[linux-audio-user] How to get good vocal sound

[R Parker]

Hi Paul,

After a very quick listen I think your wife has a very
nice voice. Is she ready to leaving you? Because I am
available.

Ron

--- Paul Winkler <pw_lists at slinkp.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 08:55:20AM -0500, Brett
> McCoy wrote:
> > I'm of the opinion that you should work on getting
> the vocals to sound 
> > good dry -- before adding any effects. What are
> you using to record the 
> > vocals? I recommend a good condensor mike and a
> pre-amp, 
> 
> +1000.  The best investment is a good mic.
> It doesn't have to be all that expensive if you do
> your research.
> I bought an MXL V67G on ebay for under $100 with
> shock mount
> and I've been pretty happy with the results. Google
> for that
> and "Harvey Gerst" and you'll know why I got it.
> Gerst's online
> writings are priceless for people doing recording on
> the cheap.
> Sure, I'd rather have a Neumann, but who has the
> money for that?
> Another important point about mics is that some mics
> are better
> suited to different voices or even different songs.
> Try what
> you have, there's no such thing as the one true mic.
> 
> My preamps aren't anything special - I have a Mackie
> 1202 VLZ - it's
> fine for now, but a little harsh in the treble. I'll
> probably upgrade
> that before getting any more expensive mics.
> 
> I often compress on the way in, using an FMR RNC. 
> (But not always;
> sometimes I leave it until later and use SC4 mono).
> Vocals are pretty
> tolerant of large amounts of compression, and I find
> that having good
> solid levels in my headphones helps me get better
> pitch.  So does having
> some reverb in the phones. I do in-computer reverb
> with hardware
> monitoring by setting up a bus for the reverb and
> setting its input to
> the hardware input, so it doesn't go to "tape". 
> Then I listen to the
> results without reverb and sometimes decide it
> doesn't need any!  But
> anything that helps an unconfident singer (i.e. me)
> get a better
> performance is worthwhile.
> 
> I've tried all the reverbs... freeverb, gverb, TAP
> reverb,
> versatile plate... I don't have a favorite yet,
> they're all useful for
> vocals. 
> 
> A tip for using Freeverb: It may seem a bit plain
> and sometimes harsh
> for vocals by itself, but you can get very good
> sounds out of it with
> some tricks:
> 
> First, set the "damping" really high, that makes it
> smoother.
> 
> Now try adding some predelay - a simple delay plugin
> in front of the reverb,
> at 100% wet; try around 50 ms delay to start with -
> that makes the
> "room" a little bigger and more interesting.  Lower
> the delay time to make it more subtle; bump it up to
> 100 ms to make it a more obvious effect.  
> 
> Finally, try post-filtering; follow the delay/reverb
> combo with a low
> pass filter (the simple one-pole filter from CMT
> will do fine); set the
> cutoff around 5000 Hz to start with and adjust to
> taste. Smooooth.
> 
> Here's an example using the above freeverb recipe
> (please don't anybody
> make permanent links to this one as it's a rough mix
> of stuff that we're
> probably going to re-record due to some performance
> flubs and some
> too-hot levels you can hear a bit): 
> 
>
http://slinkp.com/~paul/dont_get_sad_mix_20051206.mp3
> 
> 
> I played guitar and sang backups (badly), my wife
> sang lead
> (beautifully).
> 
> And no, we didn't write that, it's a cover of an Ida
> song.
> I wish I wrote that.
> 
> 
> Other technical notes:
> Lots of compression (SC1) on each vocal track.
> Maybe 6:1 ratio, attack around 30 ms, release around
> 120 ms.  No EQ on
> Abby's voice. I forget if that was the MXL V67G or
> the MXL V57 (which I
> sometimes like better on female voices, it has less
> of an upper-mid
> presence peak). 
> 
> Some 10-band EQ on my voice due to poor mic choice
> during tracking
> (Sennheiser 421 which is a GREAT all-purpose mic but
> for this song I
> found it too present and sibilant in the upper mids
> for backing vocals).
> 
> Which brings up another idea ... if you want a
> brighter
> reverb sound than I was going for in that track,
> like super-in-your-
> face radio pop, one problem is that voices can get
> really sibilant.
> TAP De-Esser can be really handy here. Put it on the
> vocals
> after compression, before EQ and before reverb. 
> Then you can
> make really obnoxiously bright vocals without the
> ssssssibilancccccce
> tearing your head off. I don't have any recorded
> examples of
> this to share - yet :-)
>  
> > and use 
> > balanced XLR for the entire signal path, at least
> until where the signal 
> > is going into your audio interface, where you
> probably just have RCA or 
> > 1/8" inputs.
> 
> That's nice if the rest of your gear is already
> pretty good, but 
> personally I don't worry about balancing line levels
> at this point.
> In my view it's a lot less important than having a
> good mic, good
> soundcard, and good preamp.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Paul Winkler
> http://www.slinkp.com
> 



		
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