How do I master vocals in Live

rckola23 · Post by **rckola23** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 2:11 am

I know this is a very very complex matter, but we dont have any more money to buy other equipment right now. We just have a G4 and Live with an m-audio mic and pre amp. What would be a good way to master the vocals for a hip hop track using live or cool edit. The raw vocals are not that bad anyway but i want them sounding crisp and clear. Can anyone give me some pointers to help us out, it would be much appreciated. THANK YOU

unusable · Post by **unusable** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 2:43 am

I might be mis-understanding you but....I think that you might be confusing a couple of different things.

I'd usually want to master a whole track, vocals and all. Unless you're recording vocals only, I guess. Once you've mixed everything down, then you'd look at mastering the whole track. If you vox aren't coming through you'll really have to look at the mix and the individual vocal tracks.

So I'd probably experiment with some compression on the vocal channel and a little subtractive EQ, some reverb and maybe a little delay to make it sound better, it's really impossible to say exactly what you should do. Experiment and have some fun with it.

The unfortunate thing is you can only process your vocals so much with equipment, it's that old saying garbage in garbage out, there's no way around it. If you're relly unhappy with your vocals, you could always rent a decent mic-pre and nice mic for a day or weekend for relatively little expense.