Deep voice...tracking tips?

sdp530

sdp530

New member
Hey, I have been rapping, recording and mixing myself for a couple years now and I am always looking to better my ears and my technique. Even if you may not like rap my questions are pretty general. First of all, we only have one vocal chain available to record through (very basic home setup) and we record in a treated room so the vocals are pretty dry (no room acoustics). We use a Blue baby bottle mic with the Focusrite Platinum preamp recording directly into cubase using a m-audio card.

The problem always seems to lie in my voice. I have a somewhat deeper voice and alot of the times it comes out sounding hollow and hard to understand. Along with my deep voice I rap pretty quickly so it makes it even more difficult to understand. Even though I strive hard to announciate every word it doesn't seem to come through in mix down.

I have had some success in a few songs so I do get it right every once in a while but it seems to be a hit and miss. I guess what I am looking for is tips from poeple that have delt with an artist with a deep voice...tracking tips....mic position....eq tweaks. Again, I know it is different for every voice but maybe you can share a few things that would apply to me. The ideal result would be clear vocals but still have that power from the lower tones without being muddy.

You can hear me on the first verse of "fall in" on our sound page. Beware there is explicit lyrics.

www.myspace.com/shutdownproductions

I know that the myspace streams sound horrid but it might give you and idea of what I sound like. Thanks

-C
 
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I listened to your verse. First off it doesn't sound bad, but I do see what you mean about being hard to understand at times. I would suggest some EQ add more mids and take away some lows. Another thing to try is change the pitch of the song (higher) to force yourself to rap at a higher pitch, then once you capture the track bring it back to the original pitch.

The mics sounds good no need to change that. I guess just keep experimenting, you will find what works and when you do write down the settings so you can consistently produce that sound. best of luck. Holla at ya boy!!
 
One neat trick for low-register vocals is to point either the vocal mic or a second mic down towards the singer's chest to pick up the lower freq resonances directly from the chest cavity.

G.
 
Or just swallow the mic and close-mic the vocal chords.
 
Our voices tend to sound other than what we imagine during playback. This is true because of how sound resonates throughout our bodys (especially in the skull) and hits our ears from the inside.

So when you hear yourself on playback, you hear your voice as everyone else hears it.

try a radio broadcasters mic. Great built-in compensation for this application. You get things from the Sure SM7 all the way to the EV RE20. On the higher spectrum, some Neuman stuff as well as the Blue Mouse mic excels at getting a great low end response with nice smooth highs. The idea being to find a mic that puts your voice in the pocket without any EQ.

Mic selection, including the act of obtaining a good collection, is the start to great recording technique.

Glen brings up a great point. Mic your chest (perhaps better with some type of low end tailored mic) in conjunction with a condenser microphone aimed anywhere between your chin and your nose. People think that you have to speak directly into a mic, but that dosn't have to be the case. With a side address condenser, you can opt to "mic your nose" so that you're talking at the body of the mic, rather than directly into the diaphram. Depending on the elements, you can stand with 3-6inches.

Also, try getting closer to bring out proximity effect. On a omnidirectional mic, like an SM58, that may not be the route you're looking for. So try any of the other polar patterns.

But really, in the end, just listen to what your getting. If you think it's missing low end, then try to imagine what it sounds like in your head and get it there. A little EQ goes a long way.
 
Hey guys, I appreciate all the tips. I am going to play around with the mic placement until I find the tone I like and hopefully polish it up in the mix. I wish I had a local guitar center or something so I could go test different mics on my voice but that is just not and option where I live. Anyways, my ears are getting better at pinpointing the frequencies that need tweaking but I still got a long ways to go!
-C
 
Another thing, if you're mic is capable... use a low cut or roll-off switch. You'll still probably need some eq and whatnot, but that may help.
 
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