Vocal processing and production

[FatHand]

Does anyone have any techniques they use for processing and cutting up vocals that they wouldn't mind sharing? I'm mainly looking from a electronic music perspective for my final product but wouldn't mind hearing about ANY processing techniques to get the best out of the vocal recording I have made before mixing it up, Eqing, good effects plugins, any useful pieces of software perhaps autotune for tiny tweaks etc.

What I am working on is a female vocal recording made for a cover of you got the love I'm working on. It starts off very similarly to the original Source ft Candi Staton version in most ways but through the song the music starts to drift away into it's own interpretation. I would like to do the same with the vocals as it becomes more intense. I would like to make the vocals nice and thick at the start of the song as it is very sparse and simple musically.

Any tips and trick welcome on this thread so anything that might be useful.

[KimyReizeger]

I think the best method is to have a good recording in the first place which requires little further adjustment beyond some subtle eq and reverb to help ease it into the mix. Thin it out by small reductions in the lower end; add clarity by boosting the upper regions and always listen to how it sounds in relation to the other instruments (avoid the solo button). I would suggest avoiding overload of effects, unless you have a particularly good idea for something a bit more unusual / wacky sounding.

That said, I'm pretty inexperienced in the area and would advise intuition and thoughtful consideration above all 'method' Good luck

ps. Regarding thickening it out at the beginning - maybe experiment with delay, compression, wacky layering and panning at that point; (go kerazy n that), before easing down into a clean vocal later on.

[Stupot]

For modern sounding vocals you need lots of tracks. A good way of giving a vocal more punch is to double or even triple track it. Put up 3 tracks of unison then suck out all the bottom end and mid from two of the tracks. Use these stripped tracks for your reverbs and/or delays. Leave one track clean apart from compression which should be a ratio of 3:1 with the threshold set to give 6dB of compression at the loudest sections. Raise the gain until you can hear the singer's intake of breath.

Leave the clean vox track in the middle and pan the stripped tracks slightly to left and right.

You can then fiddle with each track's settings, with the backing playing, until the vocal sits nicely in the mix.

Of course, there are countless ways to mess with vocals, like using guitar effects on them for instance.

[Pierre Von Mondragon]

One quick way to improve source is to use Antares Microphone Modeller plug-in, I have never heard a take it didn't improve. It won't make shite into gold, but is a useful tool for imparting a more pro sheen.

[FatHand]

Thanks a lot for the good bits of advice, exactly what I was after. Really enjoying experimenting with different recording techniques, never thought I'd be quite as geekily into it as I've become. I bought sound on sound the other day and to my surprise understood a lot of the mixing techniques (or at least the principles) in the mixing SOS section.

The source material I've recorded is actually a lot better quality than I was expecting so using something to smooth over whatever cracks are there will be good. I also like the 3 track idea. Having listened over it many many times, I have come to the conclusion that some small tweaks should be made to some select notes but very subtle really. I might use a 4th track for experimenting with vocoder and other fun plugins. Lots to do still but will post when it's complete.

Cheers again

[Stupot]

One quick way to improve source is to use Antares Microphone Modeller plug-in, I have never heard a take it didn't improve. It won't make shite into gold, but is a useful tool for imparting a more pro sheen.

Yes, it's a damn fine bit of software.

[HairyScaryMark]

Add a De-esser (usually anyway, see below for link to free one)

Use a fast compressor (many default settings tend to be far too high, 25-40ms maximum).

Signal chain of vocal channel

De-Esser>Compressor>EQ>

high pass filter it to 150 or higher.

Find the harsh points in voice and EQ them out providing they aren't the important details. Find the nice parts which 'cut through' and emphasise them).

Make new effects send. Always use reverb in an effects send as it allows more flexibility. It is also good to share reverb between differnet instruments as it adds to the sense of the music being performed in the same space. Set your effects sends to post fade also so you are not adjusting the volume of the dry track when adding reverb.

Signal chain of effects send EQ>reverb>gate

As you said 'sparse' you may want to try this if the singing is not too 'busy'. Otherwise go for a more subtle and shorter reverb)

EQ (high pass filter ~500)

Reverb (predelay is probably useful and make time over 1 second)

Gate (attack time - 0 unless your reverb processor doesn't have a predelay function.. release time - however long you want your reverb to be before cutting out suddenly).

Set your gate threshold not that far below where the singing level usually is.

If that sort of reverb doesn't work. Try a shorter one without a gate. A high pass filter is very important with reverb however as bass is likely to muddy up the mix.

digitalfishphones.com - free audio effects plugins

This site has a good De-Eser, Compressor and Gate which is also free.

As you said electronic music you possibly will wish to use more 'unusual' effects. I would however recommend getting the basic tracks to sound good first before venturing into these too heavily.

Make an effects send yet again and use an envelope/automation to control the level of the send throughout the song. You might get the most effective results by having this effect coming in and out at the 'intense' parts.

I would suggest trying chorus, resonance and automated filters.

[FatHand]

Found half an hour to try out the 3 vocal tracks option and cutting off the bass, adding reverb and delay to these copies and the difference was marked. Even just with this minimal amount of work. Cheers for all the tips on this... very useful stuff.

[Stupot]

Found half an hour to try out the 3 vocal tracks option and cutting off the bass, adding reverb and delay to these copies and the difference was marked. Even just with this minimal amount of work. Cheers for all the tips on this... very useful stuff.

Have a go at this too. On your eq'd copies, insert a pitch shifter into each of them, retune the left to -5 cents and the right to +5 cents and see what it does. You can mess about with the amount of shift until it blends nicely with the track.

[FatHand]

Have a go at this too. On your eq'd copies, insert a pitch shifter into each of them, retune the left to -5 cents and the right to +5 cents and see what it does. You can mess about with the amount of shift until it blends nicely with the track.

I'll try this over the weekend and report back. :up:

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

just compress the fuck out of them all and roll off the lows for backing vocals - if you're doing harmonies a la wishes try a TINY amount chorus or v.short delay on backing vox too so they are present in the mix without dominating the lead track

[FatHand]

I haven't put any compression on them, will experiment but so far I don't think it needs any. It's just a lead vocal no backing. I will be experimenting with delays and chopping up the vocals to create interesting patterns.

Cheers for the tips. Keep them coming, it's useful for us novices!