question about mixing

salt mountain

Momo's Minion
uhmm,, sorry if this has been asked before, i dont really go on these forums much aside from google results when im trying to look things up, but that aside,,

does anyone have any advice on mixing soft vocals? im currently working on a cover with kuzuda yone and her voice is very soft and breathy but i could not find *anything* on mixing soft vocals, all i find is tips on making vocals clear (which are helpful but thats not what im looking for right now)

Edit: oh yeah i forgot to mention the programs i have for mixing are audacity and adobe audition
 
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Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I would recommend using anything other than Audacity. You can't listen to the audio while adjusting effects other than a very limited preview, and any changes you make permanently become part of the waveform. Since you already have Audition, you can use that, but something specifically geared towards music production would also be beneficial.

The critical thing to pay attention to with softer vocals is levels and EQ.
With UTAU, by default the volume of every individual note is increased to be the same, which has similar results to compression. But with a softer voice, especially if it was recorded well, this isn't necessary and will create more inconsistency (especially for a CVVC bank). To reduce the amount of normalization, set the P flag to a low value, like P10. P0 completely disables per-note normalization, but it also disables note volume editing, so a small amount can be reserved for that purpose.
Once you start mixing, you will need to pay attention to the levels of both the instrumental and the vocals. Advice for all mixing in general is to start out quiet and gradually make elements just loud enough. Soft vocals will struggle to be heard above loud music, so make sure the music is quiet enough to let the vocals shine through without being completely gone. It should support the vocal. Some music genres are mainly focused on the instrumental while vocals are just an extra layer of decoration that can become part of the background. So when choosing songs to cover, make sure they suit the vocal style.
Equalization can be used both on the vocals and the instrumental. If the instruments occupy the same frequencies as the vocal, you can reduce those frequencies slightly so they don't clash.
 

salt mountain

Momo's Minion
Thread starter
I would recommend using anything other than Audacity. You can't listen to the audio while adjusting effects other than a very limited preview, and any changes you make permanently become part of the waveform. Since you already have Audition, you can use that, but something specifically geared towards music production would also be beneficial.

The critical thing to pay attention to with softer vocals is levels and EQ.
With UTAU, by default the volume of every individual note is increased to be the same, which has similar results to compression. But with a softer voice, especially if it was recorded well, this isn't necessary and will create more inconsistency (especially for a CVVC bank). To reduce the amount of normalization, set the P flag to a low value, like P10. P0 completely disables per-note normalization, but it also disables note volume editing, so a small amount can be reserved for that purpose.
Once you start mixing, you will need to pay attention to the levels of both the instrumental and the vocals. Advice for all mixing in general is to start out quiet and gradually make elements just loud enough. Soft vocals will struggle to be heard above loud music, so make sure the music is quiet enough to let the vocals shine through without being completely gone. It should support the vocal. Some music genres are mainly focused on the instrumental while vocals are just an extra layer of decoration that can become part of the background. So when choosing songs to cover, make sure they suit the vocal style.
Equalization can be used both on the vocals and the instrumental. If the instruments occupy the same frequencies as the vocal, you can reduce those frequencies slightly so they don't clash.

thats so helpful thank you !!
 
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