I’ve heard many solo projects where the musician/songwriter slaved over their tracks, making sure the performances and the mix had just the right combination of slickness and “vibe”, only to compromise at the end by doing their own vocals, which can sometimes be the fatal flaw in an otherwise great track. Often, the vocal is the thing that serves this purpose, as long as it hasn’t been overly “perfected” with comping and auto-tuning-a little imperfection can go a long way.įig 2 Don’t settle when it comes to the lead vocalĪnd speaking of the vocal, this is one aspect you do not want to give short shrift. The extra nuance that those performances-and the little subtle details captured in the recordings-may bring to the arrangement can make the difference between a more sterile-sounding mix, and one with just enough of a loose, live quality to capture the energy that puts the tune over the top. Very often, adding even just one or two tracks that have been performed and recorded acoustically can make all the difference. But even if you think your song is suffering from that overly-tight, overly-perfect “in-the-box” quality, it doesn’t mean you have to run out and hire a band and a live recording truck, and go old-school. The perfection of quantized, auto-tuned, compressed, EQ’d and generally processed tracks can often leave the overall vibe of a song lacking in that intangible “feel” that all great music brings to the table. But despite all that production power-or maybe because of it-sometimes songs that are produced entirely in the box can somehow lack the loose feel and energy of live, acoustic performances. Modern workstations have virtually everything you could ask for, whatever style of music you may be working in. Fig 1 Mixing one or two live audio tracks into a primarily “in-the-box” arrangement can help provide a looser, more musical feel
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