the singer and the band are very much seperate in the recordings.
i hear this aswell. does anyone have any knowledge or tips of how to make them sit better in the mix? as i said it was a completely ameteur effort and i knew nothing went i went in.
There are several things you can do:
Solution 1 - EQ the vocal track to meld better with the instruments. The vocal range lies in between roughly 200-350 Hz to 16 kHz. This is the general model one should work with. However, i will tell you right now, you will be doing very little to the vocal EQ before the 750-800 Hz mark.
100 and below - not really part of the natural vocal range, but it is important to roll this back because this effects plosives (the "pop" from b's and p's, d's and t's, etc), and you really don't want to be dealing with those unless you are obnoxious and don't care
200-350 Hz to give the vocals more low end and will "full out" a treble-heavy vocal track. It is unlikely you will need to use this as this is just for serious doctoring purposes.
500-800 Hz this one will give a lot more "body" to the vocal track, just beef it up really, especially if it is too trebly.
800-1.5 kHz is where most of the good stuff is happening audibly such as the beginnings of the note and speech definition. Do here as you will.
1.5-3 kHz more note definition and clarity for the voice exists here, do as you will.
3-7 kHz this can be dangerous territory and gold both at the same time. First the gold: around the 3-4 kHz area you will get very sharp and cutting note and speech definition, use with caution but it is really essential. This could be conflicting with a scooped upper mids guitar frequencies especially important for metal. The 4-5 kHz range is really tiring on the ears so too much can make anything sound nasally, and especially with the guitar it becomes problematic. So i would adjust accordingly to the guitar. You can cut the 3 kHz range if you want to "cover up" out of tune vocals - something you should take into consideration
The other thing that exists in the 3-7 kHz range is sibilance (the s "pop" sound, this is what the pop filter is for), just note how much there is and adjust accordingly but don't adjust so you will lose all the work you have done - if there is too much the vox might have to be re-recorded with more processing in real time.
8-16 kHz i am not really gonna walk through eight more kHz of frequency stuff. So, what you must remember about these frequencies is that the cymbals exist here and if you don't work with the EQ right you can really compromise the cymbal sounds. I will say that this range, if boosted, will add considerable clarity to everything - a nice "chimy" clarity i like to think - but use with caution. This range also constitutes the flesh and blood of distorted signals, too much and your whole track will distort.
Remember too that with any post production you are compromised by whatever threshold devices and other sonic modifiers were used in the studio. Also remember that a 1 dB boost or cut IS A LOT! Normally one shouldn't go above 3 dB, but sometimes things require extreme measures, i have personally done more than 3 dB boosts in places required. It also does come down to just hearing it too, just screw around with the EQ and see what happens. The EQ is by no means the end-all-be-all of problem solvers, it is a tool like anything else and can only do so much.
Solution 2 - Put the vox lower in the mix, this means lower the dB rating on the vocal track, that is, assuming you still have the tracks individually. Lower it until it naturally "melts in" with the other instruments, this comes down to one's ear and no other real tips can't be given in this department.
Solution 3 - Listen and fvck around! You could actually get something good without really knowing what you did. Make sure you can walk back through your steps though as you should be able to recreate the same process.
