Ableton vs Pro Tool recording/latency and production

G

GETRICH420

New member
SO! Hey peoples I've hit a wall and if you can help me get over it i'll be forever in your debt.
The problem I run into is after making a beat in ableton, I have been working on beat making for years and I think I've finally reached a good level to start making completed tracks.

So I make a real complicated beat in ableton and then I want to put the vocals on it. This is what kills me, I can't record vocals in ableton the latency is INSANE even after reducing the buffer size and all.

This is when I bounce the track and load it up in Pro tools only to find there isn't enough head room for the vocals to cut through the mix I can't even get it loud enough.

I'm at a loss for words, I can't finish a beat because I can't put vocals on anything for one reason or another and I'm stuck here thinking this is impossible and I want to quit!

What the heck am I doing wrong?

I want a full sounding beat thats at a radio level with having the vocals that cut through the mix. It should be easy but it feels like it's literally impossible.

PLEASE help me out!
 
Export the track, re-record in a new session of Ableton, and then import it into your original.

Every time I record vocals, it's with the beat bounced so it's only one track (reducing latency). After getting the vocals sounding good by themselves (levels, cutting out spaces, eq, de-essing, effects, etc.), I import the vocal track session (import the SESSION, not the bounced vocals, this way you can re-adjust your mixing if needed) into the original Ableton session and make whatever small changes are needed to finalize the mix. If your computer is massively slow during the final mixdown, freeze the tracks that you aren't currently adjusting.
 
..Leave room for the vocals? When you are making a beat that you KNOW you are going to be putting vocals into, there should be no reason the beat is too full for the vocals when it comes time to put them in.

And whats stopping you from mixing the other levels down to make room for the vocals in pro tools?
 
Well it's not easy to get levels as hot as they are in a professional situation without distorting the sounds so when I'm making a beat I'm always trying to push it to the limit.

So to make everything softer just to fit the vocals on the track makes me sad because it never compares to the real deal when it comes to loudness.

I'd love not even to see pro tools through the process, all the producing is done in ableton and I want to keep it like that. Except that when I try to record vocals in ableton it's never as easy at is would be in pro tools, pro tools is so much faster and gives a good real time headphone mix. However I hadn't tried what the funk junkie said yet and I think that it will help.
 
In part this is probably my fault for trying to compose mix and master all at the same time, which doesn't make sense but I'm no professional. If you have any tips though I'd greatly appreciate it
 
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If you're also having the same problem follow what The Funk Junkie said. Helped me out so much, I'm really stoked about this and I can't thank you guys enough foreal
 
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