Dealing with fundamentally bad vocals

[RFR]

Yeah, but a man saying "Sweetie, we need to talk" somehow never ends well.
lol.

 

[thehitman2375]

well, it's better for all involved to make mistakes now while it doesn't cost anyone anything and also doesn't screw anyone. if this project is unsuccessful, there's always the "we gave it the college try." i don't imagine an actual paying client would be ok with you saying: "tough luck kiddo, we'll get 'em next time, sport.."

also if she were to go into a studio and pay a lot of money, it would be very embaressing for her to only then realize she's not ready. this experience you are giving them is the time for learning how to be ready for when it goes further. if you give them a recording of how she actually sounds, and then have her talk with a vocal coach, the vocal coach will be able to hear what she's doing right and what's she's doing wrong and help her make adjustments. if she had some guidance in how to rehearse and prepare, she'll get very excited when she hears the results. what she sounds like now may just be more discouraging. if she loves music and loves to sing, then it's likely that any chance she gets to sing more and get better will be something she will like. instead of telling her that she doesn't sound good, maybe present it as "we want you to sing more and working with a vocal coach will help you to do that". if it's her boyfriend she's working on music with, just think of how many points he would score with her if he helped make this happen for her. she'd be grateful just for him to take more interest, and if the money comes out of his pocket, i'll bet she will show her appreciation somehow. this could very easily be a win-win-win for all involved if handled the right way.

 

[mjbphotos]

I would just let it ride. Compress the crap out of it with a transparent compressor, lower it in the mix (it was too loud, which made it really sound worse than it needed to), throw some ambience on it and give it to them.

There really isn't anything that could fix that performance. Autotune will only fix the pitch. The timing, dynamics and delivery will still suck.

It shouldn't fall on you to tell her she sucks, if she figures it out on her own and asks for help, help her all you can.

I finally listened to the MP3. Jay's advise is the best you can do with this particular recording. Autotune can only do so much - she's never on key or in time wiht the instruments and her tone is nothing spectacular.

 

[easlern]

I would crank up the guitars and turn it into some kind of punk track and get her to scream the vocals. good luck!

This is my first instinct as well. I think it's good enough but she's not selling it. Have her yell and make it punk, forget the pitch. Make it up front and dry as salt.

You should put the tracks in mix this, see what crazy shit we can do with it.

 

[Mike Caliri]

GOOD LUCK Has she heard it?

 

[diggy_dude]

We need more details as to how much this matters....

We don't need to know all of that to know there aren't very many ways to fix a singer who has ZERO control over her voice. I don't even know where to begin with this. You may be able to "sort of" fix the pitch with AutoTune. You may be able to "sort of" fix the nasality with creative filtering. But that squeaky throat thing... I just don't know. Suggest that they hire a vocal coach, perhaps.