Harsh Vocals

2

2Faace

New member
Hi guys,

I have a home studio set up (an RME Babyface interface + a Shure SM7 microphone). For some reason, my vocals often come out sounding a bit harsh to the ears (more so then other guys I record with).

My vocals are not clipping when I record them so this is not the issue. It usually sounds good through my studio headphones but I notice the harshness the most when I put the songs on my i-pod and turn the volume up (other artists do not have the same harshness).

I use the following plug ins to treat my vocals:

CLA-76 Mono/3
Tube Tech CL 1B/3
Lex Vintage Plate
FF Pro Q/3
Deesser Mono/3
Q6 (m)/3
API-550B Mono/3

I've attached a screenshot showing my effect settings - I can't send you the link to the song because this site won't let me...

Hope someone out there can help!

Thanks
 
My vocals are not clipping when I record them so this is not the issue.
Click to expand...
You don't even need to be NEAR clipping to get "harsh" sounding -- Digital clipping is around 400% of the rated voltage of your interface. Clipping is failure of the circuit -- Digital clipping is far above nominal but the analog circuit is likely to fail far above the digital (that said just because the circuit doesn't fail doesn't mean that it'll actually sound good - long story).

That said --

Holy mackerel, that's a whole lot of crap for a vocal track. I'm *ASSUMING* you're not running the verb as an insert, so I'd ask if the aux buss and the return sound harsh also. THAT said, I'm "assuming" and littler surprises me anymore.

Does the track sound harsh BEFORE all the (lots and lots and lots of) processing?
 
Thanks for the quick response - yes my vocals sound harsh before treating them with effects. But I've professionally recorded vocals in a nice studio as well and those vocals sound harsh without any treatment as well...

I've sat in on studio sessions and these were the types of effects that were generally suggested.

Can you please break this down a bit more for me as I'm not sure what you mean - "I'm *ASSUMING* you're not running the verb as an insert, so I'd ask if the aux buss and the return sound harsh also"

Thanks
 
First things first -- Set your input levels to PEAK at MAYBE -12dBFS or so and see if that fixes everything.

Can you please break this down a bit more for me as I'm not sure what you mean - "I'm *ASSUMING* you're not running the verb as an insert, so I'd ask if the aux buss and the return sound harsh also"
Click to expand...
I hate to say that's about as broken down as it gets. In which case, I'm no longer assuming you're using the reverb on an auxiliary buss. You should be.
 
when issues like this pop up, i find it's always best to break it all down..

to the lowest common denominator.

mic, preamp, interface, period.

no external effects, no plugins, get down to basics.


first, figure out of the mic/cable is any issue...
then, move on to mic preamp or interface, and like massive says, set your input levels quite low at PEAK, and the same for the output.
there is plenty of headroom there, and should be, you do not need hot levels for modern recording daws working at.

if this gives you a nice smooth recording (it might be quiet, but that's ok) then you have identified the problem as your front end being used too hot,
or

it's something you are doing after you get the signal in, probably a plug in gain issue.
 
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