Realized I was layering my voiceover tracks completely backwards

I was working on a video project for a client in Portland last month and kept getting this hollow, thin sound in the mix. Spent like two hours tweaking EQ and compression, getting nowhere. Then a buddy came over and said, why are you putting the main track on top, it should always be the foundation underneath. Turns out I had been stacking my VO layers with the primary take on the highest track and filling down, when it should be the other way around. Switched it up and the whole thing sounded full and warm in like five minutes. Has anyone else had that weird moment where you just had the whole workflow flipped without knowing?

2 comments

2 Comments

wrenh791d ago

Huh, I actually prefer the main take on top for more control. Different strokes I guess.

green.mason1d ago

Gotta push back on that one a bit. Putting the main take on top actually buries it under lower tracks in a lot of DAWs cause of how signal routing works by default. If your main VO is on track 1 and you layer other takes below, the bottom tracks can end up dominating the bus or group channel. Real quick way to fix it is just flip the order so the main take is your lowest track, then stack the alt takes above it. That way the main take stays solid and full while the others just add texture. Took me way too long to figure that out myself.