I seem to do a lot of 80s classic rock bands. and really short ones like 40ms can fatten the vocals a bit. if not 400-500 miliseconds is good for ballads, and rock anthems. Tap tempo is a good thing to have so you can beat match it. ( I actually like to mike the bass drum and just use one overhead if possible, less is more thing) Matter of fact a little on the snare and drum overhead can do a lot in terms of adding space. It adds space, not only for the vocals but also on the snare and drum overheads. I find a GOOD plate reverb is a good general reverb for vocals. I do sound for lots of bands, and have a fair amount of experience in it. You have to have a good console with plenty of aux sends and input channels for returns (especially if you work in stereo and have stereo reverbs returned to channels) so you can have all this stuff ready to go. I have these on aux sends and returned to channels so I can use them quickly when needed. When I do FOH live sound, I like to have a few reverbs and delays set up-one short and one long of each. In a large venue with bad acoustics, delay and reverb = mud. If you are in a small intimate club, you can use more delay and reverb because the natural room acoustics work. What does the song need? I study mixes of songs and when a band does a cover of that song, I try to match what's on the record/CD. Short reverb times on fast tempo songs, longer reverb times for slower ballads. Longer delays are more for effects and should be used when called for. Short delays (between 10-30 ms) will fatten up a sound and you won't hear a distinct delay. Still it can hide things (bad things) that may actually be more noticeable out front. That said to the singers, reverb can make things sound more pleasing and perhaps more forgiving. Some reverbs actually have a bit of pitch modulation going on which obviously make it a little trickier to find your pitch. IMHO reverb can make feedback more touchy, and too much reverb can make finding your pitch more difficult. I always prefer to run the monitors totally dry. If I'm running sound from the stage I'll almost always run a little reverb, but no delay/echo due to the fact I can't easily tweak the timing of it while playing guitar. In other words longer delays work best with a soundman to continually tweak it in all timing wise. Once you get passed a slap back delay/echo it might only sound good IF you time the delays rhythmically. Some delay, or even longer echo can work but sometimes (for longer repeats) the timing becomes more critical. Hence the level relationship of your vocals to your drums and music are significantly influenced by the genres.A little reverb in the mains, though the choice between a long, or medium length or even room verb depends on the music style. I mostly mix these genres: Pop, R&B, Hip hop, Rap, Gospel, Christian, Afro-beat and very little EDM. The levels of your vocal ( especially lead vocal) are of utmost importance to the genre you are mixing. If you are a beginner or intermediate mix engineer, use this rule I have given you for at least 10-20 mixes then you may start breaking the rules. However, like all rules and guidelines, they are meant to be broken wisely. But if you have an instrumental that has already been mastered and hyper-compressed which is often the case. In that case, your case is different.Īfter studying various genres of music mixed by legends in the business. I have found this is the common practice.
Vocals, especially the lead vocal should be louder than musical elements but a tad bit behind the drum transients in my opinion. How loud should vocals be compared to instrumental Stay away from burying your vocals, especially your lead vocal in the mix. When vocals are too low in volume, they tend to disappear and lose the attention of listeners.
You want a vocal that pulls your listeners into your music. That’s just obnoxious! Nobody wants that. What you don’t want is a vocal poking out like a sore thumb in your song. No and Yes! Well it depends on the genre and style you are mixing or what the song calls for.