Originally Posted By: CocoTex
Thanks, GH,

But, what I'm finding is for a lyric heavy song, telling a story where every word needs to be heard clearly the first time, and I'm accustomed to performing solo in a listening room environment, BIAB is uneven, so that's the issue. I have several DAWs, but they cannot control it unless I constantly slide, so the instruments ebbs/flows, and I end up making so many adjustments to instrument tracks that it has a ripple effect, e.g. increase keys at bar 31 to 104, return them at bar 42, increase fiddle, fade it later, etc., and those adjustments affect the instruments later. Find a spot where where an instrument blasts by it's own nature and smothers a few lyrics, so reduce that spot, increase it in a bar or two. By the time I get to the end area, say bar 140 it's become a jumble.

So, I'll give the program you suggest a spin (greatly appreciate the suggestion), and if I'm not happy I'll get a studio engineer to even it out.


OK... THAT is not a mastering or polishing issue. You need to learn to mix properly. First of all, the BB tracks and the RB tracks are fairly consistent in their levels from start to finish. Most of the time I don't have to do any sort of volume envelope to adjust for inconsistencies in levels in any of the BB/RB tracks. There might be some minor variations.... but DO NOT try to micro manage the levels. That could be part of your problem.

Notice in this song that my volume envelopes are pretty boring.... not much in the way of riding the volume levels. This is the beginning of The Best Christmas... on my website.

Work on only ONE TRACK at a time. You will become overwhelmed quickly if you're trying to do everything at one time. There have been times where I have reached that point. When I realize that I'm past that point, I start over. Delete all the plugs and the envelopes, mute all the tracks and start again with the rhythm tracks and one vocal, adding tracks as needed. Quite often I find I simply was trying to cram too many tracks into a song.

You say "lyric heavy" but what I want to know is how many tracks besides vocals do you have in a given song?

Start with the basics... the rhythm section....drums & Bass and perhaps one rhythm guitar. Those 3 things will be the foundation of the song and will play at a consistent level from start to finish under normal conditions.

Normally, in my music, when a singer is singing, those 3 things are generally the only instruments playing. One other instrument will play fills in the space in between the vocal phrases. I use envelopes in the DAW to accomplish this. Generally, those 3 rhythm instruments will NOT vary in level even though they have envelopes in them. Envelopes are there for other reasons, including the end fade to black. everything goes out together.

Dust on the Floor is a good example of what I'm talking about. http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13017714

Envelopes in "Dust"



Keep it simple to start with. One mistake folks make is that since we have the ability to have dozens of tracks, we do. And that's fine once you get a solid foundation. 90% of my songs are between 6 to 16 tracks total. Some as few as 5.

Mix the 3 rhythm tracks to a good basic mix, then drop your vocal lead vocal track into the project. Get that to where you can clearly hear and understand the lyrics. Now... without touching those 4 track's levels, add the fill instruments using envelopes to bring them in and out, and adjust their levels to the existing rhythm levels. You're not going for volume and loudness, you're going for a good sounding, well balanced mix at this point.

Hope this helps.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
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