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Hey guys, Matt Weiss here, www.Weiss-Sound.com, www.TheProAudioFiles.com.
Today I'm going to demonstrate the idea that sometimes affecting one thing
is really about how the other things around it are actually affected.
In this specific case we're going to be talking about how to keep a vocal
sounding forward, but I'm not actually going to show you what I do with the
vocal. It's really what I do with a lead element that takes up the same
space as the vocal.
So, first, I'm going to play the record.
Okay, the vocal is pretty forward. Behind that is this drone sound. I've
done some processing to this, but let's just hear what it sounds like just
with some basic EQ and level matched to about where it should sound.
Actually, it sounds good. There's nothing wrong with the way that it
sounds. The only thing is that I would have to be willing to accept the
vocal not being like right there. It would have to be more like accepting
the vocal being here. Usually, for hip-hop you want the vocal as forward as
you can possibly get it.
Okay, how do I do this? Well, I'm going to take off the volume boost that I
just did there, and I'm going to blend this little thing in in parallel.
So, here's without it.
With.
Okay, what is this weirdness? Well, it's the same thing as the main drone,
except I've got the Digidesign Lo-Fi here and I'm doing some saturation and
adding some distortion, which is basically adding harmonics to thicken the
sound. Then, I'm taking this Waves Imager and I'm cranking it. I've got it
really way up so that it's no longer mono compatible. Basically, I'm just
going to blend that in underneath the main sound.
What this is ultimately doing is it's adding more presence and fullness to
the sound of the drone without actually moving it forward or bringing the
main content of it forward which then in turn synchs
the vocal back.
The vocal stays nice and forward now. It's a subtle difference, but I think
it's an important difference.
Lastly, there's this reverb return, which I think adds a nice little depth
and also synchs that drone sound, that sample sound, back a little bit
further even in the mix while at the same time filling it out a bit more.
Anyways, that's all to illustrate the point that it's not always about what
you're trying to affect. Sometimes it's about how you treat the things
around it.
All right, until next time.