Voice recording trouble

YanKleber

YanKleber

Retired
Hey all!

After finally to get close of finalization of my two first albums, I am starting to get prepared to move forward. Till now I have worked with very limited resources and am thinking what I can do to improve things, preferably not spending money as I already will have to buy a simple keyboard (currently I build all my VST instruments tracks by clicking note by note with the mouse and it is really locking my creativity).

One of the problems that is more bugging me at the moment is the voice recording. I am not a singer so I don't know any technique. I just sing because my songs needs a singer and I don't have anyone else to do this job for me.

Basically I have three problems:

1) Voice "shine": in some tracks I record it gets brighter and in others it gets darker. How can I control it?

2) Volume variation: in certain parts of the song I clearly sing louder than in others. I noticed that I cannot correct it with compressors (or more probably I just don't know how to use them) so normally I do the job manually by adjusting the volume trim curve along the track. Any tip?

3) There is the sibilance stuff. Due to language reasons plurals at the end of phrases sound very poetic in Portuguese (my native idiom). Would you tip me with any advice that can help to leash the "esses" at the record time? I was hoping for some trick like pantyhose pop killer that works as "esses" killer...

PS: My microphone is a cheapo copy of SM-57. I used to have a Behringer big condenser mike before that costed 10 times more. However, believe it or not the 57 copy has shown to be too much better so I got rid of the Behringer and kept the 57 clone. Together with it I use a small Behringer MIC100 pre-amplifier.

Thanks!
 
1) This is probably an effect from your proximity to the mic. If you use a pop filter (even the old pantyhose on a coathanger) positioned an inch or two 9experiment) form the mic, then keep you lips against the pop filter, it should eliminate the changes in tone from proximity.
2) Use volume automation in your DAW first, then compression, sounds like you are doing it correctly.
3) Sibilance is something you can work on with our vocals - although water is needed for the throat, too much saliva in the mouth can mean extras sibilance. With a dynamic mic, there are a few tricks that can be tried such a pencil placed in front of the mic (or the pop filter) that diverts some of the air stream, or angling the mic so you are not facing it head-on. After that, de-essing plug-ins can be used. For end-of word esses, you can volume automate them away.
 
Cool, mjbphotos, very valuable tips!

1) I will make some tests. As far as I can see my microphone setup is wrong: The pop filter is almost touching the mike (like 1/2 inch) and I am singing away from it (like 2 inches or so far from the filter). I think that it explains why even cranking up the pre-amp gain knob I still get somewhat a low signal and a considerable undesired ambient noise. Thanks for all the provided details!

2) I thought that use automation to compensate volume was a stupid way of doing it but I was so desperate to balance the level differences that it was the only solution that came to my mind -- glad to know that I wasn't spending all the time with this job for nothing! :)

3) I will try the angling and pen trick. I have used already de-esser plugins to reduce them. Good idea to use the automation to kill them too, I didn't think about this. Thank you!

:D
 
You can also minimise sibilance by changing how you sing. For example, you can lengthen the vowels and shorten the consonants. Instead of singing 'beesssss', sing 'beeeees'.
 
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