Mixing Vocals and Brass (jeezy Type)

[trillthug]

wassup producers! so ive had this problem for years now! how do i get that strong clear brass without clashing or masking out my vocals. i know EQing is a factor but i just cant get it right.

like Young Jeezy's Count It Up (go to worldstarhiphop to hear track, youtube versions are all pitch changed)


any tips or advice is greatly appreciated!
thanks!

[thermionic304]

wassup producers! so ive had this problem for years now! how do i get that strong clear brass without clashing or masking out my vocals. i know EQing is a factor but i just cant get it right.

like Young Jeezy's Count It Up (go to worldstarhiphop to hear track, youtube versions are all pitch changed)


any tips or advice is greatly appreciated!
thanks!

Both the brass and vox will be in the midrange, but that's where a very narrow Q (parametric EQ) can come in handy. Usually boosting certain frequencies can get the vocals to 'pop' out, even in tiny speakers. And subtracting that EQ on the brass, will make a small difference in sound. Check out Ken Lewis' mixing guide for great advice.



About 5min. in is a good place to start. Also, in that Jeezy song, the brass is panned hard left and right, while the vocals sit in the center. Another thing that helps.

Hope I helped!

[Cameron Hall]

Whenever I have a problem with masking I look at the following areas:

mid bass 180-300
lo mids 300-800

Try and pin down the frequencies you don't like, it's more gut than intellect, if you listen in side chain mode you can sweep across and find what's bothering you, it's not so much a right and wrong frequency it's just finding what you personally don't like and chilling it out a bit, weather that's with a sculpting eq like waves Q10 or with a waves c1-sc which is a compressor that acts on a selected frequency.

[trillthug]

how do i sidechain?

---------- Post added at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------

well i sidechained in ducking mode and that helped! but how do u sidechain to hear frequencies?

[Cameron Hall]

how do i sidechain?

Some plugins give you the option of listening in side chain mode, the C1-sc is what I use. It's in the monitor section bottom right.

You could do a similar thing with a bandpass type eq, set up a high pass and a low pass filter, and shift them til you find it.

freqfinder.jpg

The traditional way of doing it is to boost a narrow frequency range to exaggerate it and identify it from that, whereas the method is use is more about isolation, a bit like a de-esser to pin point the problem area, but covering the whole spectrum as opposed to just the highs with a de-esser.

[Cameron Hall]

how do i sidechain?

---------- Post added at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------

well i sidechained in ducking mode and that helped! but how do u sidechain to hear frequencies?

I use waves C1-sc, and just monitor in side chain mode, you then select and drag the cross hair to control the frequency. Dave Pensado is big into this,that's where I picked up the idea from.

c1sc.jpg

[trillthug]

i replied but its not showing??? cameron thanks a lot bro. the sidechaining was very affective! here is everything i did...

ok. i cut the brass where my vocals were(as well as the whole instrumental), doubled the brass and panned hard, added another brass but an octave higher and lowered the volume. did a little bit of ducking them. put a stereo imager on them. and did some sidechaining to find the frequencies i didnt like. and its sounds a hell of a lot better! took A LOT of tweaking as u can see!

Thanks again man!

[Cameron Hall]

i replied but its not showing??? cameron thanks a lot bro. the sidechaining was very affective! here is everything i did...

ok. i cut the brass where my vocals were(as well as the whole instrumental), doubled the brass and panned hard, added another brass but an octave higher and lowered the volume. did a little bit of ducking them. put a stereo imager on them. and did some sidechaining to find the frequencies i didnt like. and its sounds a hell of a lot better! took A LOT of tweaking as u can see!

Thanks again man!

Awesome! Sounds bad ass!