I've tried and tested so many techniques to get vocals sounding nice over the last 10+ years. I will share what has worked for me including the stages that I've gone through.
Start from the top:
Concentrate on the voice. Speak clear, project it loud and get the microphone moving, be conscious of your P's, Shh's, S's and deep breaths! Even to the point of writing lyrics, if you can replace a word that means the same but has less S's and Shh's, it helps. !
e.g - Shying away in the sunshine - replace with "Hiding away in the night time" - etc.
Secondly - Decent mic will help - With or without Phantom Power.
Pre amp - The better you have the better the sound.
Regardless of the apparatus - There's enough that can be done in the mix down.
- Be clear - I'm sharing my discoveries here - I'm not declaring any right or wrong in producing music - Only what I've found - When producing music, I'm not sure there is any right or wrong? If you get the sound you want, and a sound that other people enjoy, then you were successful in your creation and artistic expression, however you made your way there -
Duplicating your vocal track (up to 4 to 8 times in some cases)! Is always a good way to bring the vocal to the top of the tune! I got good results from doing this for years! Learnt the hard way some of the following:
If you're duplicating the same audio file, bounce it first and have different versions! Don't copy and paste the same reference to different tracks!
If you have 4 of the same audio file playing in your mix, you should have 4 wavs in your audio pool, don't try to load the same wav into your ram for playback 8 times. Replicate the authentic method of tape or vinyl, even with a DAW!! and you will hear the difference, it has an effect on phasing, and processing the sound in that way is conducive to the overall sound of the mix.
- Currently from 2012 into 2013 I try to have as few audio tracks as possible -
IF! - you do have duplicate audio tracks for your vocal, make sure you have the same VSTs on each audio track!!! Exactly identical... No matter what system or hardware there is always a lag with VSTs, even if 00.0012 seconds! Start multiplying that over 4 VSTs x 8 etc and you will have phasing issues. Loss of depth, clarity etc.
So if track 14 has a Compressor, De-esser, Filter, EQ etc,, and you have an identical vocal sample on track 15,16,17 etc.. Track 15, 16 and 17 should have an identical vst set up of compressor, de-esser, filter, EQ etc
Believe me this helps.
Ultimately, get one excellent sounding vocal sample, whether you record it yourself or not, and send it to a bus or group track.. (I sometimes find with different DAWs it's best to turn off the output of the vocal track and have only the sends to 'X' amount of busses/groups routed to the output)
send it to as many busses as need be (as few as possible until the vocals are proud) but make sure you have the same VST configuration on each bus/group, sometimes variations can work, but just as easily be frustrating to get a nice mix. Use stereo width! Use a compressor! If you have trouble gating, take the time to do it manually in a sample editor! Zoom in! Silence the breaths with a soft fade in and soft fade out. If there's not much work that needs doing, use the built in effects and plug-ins in your DAW (Logic / Cubase etc) because there's usually less lag / time delay than a separate program.
If there is a lot of work to do - Huge S's that sound like EEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS and pierce through the skin of your ear drum when your quite calmly unaware. When you only meant to say something like, princess, sensi, selecta,
or "get set" quite quickly but your recording reveals how many Redstripe you've had - Use a de-esser!! There are some good ones about. I will mention more in the post labelled VST and VSTI recommendations soon to follow.
If you're making a dance tune with vocals that needs to be turned up loud? Compress or limit the vocals as much as possible so that they brickwall the same as the rest of the tune. Then you can find a level that they can comfortably sit at.
If you're making a soft tune, love song and want your vocals to be heard more than anything else - Try pushing your instruments through a bus, add a compressor and side chain it to your vocal track(s)? When the vocals come in the instruments will get quieter automatically - I have used this a lot and it works.
If you're making a tune with Piano - Strings - Vocals - Guitar etc... Be aware that most of those sit on the same frequency band as each other.
If you can't get your vocals and piano to be friendly to each other ! Firstly - Panning! Put your piano in the right speaker and your vocals in the left! - To be precise, about 25% each way - (Put your vocals in the left, mono systems, or even bass systems use the left as the primary channel to input from if it isn't stereo),
Work on the filters - If your piano sits across 300hz to 1000hz and your vocal sits across 300hz to 1000hz and you want them both to be heard. Filter one up at 500hz and down at 800hz and the other up at 800hz and down at 500hz with a tight bend, give them both room to move the speakers on their own.
If you want to spend even more time, work out the harmonic relationship between frequencies and the key of your track as I mentioned in the 'Snare' post section. Turn up the frequencies in relation and in tune to your key in the vocals, and turn down the apposing in your piano(or other instrument).
There's so much can be done to get the sound YOU want. And there's no escaping it, the start of the chain (voice and mic) is just as important as the end of the chain.
Try combinations of the above.
Finished - For now - More tip chapters to follow.
Giving out some secrets? They're not secrets. I just may not know of anyone else that knows until I tell someone that doesn't know. And when I do know that someone else knows I know that it was never a secret.
Besides - With even the same knowledge and replication of the same equipment I would never write the same song as you.
Hope it helps someone out - As a good man once asked me "Well, if we're not here to help each other out, then what are we here for?"
Respect:
Shotty 4HF
P.S
HAve not checked the spelling/punctuation/parenthesis/ or looked over the above at thsii point yet I'm about to press "Post" !!!! - This has taken me long enOUFFF! If I scroll back up to the top I will be here beyond limits pondering and possibly correcting/changing/adding etc. Nooooo! Off to look south towards the meteor shower.
http://www.shotty.co.uk
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