How to make my vocals sound better? Effects processors, vocoders, mic placement???

pisces7378

pisces7378

New member
My voice is shit!

Having gotten that off my chest, I feel I should clarify. I can hit pitches fine. No problem there. I have a little bit of a shy problem, in that I don't feel comfortable "singing out" and loud enough. So my voice sounds weaker, and it can trail off at the end of a line. Plus I am not good with vibrato, and just simply making things interesting. I am not TERRIBLE, as my above comment might suggest. I just could stand some good voice lessons and a shit load of practice.

Well, while I am practicing, I was just wondering if you guys knew of any kind of devices or software plug ins that someone like me might be interested in. So far, I have a Rode NTK and for a mic pre-amp I am using the OMNI Studio breakout box from my Delta 66 sound card. Now the pre-amps in that thing were reviewed by Future Music Magazine here in Europe and were said to be top notch. I haven't so much experience with vocal pre-amps to compare it to, but I do know that the pre-amps sound good. And the valve in the NTK sounds good as well. But I make some "experimental" type music sometimes, and I was just wondering if you guys could make some suggestions, since I don't even know where to start looking, for some kind of vocal effects processors that are multi functional as hell. I certaibly don't have the squids to go and throw down $800 on just a reverb unit, no matter how brilliant the reverb sounds. I will need some reverbs, but I also might want a damn freaky ass distortion/phaser for my voice. (Ya just never know). So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also... I have heard mention of a Vocoder. Now... What is a vocoder? The description I have heard was: "It is dis thang, dat can sweetin` ya voice." Now, how can that "thang" sweeten my voice? What are they? And who makes them? I have seen some software vocoder plug ins. Know what I'm talking about? Any info about a vocoder, both hard or soft would also win you some serious cool points in my book.

Thanks guys,

Mike
 
about your singing - i haven't heard you, but i think a few singing lessons, and some practice could improve that a lot. why don't you get a book like jeffrey allen's 'secrets of sing'? it's awesome, comes with two exercise cds, and you can learn a lot without even having to take lessons. just do the exercises on the cds consistently according to the author's directions, and you should hear a lot of improvement very soon.

as for effects, most lame ass plugins are as good as mid priced gear, i think, and the best plugins are easily comparable to the best effects processors you've ever heard.

besides that, there are many FREE (the magic word!) plugins on the net for download, like freeverb, and a few others.

also, one of the most expensive directx plugin packages goes for around $900, and it has as many effects as you might need (not a vocoder, though). i'm talking about waves. tc native's packages are cheaper than waves', and sometimes better.

as for the vocoder, i'll leave that for somebody else to explain. i can tell you though that there are many vocoder plugins from various manufacturers, and many of them are just as good or better than the hardware version. there are also many kinds of filters that can be used to add nice effects not only to voice but also to instruments.

cheers,
adriano
 
Also... I have heard mention of a Vocoder. Now... What is a vocoder? The description I have heard was: "It is dis thang, dat can sweetin` ya voice." Now, how can that "thang" sweeten my voice? What are they? And who makes them? I have seen some software vocoder plug ins. Know what I'm talking about? Any info about a vocoder, both hard or soft would also win you some serious cool points in my book.

A Vocoder is a processing unit that takes two audio singnals (a Carrier and a Modulator) and mixes them together. The Carrier is usually a synthetic sound, while the Modulator is the singer's voice. The Vocoder mixes the synthesizer with the singer's voice, and the result is a robotic voice effect. Although it can sound cool when done correctly, it can really destroy vocal performance. I have no idea how long ago you posted this thread, you may have figured it all out by now. But if not, I think I know how I can solve your vocal problem. You can use a compressor on your vocals. When a compressor is applied, it normalizes the volume (makes every piece of audio signal go to its loudest point possible without distortion). And then you could equalize your vocals to bring out the upper and mid pressence. The will make your voice sound crisper and much more audible. I hope that this information was of some use to you. Take care :)
 
Gee, I wonder if he (she?) has given up singing after NINE YEARS, or solved the problem?

Voice lessons over all that time would certainly either fix the OP's voice problems, or cause the teacher to run, screaming from the room...
 
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