Headroom for vocals.

[2infamouz]

When you guys are mixing down an instrumental before recording vocals, how much headroom do you normally leave for the vocals ? Ideally I'd like to have vocals in the mix before i mixdown, but a lot of times i don't even have an artist lined up when im making a track, so it gets mixed without the vocals and then I run into the issue of having to change shit to make the vocals sit right. Just curious what other ppl are doing

Edit: I guess this is a stupid question, it obviously depends on the track and can vary greatly. I just was wondering approximately how much of the headroom in your tracks is taken up by the instrumental alone, and how much (on average) is vocals.

 

[2GooD Productions]

none. Like you said,.whem i mix in vocals, i will mixdown the whole thing again

 

[2infamouz]

Yeah guess there's no way around it, have to mix it once to showcase it as an instrumental, n do it over again when the vocals are added ..

 

[2GooD Productions]

yeah, the vocals are the most important part of a song. So to get the best result, i think thats the way to go.

 

[Mixtape Meeko]

It sounds like you are doing the right thing. There isn't going to be an artist around ready to record everytime we make a beat. Usually I mix the beat really good and save that session. When an artist wants to record on tha particular track, I record them and then you have to change some volume levels, eq...... As far as headroom goes, I recommend not letting the whole mix go above -6db. This is if you plan on getting it mastered.

 

[Relic]

The thing is tho if you are selling a beat you wont be there when all that is mixed together so you SHOULD leave headroom.