You all sound like you had a real blast "cooking" up that song in the kitchen. And...

That has to be an all time classic and one that solved a problem "in the box".

 

At least now if you forgot the fridge and left it running while recording, you can just use RX on it!

Love your description of your room, @superliquidsunshine, it gives me some ideas for quick easy treatment. But I seriously don't worry too much about it, and just add it in with the reverbs.

This was done in an untreated living room (drums and some vocals) and that bedroom (guitars and some vocals).

http://www.docusystems.biz/AudioLink.html

I used a brick drum room in one of my favorite reverb plugins. I think it covered up the fact that it was recorded in an untreated room pretty convincingly. I found that it really tightened the mix, and glued everything together.

Some may recognize it from the https://audiosex.pro/threads/what-you-working-on.27431/ thread.

So... since this thread is about delay use, any suggestions/need for delays in this piece?

 

Good kitty. That is a fun get up and dance on the dance floor thang, thanks for sharing. About the drums to my wiggly ear, I felt that the kit fit nicely in the mix and everything played well with each other. I like the singers voices very much though sometimes I felt that the delivery didn't sell me the story very well. The delivery and cadence for some reason was somehow superficial to me and they weren't behaving so much as trying to act the characters motivations. I know, it didn't seem as the lines were coming from their heart and souls. And there was not as much interplay with the guitar lines and what was being sung, a give and take. I would have liked more of that kind of thing to keep it real and interesting. She was stronger in the beginning and kind of faded as time went by and he didn't keep it fresh, sort of just reading the lines. I like the song though, and I bet in a live situation it would feel more vital. That's me the producer/director talking.

Don't think there is a need for delay.

 

@superliquidsunshine, that is exactly the reason I come to this place! The help and constructive critique offered here is superior to any other site I've visited.
I've recorded many takes working with the female singer who, I think, is just plain tired of this song at this point. I've got to figure out someway to get her invested in the song again. Also, the mix has improved drastically since the last time we recorded, and I've seen that factor alone help immerse her into the song more.
If I remember correctly, I was struggling vocally the day that we recorded that take and on top of that, we had just moved the key from Eb to E so I was likely primarily focused on just hitting the pitch. I'm sure that impacted the performance. It's kind of funny, we've been working on that one for awhile now, and muscle memory is nice until something like the key gets changed.
But your comments reinforced the need for additional vocal work with this one and for that, I thank you!

 

Usually people have problems with reverbs.
Delay can be used in so many ways.One of the ways is the illusion to give a mono signal a stereo feel.
Just route a mono track to a stereo bus and put a stereo delay on the insert.
When combining quality reverbs with stereo delay you get these custom beautiful leads, pads, etc. that can be tweaked to your desire.

 

Your welcome. Glad to be of service.

 

What people often forget is that a voice is an instrument just like a guitar or violin or ...
Start with easier parts of a song to give the singer the confidence needed to master the more difficult parts. And don't let her sing for hours. The voice is an instrument, but just like a guitar needs some re-tuning between takes, the voice needs some resting. Offer tea and cookies every so often and care for the singer. The emotions to transport will then come naturally.

 

Did you mean 2 takes with 2 different mics or both mics on the amp recorded onto 2 tracks at once?

 

Check this out for some ideas

Also, mixing delay and reverb together is fun:

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2016

Pfff, this is really a big topic if it is not fully directed... You can use it to add something simil to reverberation or room ambience; you can use it as hass effect for widening; you can use it as tonal effect , i.e. resonators; you can use it as a rythm effect; you can use it to fill voids in the mix; you can use it creatively to sci-fy the hell out of the composition.... You can use it either so subtle that you wouldn't even notice it unless someone point at it, or blatantly obvious that even in a fully dense mix you can hear it substantially clear...

It really is an effect that depends more on "what do I want to do?" rather than "what does this effect do?"; the reason for this is because, in escence, the effect is pretty simple.... echoes, it generates echoes... absolutly no window-dressing there

 

One take recorded with two mic's onto two different tracks.

@Qrchack, Thank you for the links. I'll check them tonight before I get in the pilots chair again.

 

Any chance it's a phase issue? (mics closer to each other than to the source, not at same distance from the source as each other with no temporal correction,tracks both in same phase with mics also in same phase,miking up multiple speakers you gotta check the speakers aren't wired outta phase etc)

 

@GangamStyle, that's a very good point.
I usually use Melda MAutoAlign when I'm multiple mic'ing things in order to avoid those kinds of pitfalls. Brand new Orange 4x12 cabinet so I hope it's wired correctly.
I would guess phase was correct between the two mic's because when I panned hard l/r, it still sounded like it was coming from center. It was a little wider than exactly the same signal would have been. I assume due to the tonal differences between the mics. Just not as wide as I wanted it to be.

 

This. I never use delay as technical tool... Used it thousands of time for creative FX but I never know when to use it instead of reverb...

 

When you have a dry track that is awfully dry but reverb doesn't "stick to it" or sounds too washed out and muddy. Delay is a great alternative to reverb when you don't want too much clutter in your mix, it's also way better than any "stereo widener" or just slapping a reverb to "make it stereo".

 

Noice, I knew about the clutter mix fact but I dont get to the point where I start to use it on the field, in an actual project. I have to do it next time. Im using stereo widener/designer very often, I'll try what you said about that, very interesting too.

 

Ping-pong delay, my friend.

 

I know about this one too! Actually was one of the first virtual processing I learnt back in the days in my sound engineering school. I have some big session today, gonna apply some of the tips you guys shared on this thread

Also guys, what is your favourite Delay processor for technical purposes? All I got in my plug-ins arsenal is Timeless 2, DDLY, Replika... Only weird mofos! And I really dont like the Fruity Delay (or the Air delay, I'm an hybrid FL/PT user), any suggestions?

 

This thread had some very good answers to that. Not specific to FL/PT though.
https://audiosex.pro/threads/looking-for-a-good-delay-plugin.27724/