I want to submit a question about vocal mixing.

Please, hear this song on youtube using GOOD HEADPHONES:

If you pay attention to the voice, you note that it stay just over your head, not in front of you. It seems it comes from above your head. It is very subtle, but this is the sensation it gives.

I maean... When I record a vocal (in mono) over a backing track, and hear it with no fx, the voice stay in front of me (to say, in front of my nose). If I apply some fx (comp, eq, delay, reverb etc) I can give some space to the voice, in order to sit on the mix. But in that mix, I can hear the voice at the center, but coming from above.

This kind of sensation is audible in many professional recordings... I noticed it also in old recordings of the 80s and 90s. It is also audible in very dry and intimate songs (eg. vocal and ac. guitar like here:

), with a very few fx on the tracks. It is from years I tried with eq, compression, reverb, delay etc... I never found a solution.

Do you have some suggestions?

Please, if possible, post some sample of your songs, if you are able to obtain the same result on the voice.

 

Sounds like Ambisonics processing to me.

 

I don't hear anything out of the ordinary. At all. Except perhaps some Dolby 361A processing (air-band). Sometimes this airband is creating height, which might be what you are referrring to as "above".
I presume you are not talking about the filtered reverb (making room for the more detailed vocals, so that they pop). But maybe it's a combination of the two.

Damn, I am really allergic to these religious songs.

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2018