Vocal Levels (Post your References for Melodic Stuff)

[dcb]

after delivering a mix that youve worked on for 2 days and automated the whole thing, everything is perfect, after riding every syllable
you hand out the mix to the band :
70% of the bands request LOUDER vocals,
even though these vocals sit perfectly in the mix and were .
i mean, i mix em so they gel with the music. god, even on this forum
i was told here and there my vocals were too loud ;-)
it messes with all the impact the "music" has..
and makes my mixes amateurish for me...

So guys : what do you like to use as a reference for vocal levels.
please post some examples.
btw. im more into the melodic singing stuff on this.
everything is welcome, but i think scream vocals gel different and need different treatment.

for me this is a great example :

male vox:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0oreJzlPcY&feature=related[/ame]

female vox :

 

[MetalSound]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/rate-my-mix-tone-threads/638711-released-steamhammer-spv.html

 

[jipchen]

Actually I never mixed female vocs (besides background vocals) but I'd also listen to Paramore as a reference.
And what the fuck were they thinking when making the music video? "So, you're like... crawling around in the room, holding a light bulb into the other guys' faces. That would be really cool." .. not. It's plain retarded.
Love the song, though.

 

[jimwilbourne]

paramore is an excellent reference.

but it depends really on the type of mix you're going for. how you mix your vocals (and everything for that matter) is purely taste based on the recording. some records, the guitars are dominate, some the vocals, some other elements.

 

[Ermz]

Hard to go wrong with just about anything CLA has done (yes, I know Ben Grosse mixed the Disturbed record).

 

[Uros]

I like how the vocals feel a little distant/not upfront and yet at the very same time on top of the guitars in that Disturbed track. Besides obvious equing, what kind of reverb (room/plate/etc.) would one need to use to get a similar effect?

 

[Ermz]

One way would be to keep all your verb and delay processing on the lead vocal mono. If you listen to the track you can hear there is no spread. The guitars are out wide, but the vocal owns the center and that's where its ambiance lies.

Its a bit like the snare on 'All the Right Reasons'. The ring and space is all down the center... just creates that kind of separated 'nestled' sound.

 

[dcb]

One way would be to keep all your verb and delay processing on the lead vocal mono. If you listen to the track you can hear there is no spread. The guitars are out wide, but the vocal owns the center and that's where its ambiance lies.

Its a bit like the snare on 'All the Right Reasons'. The ring and space is all down the center... just creates that kind of separated 'nestled' sound.

+1 on the mono your reverbs and delays (and rooms etc.)

people forget that a mix works best if your using contrast.
if you have a mono verb on snare, snare goes faaar faarr back,
guitar stay far out. if you put on a snare verb in stereo
everything gels more, but makes the whole thing more sounding
like one it was recorded in one room. both stuff works,
but its always nice to try both methods.

if you guys wanna hear how the vocal ambience was used on your favorite song, here is a trick:
get voxengo MSED and mute the center. id prefer wave files to mp3,
mp3s tend to genereate a hell of artefacts on the side signals...
whats left is cymbals, guitars and vocaal ambience.

but talking about vocal levels again:
what do you guys prefer?

personally i love low volume vocals... but could it be that the standard listener loves loud vocals, because they cant distinguish between snare and guitar? do they need loud vocals as a guidline?
sometimes i wished i could hear like the common listener...

 

[Seth Munson]

I love these for singing vocal references