quentin said

Lol yeah thats what i was thinking

Ok, heres another mix. I think i got this medium loud spot, although on certain passages the voice is either too loud or a bit burried. But it seems that with my current mixing skills, i came to a point where if i want to modify something, it will screw up another thing, being too loud here and too low there.

https://app.box.com/s/2xw6im8aets5dd7e73vy

On first listen I don't hear anything too loud it just sounds like maybe the first verse is still buried a bit.

Keep in mind I am listening on a different system than you in a different environment etc. so I am not necessarily entirely correct in my critique.

But if you are finding some parts are too loud other too soft that's still a compression thing but maybe you will need to adjust the threshold or release time. I think I will make a thread explaining the controls of a compressor and how they work and maybe eventually take a phrase or song of mine and do sonic comparisons of the sound of a high ratio, low ratio, low threshold, etc. You definitely want to get used to adjusting compressors entirely manually.

Basically any processing that is supposed to be heard specifically as an effect is okay to just slap on a preset, but the whole purpose of compressing and EQ usually is to make things fit together right in that individual mix - so it depends and you just need to experiment each time but with a knowledge of what parameters you're adjusting.

Ok, heres another mix. I think i got this medium loud spot, although on certain passages the voice is either too loud or a bit burried. But it seems that with my current mixing skills, i came to a point where if i want to modify something, it will screw up another thing, being too loud here and too low there.

https://app.box.com/s/2xw6im8aets5dd7e73vy

If you find a volume in between the two mixes you did I think that would perfect. If anything maybe err on the louder side just not this loud.

Try backing it off just enough so that if you set the instrumental at a volume that you normally listen to music you love (that medium loud sweetspot), then when the vocal comes in, you don't feel like you have to turn your listening volume down to adjust for the added vocal.

quentin said

Owen, what you said about having a signature style of singing along with the singer's accent is so cool and kind of reassuring. You see, i was wondering if the legato practise and the fact that compressed high and raspy voice can have a similar flavor would not make my voice a bit too "average" (a good, polished rock voice, but nothing too fancy by today's standarts, that are quite high even on a semi Professional level). From my own ears, i am really happy with the more commercial sounding, but i would also like a bit more "character" in my voice. Maybe it lacks a bit of twang or laryngeal dampening in the mid range.
Well, i am nipticking, because for the moment I am overally satisfied by how it sounds

Guys, theres a Dio cover on the backburner, but this one is freakin' hard! I don't know yet when i will release it, it can be in weeks, but it also can take me monthes, we shall see <img

Woops I guess I should be a bit more specific. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having your own special diction. It is part of personal style like Owen said. Klaus Meine had a pretty noticeable German accent but it sounded neat because it was recognizable. The way you sang this right here really cements your style because of how you were working on the singers accent. (which is more of the right vowels at a certain part of your range than anything.)

Nice grit/compression BTW. It sounds really cool for these songs!

First and foremost, thanks for listening and commenting my covers!

https://app.box.com/s/4l175l633q4ayb65kqf0

Here is a new mix with a bit more compression (i raised the ratio as Owen suggested) and lowered the music volume. In fact, the sound issues were from the backing track as much as the screams that overloaded the mic.
I am a total beginner regarding recording so what i usually do is throwing a "preset" on my vocals, that is, a ready made mix including a compressor, some room reverb, and a bit delay. The issue is that is i want to do everything manually, there are so many variables. There are a lot of parameter that i totally don't know, i guess thats why recording is a skill and a profession.

For the accent thing and legato approach, i think it has been like two thirds of my workflow with Phil. I think each singer has his/her particular challenge, and mine, as a non native speaker (whose tongue is very harsh on consonants, although less than germans), has been working over and over again with Phil on legato. Vocal tract shifting will really prevent any attempt to belt in your mid-high range, thats what happened to me at the beginning, and it was frustrating because i could belt a high C on a scale, but would have difficulties singing in the A4 area when the song would make me sing with too much staccato.

Owen, what you said about having a signature style of singing along with the singer's accent is so cool and kind of reassuring. You see, i was wondering if the legato practise and the fact that compressed high and raspy voice can have a similar flavor would not make my voice a bit too "average" (a good, polished rock voice, but nothing too fancy by today's standarts, that are quite high even on a semi Professional level). From my own ears, i am really happy with the more commercial sounding, but i would also like a bit more "character" in my voice. Maybe it lacks a bit of twang or laryngeal dampening in the mid range.
Well, i am nipticking, because for the moment I am overally satisfied by how it sounds

Guys, theres a Dio cover on the backburner, but this one is freakin' hard! I don't know yet when i will release it, it can be in weeks, but it also can take me monthes, we shall see <img

Phil Moufarrege said

I have to say this cover you did is fucking badass Quentin!!!! One thing, raise the damn volume of your vocals...they are buried underneath the song, they need to be on top!

A word about this, definitely for a vocal cover you CAN go ahead and put the vocal on top even at the compromise of hearing everything else, IF you're a great singer which you are. Being a cover, everyone's listening just to the vocal so why not, you know? Again only reason not to would be if you didn't sing very well and you need to hide some subtleties.

But for normal full band mixing (which will also work for vocal covers if you choose, definitely good for this song) there is a fine balance where I would say I don't actually like the vocal to sit completely "on top", it's more of a careful blend where I may trade some intelligibility of the lyrics to hear some detail from the instruments AND VICE VERSA (don't forget to look at it from both perspectives) but whatever the trade off is, it's equal amount both ways.

Quentin, one thing that can help you for this song specifically to reduce the compromise in that process is to turn up the ratio of your compressor more so there's not much dynamic change at all from verse to chorus. Furthermore you can shorten the release time to really minimize the difference from medium loud to loud to very loud even within the same phrase - you will still hear these intensity changes in the tone of the singing but the volume won't get louder and throw off the blend of the mix. I think this is controversial but I'll often put my release time as short as 10 ms for vocals - it's borderline distorting at that point (if you were to really crank up the ratio), but it just makes it that much more successful of a dynamic flattening job, and then you don't have to crank the ratio as hard so you can retain the general shape of the originally sung dynamics, just on a much much smaller scale.

Then after any compressor tweak, check the vocal volume all throughout the song. If it all sits right in the mix after adjusting the level and doesn't sound weirdly flattened, you have the right amount of compression. If it's too close to your original dynamics, not enough compression, too flat and bland sounding, too much. You can also make manual volume changes if necessary but you won't need that for this song because the verse and chorus instrumentation are similar dynamics and hitting the compressor hard creates an aggressive sound that's very admirable in the rock genre.

wabba_treads420 said I also noticed your accent is pretty much absent here. It seems you're really mastering the "singers accent".

Yes we worked very hard on it! He has been working on singing on the vowels and having that take up as much "real estate" as possible in the words...just briefly touching the consonants as little as possible and keeping the phrases legato. This does far more than just give you a "singers accent" it is also crucial for belting in the mid to high range. have a look at quentin working on these things here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKqb0eAZqU

OwenKorzec said
I would recommend you try to find what your next uncomfortable step out of your comfort zone would be and pick a song that puts you there.

LOL you should see some of the material he's been working on! When we train he sings some of the hardest stuff around.

Kickass job Quentin...

wabba_treads420 said

Well excellent as always Quentin!

I also noticed your accent is pretty much absent here. It seems you're really mastering the "singers accent".

Agreed. Quentin I love how you are starting to sound a lot more "commercial" because of the singer's accent, but at the same time you haven't lost the good qualities of your original accent coming through in very subtle traces and adding to your unique sound that gets stuck in people's heads as we mentioned in the other thread. This is the same kind of quality I hear in a lot of famous international singers - the singer's accent dominates but it's almost like their speech accent gives them their own flavor in how they go about it. In other words, keep doing what you're doing, it sounds really cool.

wabba_treads420 said

I also noticed your accent is pretty much absent here.

Yes, I forgot to mention that. No accent. Bravo!!

I also noticed your accent is pretty much absent here. It seems you're really mastering the "singers accent".

If I were you I'd start working on some even more challenging songs. I know you have a few going but if you want to add more I would recommend you try to find what your next uncomfortable step out of your comfort zone would be and pick a song that puts you there.

I ended up overloading the mic several times, and well, i kind of screamed my lungs out on the last lines

Anyways guys, i hope you like it!

https://app.box.com/s/nt4et1l8mufgax2cq6x1