One Life

[Picker]

Thanks Swansong, I really appreciate that! 

At some point I am going to re-do some of the production on this one.  I might invite in some musician friends to play on it.  I think the drums are a bit over-played, a little too much crash etc, and I have a brother in law that is one of the most awesome guitar players I've ever seen so I'm gonna get him to do the solo.

But first, I have another one I'm working on.

[MrBud]

Really tight piece of work-- great production  !

[Geir]

Geir, you said you used to do this but stopped; are you doing something different now?

Yes I do 

I have a very simple approach to vocals.

1) Record the vocals dry! Try to control the dynamics with actively changing the distance to the mic so the vocal levels will be as constant (as desired) throughout the song.

If this sounds good, well then the jobs's done (well see 3)  if needed). If not:

2) Either:
* Record a second vocal track as similar to the first one as possible, but maybe with less dynamics. ( this is my preferred method, and can be applied to the whole song or just parts of it (on one song I used it just on the last word of each verse))
or
* bounce the original (mono) track to another track using just a compressor or a limiter. I don't compress the hell out of it but quite hard, preferably a limiter (I'm not very advanced when it comes to compressor/limiters, I just try to get a highly compressed track that doesn't sound too compressed).

Then mix the original with just enough of the second track to even out the parts that sounded weak in the first place.

3) IF the vocal track need to fill more of the stereo image, I use either some reverb (on the BR800 I use the MODULATE type with reverb-time at 3-5s and pre delay set to 20-40 ms) or I use a ping pong delay (bouncing to a stereo track required) or a combination of the two.

Most of the time I use 1) and add some reverb as described in 3)

Hope this helps. It's by no means any pro advice, it's just what I've found working for me !!

[Picker]

Thanks so much guys.   I've printed off the suggestions and I'm going to take a run at them as soon as I get a chance.