Yea i am using cubase 9 essentials and you are right that feature is missing so i am looking for an alternative that i can stick to that has those features

What do you recommend....

 

Last edited: Apr 12, 2018

I think Reaper is a good place to start.

It has a very long demo period (indefinite if you need it to be w/nag screen.) It also comes with the tools necessary for this experiment (ReaComp, ReaX-Comp and a mixer with side-chain routing). As you get more comfortable with DAWs you might choose to change it or stay on with it doesn't matter what you pick in end. It it isn't my DAW of choice but I can not deny that it is a pretty decent place to start and learn on or stay on forever, and for the purpose of this experiment it is a good choice.

 

I see, thanks for the info I will give it a try. also trying out a pro version of cubase to see how that works. I have been doing a lot of research/reading based on info that was posted by yourself @Introninja and a few others, its been a blast so far I am so excited to dive in more.

Edit: i now have the side chain option and i am ready to go, let start from the first tip.

 

Last edited: Apr 13, 2018

ok.

Place a multi-band compressor on the beat track and route the vocal bus as that compressor's trigger signal through the sidechain.

Not sure what DAW you went with so I can not use proper names of plugins or give you an example or directional how to...

The aim of this is to use the compressor like a dynamically ducking EQ to carve a bit of space into the frequency spectrum of the beat track so that the vocal can sit down in it a bit better. This allows you to use less overall volume on the vocal so that the differences in loudness between the beat and the vocal are bit better managed.

 

Your track is far easier to listen to than that robotic mess.

 

I see, i will try that and let you know how it goes.

Edit: I am using fab filter pro mb and its a bit more complicated compated than regular compressors but I am getting the hang of it, I am thinking I need to cut more space into the low end and the high end and a little from the middle to get it to sit better what do you think.

 

Last edited: Apr 14, 2018

I am not sure what you consider low - mid - high to be honest. From what I was hearing before I would have said that you would need to carve very carefully near the low end since the vocal has had most of it's low end EQed out severely over multiple stages, cutting a large part of the 2-channel beat track seems counter productive unless you re-balance your vocal track.

You might have changed things up....

 

I have not changed the approach though I have rerecorded the track to try to get a better recording so i will upload that in a few.

@mozee here are the links the beat and vocals together so you can get an idea of what I am going for, also the voice only and beat can both be found below so we can go through it together, thanks again.

oh I have changed the track to another one I recently recorded since i think this one will be a better example, I also think its recorded better though I may be wrong so let me know what you think about that, and one more thing too I noticed that when I record a track and mix it to play on my system I noticed I cant turn it up as loudly as I would some tracks that are already released before it gets muddy and the voice seems to drop into the bass.

I am wondering if thats due to me not mising it properly or just having a crappy mic/interface.

beat + voice


voice only


beat only

 

Last edited: Apr 16, 2018

Both recordings sound good enough to me. The problem you are going to keep on having if you continue to mix a finished 2 track riddim with a karaoke style vocal is that you either need to make your vocal fit the structure of the song and deal with the limitations of not having granular control over the mix elements a multi-track would offer or have to make some sonic sacrifices.

Your Microphone and interface sound great and you have a great voice very reminiscent of Busy Signal just not as polished. Work in progress...

At some point in the mixing experience you are going to have venture in using multi-tracks and bespoke (custom riddims) where you can control everything... then they will sound like all the other guys you hear because there is nothing wrong with your voice / your mic / or interface.

The image bellow shows how you can route channels to kind of match levels on the vocal and the beat track, but it exposes the vocal and the beat where they mismatch.

The Pro-MB patches I used are attached as is a sample of the output.

Code:

https://www70.zippyshare.com/v/mea9Qxro/file.html

https://www.dropbox.com/s/npykqhq1k0rpkrg/floyd.flac?dl=0

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 17, 2018

Thanks for the compliment also you did a great job on the vocals although the beat and the voice are off timing so it makes it a little hard to listen to sorry about that but could you explain the steps you took for me so i can follow along also try lining up the track using the example I posted of the beat + track that will give you and idea of how it should sound on the beat, thanks again.

also these songs are for a mixtape I am working on at the moment so I am sure that at some point I will begin to use multi tracked beats aswell, I just want to get to that point where I can put out my mixtape and have it sound decent enough.

edit: also let me know if you need a better example of how the beat should sound with the voice in terms of timing.

 

Last edited: Apr 17, 2018

Enjoy, Floyd Let me know what you think?
@mozee is it too wet?

 

Sounds cleaner than my mix but the reverb sounds a bit much in the punch and also the timing is slightly off by a few milliseconds although @mozee can compare his timing to yours to get a better idea of how it should sound, I will upload a example where the beat is louder so you guys can hear it better since i think that is what is causing the issue with timing, if you guys have a better way to export files let me know.

edit: trying to get a similar mix to @mozee but I am having some issues with the steps

 

Welcome @Floyd

@mozee & @Introninja yooz guys are staars

 

I can easily turn down the reverb bus, the timing i choose felt more musical to my ears that complemented the riddim track. I knew what timing you were using but to me it just didnt sit well, but all in all just wanted to give you different perspective.

 

I see well thanks for the input bro it does sound cleaner than mine for sure lol how did you do it same as mozee?

 

When i get home i will share everything, it was basically a headphone mix, listening in my car its pretty nice alittle bit wet reverb wise but the balance is bless

 

ok sounds good thanks I am working on my own mix which should be a bit more balanced.

 

whats up people ... its audiosex resident mixer here lol i think ive been missing for a year this sounds like somethin i can do to make my reintroduction to the community ...love a competition ...stay tuned

 

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Hey nice to meet you and welcome back, i am new.