I HATE mixing vocals

[MaellaJohn]

So, I've got my band's whole EP mixed and ready to go and I LOVE it. I love the sound of everything is just awesome.
But there are no vocals yet!

In between work, I've been finding time to finish up the lyrics, and now I've finally begun tracking myself!

However........
It seems like I have no sense of direction when I start mixing the vocals.

My chain is huge and stupid--or I feel like it is, anyways.
It starts off as 3 vocal tracks. A lead, and two backing tracks. Each has a gate thrown on there for right now

I buss them together and the chain proceeds like so:
1) Comp [comp]
2) Voxformer [moar comp, eq, and minor saturation]
3) Decapitator [makes me sound meaner]
4) EQ [boost the highs a bit]
5) Comp
6) Multiband comp

Then I send that track to an FX channel I've labelled "VOX ROOM" and have a little delay and verb.


I would really enjoy your impressions on this.
I feel like it's too loud in the mix at this point, but I find it hard to get to the point where it sits just right.. it either feels too loud or it's buried.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9992828/Random Shit/Planetary Devastation clip.mp3

 

[Clark Kent]

Well first off the overall mix sounds very good to my ears so I wouldn't do big changes at this point. I've got a few "advanced" ideas you could try. First of all you are right; those grunts are too loud. They make everything else sound weak in a mix so 1) just try lowering them very slowly until you can "hear the energy of the mix come back". Basically your vocals should blend in well if they have a different compression ratio/time than the tracks that are burying the vocals. That would be the guitar tracks.. if you don't have compression on your guitar tracks (and don't want to add a comp to them) I simply suggest using only ONE MAIN COMPRESSOR FOR VOCALS and trying different compression ratios and attack times. Using multiple compressors can be complicated and can infact make it a bit more difficult to make vocals sit. You can have crazy amounts of gain reduction on the Waves Blue 1176 so I suggest using that.

Now for the advanced stuff. Vocals and guitars both use the same frequencies to cut ~2khz-4khz. Usually 2500hz is the spot. If your vocals don't cut until they are this loud, it simply means that your guitars have more stuff in this area than your vocals. Option 1) EQ the overlapping frequency out from the guitar tracks slightly... like -0,5dB to -1,5dB max. Option 2) If you feel like you're losing too much of the guitar tone using option 1. use a side-chain from the vocal bus to guitar bus. You can use just a normal compressor or a multi-band compressor if you just want the effect on 2khz-4khz. So set the attack as low as possible and release short-ish (like 30-50ms). This way the vocal grunts will automatically go over the guitar tracks in the cutting frequencies but ONLY when there is grunting. This might sound weird but it's just letting the vocal tracks a victory in the battle of two compressors.

So what you end up with is a mix that still sounds the same but the guitar tracks will make room for the vocals but only when there are vocals.

EDIT: Even a more advanced technique would be to use the Waves L316 as the side-chain comp. It will automatically reduce the frequencies your vocal tracks peak at so you don't have to worry about multiband comp settings etc. Just remember not to over-do it.