Vocal bleed (TAKES OVER)

[GarryJ]

A while back we tracked a song live in someone's living room in a flat in London, vocals, guitar and a weird electronic wind instrument thing through a speaker. It was the start of a busy couple of days of tracking, so we thought we'd take "an easy one" first and the take was good.

In hindsight, my mic placement was not good. The vocal bleed in the guitar mic is in places louder than the guitar, same with the windstrument, and using only compression I'm finding it tricky to get a good, consistent vocal without compromising the sound of the instruments. There's a little bit of phasey weirdness when sibilants are sung too. As it is it wouldn't be a distaster, as the song is all about the vocal, but it'd be nice to get a balanced guitar sound as well. Any interesting/effective ways of attacking the problem?

[CurtZHP]

Play it for five friends who've never heard it before. If they like it, you're done.

Or you could run the whole mix through a guitar amp and give it an old grungy vintage vibe. Sort of a "I meant to do that!"

[JohnDavisNYC]

Weird bleed from vocals into acoustic guitar is a tough one. I would try a few different things... I would start by checking every combination of phase flipping to first find the least fucked up sound to start with. If the main problem with the guitar mic is only with sibilance, I would put a de-esser on the guitar, sidechained off the lead vocal, so that the 'esses' in the vocal track will duck the strange phasey ones in the guitar mic.

Another thing that can help with bad bleed is panning. The 'esses' will only phase against each other when they are both placed in the same part of the stereo field. See if some more aggressive panning helps to de-emphasize the problems.

Lastly, just run the whole mix through a flanger.

John

[vvv]

Add a guitar track?

[SoulOfJonas]

I would start by checking every combination of phase flipping to first find the least fucked up sound to start with.

All awesome suggestions from toaster ... In reference to what he said about phase-combos, if you haven't already, check out the PhaseTone plug. I downloaded it recently and have been loving it. It does time delay, 180-90-0 degree flip, freq and Q range and wet-dry blend. Works wonders on making room mics sit right or fine-tuning any multi-mic setup.

-JV

[CurtZHP]

Add a guitar track?

MORE COWBELL!


(c'mon, someone had to say it!)

[suppositron]

Lastly, just run the whole mix through a flanger.

John

Isn't that DIY mastering?

[JohnDavisNYC]

no, that's real mastering.

john

[Nick Sevilla]

Just remember :

THE VOCAL IS KING.

Since you already recorded the vocal on all the other mics, just find a level / phase combo that makes the vocal sound ok as well as the other instruments.

Other than that, record another take, only this time, PAY ATTENTION to where / what mics and what mic patterns to use (hypercardioid anyone?)

Do a test recording and adjust the mics until you get the best direct sound / noise ratio on each mic placement.

Cheers