Use Clip gain to bring down the level of the instrumental track so you can hear your vocals as needed. Once you mix your vocals you can use clip gain to adjust the level of the instrumental track back up a little if you need to get it to blend with the vocals better.
> On Dec 12, 2019, at 11:21 AM, Christopher Gilland <clgillan...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Guys, we've discussed this before, I think, quite some time back, but the > answers I got were kind of vague, and honestly, and this is of no offense to > any of you all, weren't very helpful at the time. That's no fault of you all. > It might have just been my knowledge/experience at that time was not of such > that I could fully grasp the concepts. > > > Here is the situation again though. Trust me, too. I've Googled like crazy. I > spent over about 3 hours last night Youtubing, and just Googling in general > and am coming up pretty much empty handed. > > > I normally record lead vocals on top of already purchased instrumental > tracks, so I'm not really normally working with stems. Once in a while, I'll > do something which takes more than 2 tracks, one for the music, one for my > vofal, but that's rare. Regardless, this is occuring. > > > In the past, I made a really really bad habbit of cranking my input gain on > the mike input way up. Well, OK, fine. Not way up, but up enough to get good > audible level going into PT. I obviously needed the level to be balanced with > the music track. > > > Problem is, that music track usually would have been mastered at gain unity > 0, which you know, anything above that, you're clipping. This means anything > I drove on top of the music track, that's gonna push my master over that 0 no > no limit. But! I had to. Or so I thought. It's the only way I could get any > good volume on my mike input. > > > So, a few things. First my hardware. This way you know what we're working > with. This interface is popular enough, surely you all know enough at least > about it to help. I'm running a Focusrite scarlet 2I2 interface, and the > first generation of a Blue Bluebird microphone. Let me be clear. This is the > Bluebird, not the baby bottle. Again, the first gen, not the 2nd, nor the > beta. > > > Now, I'm trying to break that habbit of running my gain so hot. I'm finding > that with where my input dial on the scarlet now is set, I'm on my peeks > hitting probably around -13DB or so on average, and again, that's on the > loudest peeks of my vocals. Obviously, that's much much better. > > > The problem is, when recording, obviously having the level that low, I can't > hear myself hardly at all in my cans. I normally have to get around -2 to 0DB > in my peek meter on the output of the vocal track in PT before I can really > hear myself well.. Also, when playing things back, it's barely audible. > > > Obviously, same problem with my keyboard using a virtual synth, or for that > mind, patching it directly in the scarlet. As for my vocal, I get that to > hear it well in my cans, and on the final mix I could pop a compressor on the > vocal, like the Gray compressor, and set it to a preset like steady, which > very very significantly does boost the volume. The only issue is, no, I'm not > clipping, but adding compression for the simple reason to boost that output > gain is a horrible! idea in most cases. It's adding color, sometimes > saturation, etc. that I definitely do not want into the mix taking away the > natural beauty of the vocal characteristics. > > > Yes, I could get a pre like a cloud lifter, but that's gonna present the same > issue. You turn up that input, bam! now you're clippen again. I don't think > the issue is on my input side. - I'm fully convinced of that. This is an > output thing. As level wize, my peek meter in PT is showing just fine at -13 > roughly. > > > I know I also could turn down the music track. Wayyyyy down. Then, add a > stereo master fader track, and turn it's output volume slider way way up to > compensate, but is that really the best methodology? I have to run that thing > with no plugs on the master fader up to nearly positive 8 or 9 DB to get the > volume back to normal comfortable listening. Remember. I'm trying to > compensate for that lower -13DB level going in. > > > I don't think the Scarlet has a separate IO path output just for headphones > alone, so I can't exactly create a bus in the IO settings, then send to it > individually creating a submix. > > > On the master fader though, again, going to +8 or 9 DB... yeah! That's barely > giving any headroom at all. Maybe I have a ton on the mike, but, yeah. I get > I could turn up the output level itself on the vocal track but is that really > a safe thing to do? I was always told you wana try keeping your vocal tracks > output volume sliders as close to that default 0DB as possible. Only interact > with Voiceover on those sliders and crank them as a very last resort. I'm > told you really wanna be using your master, not the level of the mike tracks. > > > Basically all I'm trying to do is keep things at that -13 average, yet get > them loud enough to hear them through the mix. I could just crank up the cans > volume knob on the scarlet, or the main output volume fed to my speakers, but > then, again, I'm gonna have to then crank things almost to the point of > normal blaring level which means if I do anything listening to a regular mp3 > outside PT, or try doing anything with Voiceover, etc. Yowel! Lookout! Can > you say, ow, my aching ears? > > > I just don't know how to deal with this. I'm kind a damned if I do, and I'm > damned catch22 if i don't. > > > Chris. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Pro Tools Accessibility" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptaccess/2579c232-077e-6b54-ba4c-6c5b313a4b54%40gmail.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Pro Tools Accessibility" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptaccess/953AE9CD-A3DC-4558-A8D7-66C856F6856C%40gmail.com.
