Answer · Mixing
The vocal is getting buried. What do I do?
A buried vocal is usually masked, not quiet. Find the instruments that occupy 1 to 4 kHz while the voice is singing, typically guitars, keyboards or pads, and cut 2 to 3 dB from them in that range. Then even out the vocal's own level with compression or rides. Raise its fader last.
Why turning it up does not work
A vocal pushed over a mix that is masking it sounds stuck on top and still hard to follow. The words live in the consonants, between about 2 and 5 kHz. If a guitar or a synth is loud there, the vocal has to be far too loud overall before the words come through.
Carve the masker
- Find the track that covers the vocal: mute candidates one at a time while the vocal plays.
- On that track, cut 2 to 3 dB with a broad bell centred between 2 and 4 kHz.
- If the instrument is wide, cut only its middle channel and leave the sides alone. The vocal is in the centre, so that is where the room is needed.
A cut on the instrument is heard less than the same boost on the vocal, and it leaves headroom.
Even out the vocal
A vocal that is clear on loud words and lost on quiet ones has a level problem. Compress it by 3 to 6 dB on the loudest phrases, then ride the phrases that still drop. A steady vocal can sit lower in the mix and still be understood.
Make room in time and space
- Duck the pads or guitars by 2 to 3 dB while the vocal sings, so they come back in the gaps.
- Reduce the vocal's reverb or lengthen its pre-delay. Reverb moves a voice backwards.
- Pan competing parts away from the centre.
In Zammoth
The engineer measures which tracks mask the vocal and in which bands before it suggests a cut, and it measures the vocal phrase by phrase, so a line that dips is found by its time range:
Each EQ band can act on the stereo signal, the mid or the side. The Duck device lowers one track while another plays. See the EQ reference and the Duck reference.
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