Need emergency feedback/advice on vocals for my album

Ok this is strange. I'm getting the feeling that the first half of the thread hated it and now the second half of the thread seems to think it might work. Damn it, my confusion is only getting worse :D

But yea, I guess the shit mix contributes a lot to the "eeeewwww" factor for a new listener. The drums will be replaced with REAL drums, the guits will be re-recorded "soon", bass guitar is getting recorded after guitars etc. etc. Those things might help the vocals to gain some balls and I might be able to mix some balls into the vocals as well with saturation and multi-banding the fuck out of the lows to make them beefy 24/7.

But still, none of those "remedies" are as good as simply talking to him... which I am definately going to do. I hate sounding like a "boss" but I'm gonna just try to forward my thoughts to him in an as nice as possible manner. Talk will be on Sunday I guess... I'll definately report back and see what happens in this thread until then :)

Cheers guys! Once again - you're all great effin' support.
 
But still, none of those "remedies" are as good as simply talking to him... which I am definately going to do. I hate sounding like a "boss" but I'm gonna just try to forward my thoughts to him in an as nice as possible manner

this

and personally i dont think i could like his vocals even if they were perfectly mixes...the overdubs sound nice, so he CAN do as it seems, but the verse things just sounds horrible to me...still :p
 
Yeah I know he can, that's what bothers me the most. I knew that even before starting on the vocals with him but I don't know why the hell he has changed his voice so much since last time we met... :|

The first overdub on the "anymooooore" isn't so powerful but the last overdub before the music goes instrumental is just fucking pure balls.. HUGE BALLS. I'm gonna try persuading him to get more into that kind of voice as his "default" voice.
 
Its your shit so naturally you want the best (just like the rest of us). But i see some potential in this kid man, dont take it as you being a boss, take it as you worked your ass off to get your shit written and recorded so why shouldnt he work his ass off to get best sounding vocal takes that he can? With a little bit of work I can see this turning out really good
 
You should definitely not satisfy yourself with something you think is medoicre.
You are doing a great job and are working hard on this thing, that it just wouldnt be right if you let the vocals ruin the great music.

+1

You've been working fucking hard on this dude, don't let it get fucked up.
 
Talked to him about this today and got him to shift his screams down a bit towards a darker tone. We didn't go back and redo "CoolDude" but we'll do it later once we've continued tracking some other stuff just to try this darker vocals out and see where we go with it. He is really good at handling feedback and critics, he didn't bitch once about it. His mother has been a musical producer for maaaaany years and she has always given him feedback and critics. This is probably why he is so comfortable with it.

Anyway, down below is a link to a clip from a different song.. still programmed drums and no bass guitar (speaking of drums, check the link at the bottom for my "current" real drum sound I've started mixing). He could still sound more powerful at some spots but he has REALLY long texts and just spews out the words all over the parts. He doesn't like punching in that much and he rather gets it all in one take per part and I sort of respect that but I'm sure we would get more powerful results if we punched in a few bars at a time. Anyway, skip the first part if you want because the better stuff comes from after that part and onward. What do you guys think? This is all I've got to work with I guess, and I'll have to try to make the best of it. Still no EQ or anything other than compression on the vocals but they're still "mixed" too low... oh well.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/585020/BilOVE Vocal Clip.mp3



I've updated my drum thread with a clip of my scratch drums vs real drums and the drum mix so far. It's not done or anything, still need to work on some stuff, a lot on the volume of the toms and a bit on the OH but it's shaping up to the sound I've wanted for this project! The thread is here.
 
I'm aware that editing the vocals for tightness along with tweaking it with EQ and so on properly will increase the perceived "good"-factor, but I'd rather keep it pretty unmixed as for now because ... well, you can't polish a turd and I need to make sure this isn't turd to begin with. Hence why I'm posting for feedback and shit. I just need to be assured I can make this work in the end. This town sucks when it comes to finding vocalists (it sucks at everything else too) and internet co-operation is really a hassle too so... damn I hope this will work.

By the way, if you think you can pull off some fitting vocals for this, send me a PM and I'll link you to the song without vocals. Still programmed drums and no bass guitar though! :)
 
Yeah that's true, the norm around here is mostly deathcore vocals. At least the majority of the stuff I've heard here have that type of vocals, even if the music is not deathcore. If the vocals aren't deathcore they're most likely cookie monster-core. :)

Anyway yea, I personally think it's starting to get better now and next time I'm gonna make him try out punching a few bars at a time. I think this will DRASTICALLY improve the quality of the vocals since he basically runs the whole song through in one take right now. Well, I managed to make him do one take per part at least. He is really awesome to work with though and you guys would kill to work with a musician like this! If I can only get him to drop this "punching is cheating" mentality, I'm sure it'll be adequate.
 
I dig the vocals! It'll be unique when you guys finish it!
But yeah the punch ins are necessary i think. I can hear when he's going out of breath and growling softer.
But anyways i couldn't wait to hear the final product!

I've already tracked a worse vocalist:)
BTW, do you record with a condenser mic? It sounds to me like a dynamic mic because of the lack of highs.
 
I dig the vocals! It'll be unique when you guys finish it!
But yeah the punch ins are necessary i think. I can hear when he's going out of breath and growling softer.
But anyways i couldn't wait to hear the final product!

I've already tracked a worse vocalist:)
BTW, do you record with a condenser mic? It sounds to me like a dynamic mic because of the lack of highs.

Exactly, when he runs out of breath the screams sound like damn whimpers :) I'm definately gonna make him try out punching a few bars at a time... should make a day and night difference.

Yeah I'm tracking with a condenser AND a dynamic. AKG Perception 100 and SM58 to be exact and what you're hearing right now is actually both of them equally loud so I think the SM58 kinda fights the AKG or something. The phase between them is alright but I'm not gonna use them both at the same time in the final product anyway. I track with both of them just to have some options in the mix, as a safety measure.

Could you post a mix that isn't that loud and pumping? There is no emotions left in these vocals...

Hehe can't do anything but agreeing with you here but no I can't post that right now. All the stuff is in the rehearsal place and I'm at home right now. What do you mean by "There is no emotions left in these vocals..."? Do you mean because I made him change his screams to something a bit darker or were you referring to the lack of dynamics in the "mix"? (I hope no one thinks this is a serious attempt at a mix :O)
 
like 0:30 - 0:40 is better than 0:00-0:30 imo, but its still not what i would choose to go for...
he kind of reminds me of jonathan davis, like the beginning of "twist".hes good, but it doesnt fit that well...

but i also think that its not in the need of haveing "deathcore" vocals...i dunno....hope you'll find what you want anyway!
 
erkan, do some processing on those vocals, i kind of liked the first one, and i'm liking this new sample a lot more!

thanks,
 
he has heaps of potential, a little flat in some places, but I like it. I reakon with some processing it will sound rad (comp, delay, saturation and tune them)
 
I'm sorry...but I love the rawness of his vocals....it stand out as different. I listened to this song about eight times....loving it the way is, maybe some harmonizing when he says "Id rather come out through" if that's what he is saying.