re: X32 Discussion
Hi Guys,
I got some pm about the Fx and settings I used on the lead vocals. Just fired up my desk and took some pictures for you. I hope you won't be dissapointed, acutally there is nothing special.
First of all, it is the singers performance that counts! All I could do, was some enhancement. Anyway, here is what I did.
Vocal mic was a AKG D5. Quite cheap and it won't fit for every singer. It has a very narrow directivity pattern, which means, that the singer needs a good mic technique.
You use a AKG D5, when you don't have enough money to buy an Audix OM7 like me
Normally you use an OM7 on loud or small stages, or when the talent dosen' have a loud voice. So the deal is, the narrow polar pattern
works like a shield and you have less overspill from loud cymbals or snare drums. In my case, the drummer played the cymbal very hard. So I even didn't use any overhead mices at all! I miced the HiHat and the Ride cymbal, but no Overheads. So, all cymbals you hear on the recording aren actually overspill through the vocal mics! The overspill get's even worse, if you use high ratio compression with lots of gain reduction on the vocals. But I got away with a ratio of 3:1, medium attack, fast to medium release and a gain reduction of -6dB at maximum.
If you have to deal with this problems in your band too, maybe check the Audio OM7 or the AKG D5. Wonder-working on singing drummers too!
This is the channel EQ on the lead vocal channel:
Quite standard for vocals, nothing specail. Now for the vocal reverb. Personally, I don't like reverb very much on vocals, but the vocals sounded way to upfront with the local pa system, that I had the feeling, they need to go back into the mix a bit.
So I dailed in a bit of this:
Short reveb time, and a serious PreDelay, which lets the transients of the words without reverb. This helps to keep up the vocals definition. Concerning FX, I always use lot's of hi and low cut. When I got the time, I adjust the high cut like this: Every singer has more or less a specific "SSSS-Sound Frequency". Normally between 6-9kHz. During soundcheck, I set up one very narrow EQ band and sweep through the lead vocals, to find this frequency. Than I use this frequency as cut off (hi cut) frequency for my reverb and delay fx. Otherwise, the FX will even enhance the SSS-sounds. Here is my dealy setting:
and:
Quite dramatic hi&lo cuts. This keeps the Delay sound more in the "back" of the mix and the spillover from cymbals is lower in volume as well in the mix. I used slightly different Feedback times for L&R. This enhances just a tiny bit the depth of the delay fx.
One thing about EQ in general. In a dense mix, it is sometimes hard to find a "parking lot" for all signals. One thing the helps me, is to create space with EQ. This is one topic in the FabFilter EQ tutorial as well. One example. This is the EQ on the keyboards:
You can see a dip in the low mid area.
On the guitar is quite the opposite.
Now I had space to feature the low mids on the guitar.
This technique works really good for the "problem area" kick drum & bass as well!
So, this is how I roll but there are always other ways to achive similar or better results.
The X32 gives you so much options, that I don't find on other low budget desks.
Go ahead and use it8)~
~
Christian
PS: Two things I forgot. I made a dedicated subgroup for all FX returns, so that I can mute them at the end of a song with just one push of a button. And I routed the Delay return to DCA fader No.8. So I can instanly control the Delay volume without the need to change the layer. Other sound guys perfer to have the delay send on a fader...but that is a matter of taste. Works for me.
