Overdubs in Hip Hop Mixes

Spoonhead Music

Spoonhead Music

Producer/Emcee
ive been recording my vocals for a few years now and always had a engineer do the rest. this year I learning to mix my own stuff and I just cant my overdub tracks to sound as full as he did. I usually do three overdubs one centre, left and right and usually use each differently (low voice/yelling/high tone etc.) was wondering how you guys mixed in your overdubs to get a full sound and without the overdubs overpowering the main vocal stem
 
You're definitely on the right track (pun intended) by using the low voice/yelling/high tone tracks each in their own way.
What you're talking about sounds like a mixing thing to me.
Try this-
Have your main vocal track in the center of the stereo image (panned 0%) and summed to mono (Usually there's a knob for this)
High pass filter that mf'er at 100 hz using any ol' built in EQ plugin
Then for the side vocals- high pass them a bit higher, like 200-300 hz, also summed to mono, and obviously panned away from the main/center vocal
That should mostly get them out of the way of the main vocal. Especially if you cut (yes, cut) the main vocal where people typically sound nasally (600-1000 hz) and boost the main vocal's presence around 3.5-4 khz (like 2-3 Db)
That gives the main vocal a beneficial dominating frequency range while cutting out the bullshit (where your side vocals can come in and shine).
Regarding the "fullness", I'd download the free ADT (stands for Artificial Double Tracking, i believe) plugin that I've linked below- the link that says "vacuumsound."
(( vacuumsound ))
It's a great tool that you can fool around with on your vocal tracks (especially overdubs) to make them sound "fuller".
Best of luck!
 
Last edited:
cheers ill give it a go, I tried high passing and loss passing alternate overdubs over my main but never tried it on mono so ill give that a go and see what happens thanks for the tips
 
Summit Hooks said:
You're definitely on the right track (pun intended) by using the low voice/yelling/high tone tracks each in their own way.
What you're talking about sounds like a mixing thing to me.
Try this-
Have your main vocal track in the center of the stereo image (panned 0%) and summed to mono (Usually there's a knob for this)
High pass filter that mf'er at 100 hz using any ol' built in EQ plugin
Then for the side vocals- high pass them a bit higher, like 200-300 hz, also summed to mono, and obviously panned away from the main/center vocal
That should mostly get them out of the way of the main vocal. Especially if you cut (yes, cut) the main vocal where people typically sound nasally (600-1000 hz) and boost the main vocal's presence around 3.5-4 khz (like 2-3 Db)
That gives the main vocal a beneficial dominating frequency range while cutting out the bullshit (where your side vocals can come in and shine).

just gave it a go and it sounds a lot nicer thanks for the tip
Click to expand...
 
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