recording vocals

Sup guys,
Im having mad problems getting vocals to sound right in my mix. my crews been recording all weekend and the beats sound good the cuts sounds good and the mcs spitting the vocals really well, im doing the mix now and I jsut cant get the vocals in the right spot, they sound too clean.... and they are either too loud or too soft... I have no probs with bands and vocals but its the hiphop stuff im having troubles with.

im using: Audio Technica At3035 Condenser into an Akai DPS24 HD recorder. Im running the dps24s compressor on the vocals as well as experimenting with really short delays and different reverbs. I've also tried getting the mc's to double the entire vocal part... then i got em to do backups and litle drops.....

I dunno, can anyone share any insight. especially if u have the experience, what u do differently between band stuff(singers etc) and hiphop. Any tip or tricks would be appreciated.

Pez.

Need more info. What are you monitoring with? An example would help too.

Sounds like you have some experience, so pardon me if I'm giving you baby tips.

boywithpez007 wrote:they sound too clean....

Try cutting some of the top end. Brightness can make things sound very clean. And/or add some low/low-mids to put more power in the vocals. And/or add a very light chorus effect to dirty it up a bit(I've never tried this on vocals, but it works on instruments).

And you're using a decent mic. Next time, maybe try a dynamic mic like a Shure 57. They're not made for vocals, but I use one with decent results, and I have the opposite problem that you are having. I find that I have to work to make it sound cleaner.

boywithpez007 wrote:and they are either too loud or too soft...

You may have an instrument/sample that is competing with the vocals. If you have an instrument/sample with a lot of mid/upper-mid frequencies, try cutting those frequencies a bit. Without touching the levels on the vocals, they will appear to be louder because the competition is gone. Or it may be as simple as lowering the level of the offending instrument/sample, or panning it a bit away from the center.

Depending on how much you've compressed the vocals already, consider setting the levels just a bit low and get the volume from compression and/or EQ. With the EQ, find the primary frequencies of the vocal and boost them a bit.

boywithpez007 wrote:I dunno, can anyone share any insight. especially if u have the experience, what u do differently between band stuff(singers etc) and hiphop. Any tip or tricks would be appreciated.

I do a little of both, but I don't do much differently with the vocals aside from using a different mic sometimes. But my goal is to get vocals to sound as clean as possible... rapping or singing vocals.

awesome man, im on my way to the studio now to fk wid da eqz... im still learning bout eq cos for recording I came from a sht ass fostex multitrack and a sm58.. that sounded good for demo stuff but now I got pro gear i cant get anything close to a pro sound.
I just gotta put in some hours and experiment, thanks for the push in the right direction

BTW im monitoring with Alesis M1 mk2's....

if i get around to it ill post wav sample of a track.
cheeeeers fellaz love your work...