master fader up to nearly
positive 8 or 9 DB to get the volume back to normal comfortable
listening. Remember. I'm trying to compensate for that lower -13DB
level going in.
I don't think the Scarlet has a separate IO path output just for
headphones alone, so I can't exactly create a bus in the IO settings,
then send to it individually creating a submix.
On the master fader though, again, going to +8 or 9 DB... yeah!
That's barely giving any headroom at all. Maybe I have a ton on the
mike, but, yeah. I get I could turn up the output level itself on the
vocal track but is that really a safe thing to do? I was always told
you wana try keeping your vocal tracks output volume sliders as close
to that default 0DB as possible. Only interact with Voiceover on
those sliders and crank them as a very last resort. I'm told you
really wanna be using your master, not the level of the mike tracks.
Basically all I'm trying to do is keep things at that -13 average,
yet get them loud enough to hear them through the mix. I could just
crank up the cans volume knob on the scarlet, or the main output
volume fed to my speakers, but then, again, I'm gonna have to then
crank things almost to the point of normal blaring level which means
if I do anything listening to a regular mp3 outside PT, or try doing
anything with Voiceover, etc. Yowel! Lookout! Can you say, ow, my
aching ears?
I just don't know how to deal with this. I'm kind a damned if I do,
and I'm damned catch22 if i don't.
Chris.
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