Successfully mixing a screaming vocal track

[Razor]

Hi All.

I have a song I am working on where I have two vocal tracks which are just a double up of the main vocal line.

One is the vocal in a "screamed" high octave, the other is an octave lower and a lot more "rounded".

I am mixing the two together to try and get a "edgy" vocal line as the song is about drag racing and really requires a hard edge.

The problem I have is that the screamed vocal is fairly thin and tends to really come through hard in the top half of the eq. It is also very hot.

If I re - EQ, compress etc, I just lose the edge.

I have realised I am just attacking it wrong.

Could someone give me any tips or ideas how to attack this please?

I can re-record vocals if needed (I am the singer) so I can address this from any stage of the production.

I will eventually figure it out but would really appreciate anything that could guide me in the right direction?

Thanks.

[fader8]

One technique you could try is to drop the level of the higher voice so it's just barely audible behind the lower one, then give it some more edge with a really short bright, and compressed plate verb. Of course, I haven't heard the tune but it's something you could try.

[redlogic]

You could also try inserting the Overdrive plug-in on the "screamo" part and tweak the Drive and Tone controls. Start with it low in the mix and bring it up to taste.

[Razor]

Thanks for that!

I am at work at the moment, but will give your suggestions a go tonight when I get home... will let you know how I go.

[thighpilot]

I know I'm late to the party on this but I thought I'd respond just in case anyone else is in a similar situation. I have quite a bit of experience with this as I scream myself in productions.

First of all there is only one rule and that is to make the finished part sound like one voice. This means layer as many screams as you want/need to. They just need to be performed extremely close to each other or be edited as such. It doesn't sound good to have a cascaded fall in the screaming parts. This is much harder with genres where singers scream through most of the song vs a singer screaming to make a particular statement in a song.

I've had success in the past with using multiple mics as well. Where you have a singer scream through a large diaphragm condenser then through something like a Beta 58. Blending the two together can work really well.

It's most often helpful to use some distortion on one or all of the vocal tracks of a scream. This needs to be done tastefully though. When you choose a distortion type the harmonic content needs to be complimentary to the singers voice. Flip through a few different distortion types and you'll see a big difference. Back when I was a Blo Tools user the Sansamp PSA1 was great on vocals but pretty much any amp or stomp box emulation should have something that can be worked with. You can even create a distortion bus and send varying amounts of your vocal tracks to it.

Be careful with the lower frequency ranges. I've seen people add WAY too much bottom end to their screaming vocal tracks trying to add growl and depth. The only thing this will do is make everything muddy. They approach the screaming vocal differently than they would approach a regular vocal track. Just because it's a scream doesn't mean it shouldn't be balanced. Compression will also help keep things in check just don't get overly aggressive with the ratio and play around with attack times.

Try to avoid effects on the vocal that create the feeling of distance. The whole point of having a scream is to have it in your face. You should avoid reverbs with long tales and delays with too much time on them. As with the use of any effects the vocals have to sit properly in the mix so you may need to make some compromises.

Use a healthy dose of experimentation. Every singer is different so you may find something that you wouldn't think would sound good that works for your particular situation.

Hope that helps.

[shivermetimbers]

[Razor]

I know I'm late to the party on this but I thought I'd respond just in case anyone else is in a similar situation. ...... Hope that helps.

Thanks so very much...there is a heap of things in your post I can try...

I've got another song I am working on now and I will try it on some of the "scream" accents.

I think i will go back and do another take on my original song and try some of the stuff you have suggested and see if i can improve it...

I'll let you know...

Thanks again!