Vocal effects in Cool Edit

[missyschmit]

What are the best effects to put on vocals? Also, what is the best way to remove the noise without making the vocals change? When I try to take the hiss and noise out, it makes them sound as if there is too much compression on them. Thanks!!

BTW Thanks for the help with my condenser mike problems!

[dobro]

Reverb.

"Also, what is the best way to remove the noise without making the vocals change?"

Maybe I'll make this into a sticky. Somebody asks it every few weeks/months. Use the noise reduction feature. Sample a two- or three-second segment of the track BEFORE or AFTER the part starts or finishes, or maybe a segment in between the playing segments. Then save the segment and close out of noise reduction. That's right, close out of it. Then highlight the whole track and open noise reduction again, load the segment you've saved and run it on the track. It'll remove all of the noise that's on the track which is *unconnected* with the music on the track. It works like a damn, as long as there isn't too much noise on the track. (If there's too much noise on the track, it still works, but it removes so much noise that it actually removes important bits of the frequency spectrum of the music as well.)

[missyschmit]

Thank you so much! It worked. I appreciate your help! It was easier when I went into spectral view, to see the noise. Then I did what you said, and it was great.

[lpdeluxe]

There is also a facility in Audition 1.5 which allows you to remove individual noises (I use it on guitar finger squeaks). Open the track in Edit View, hit F9 for Spectral VIew, and play the track. You'll be able to identify the unwanted noises. Then use the lasso marquee tool (it is selected by default when you go to Spectral View), and draw it around the noise (you do one at a time). Then go to Effects/Noise Reduction/Click Eliminator and click on the button marked "Fix One Click Now" (or something similar). The noise will be deleted and the surrounding audio will be cloned over it. Once you have fixed the first noise, you can go on to the next, draw around it, and press F3 to repeat the operation. This makes it a quick process when you have recurring noises (finger squeaks) that you can't use the noise reduction on.

[sloom]

"...The noise will be deleted and the surrounding audio will be cloned over it. Once you have fixed the first noise, you can go on to the next, draw around it, and press F3 to repeat the operation. This makes it a quick process when you have recurring noises (finger squeaks) that you can't use the noise reduction on..."
-Quoting lpDeluxe.

Come on! That sounds just nuts. I have to pull it together to upgrade. How much fun is that!?

[lpdeluxe]

Tell ya what, I was reading a review of a specialized program used to restore audio, and this $1200 software being reviewed works just like Audition 1.5. So buy AA and save a grand or so!

Seriously, it works. Besides finger squeaks, I run into guitar players who like to boogie while they play (and they seem to always find the loose board in my studio floor), chair noises, and other oddments, and this fixes 'em every time.

[sloom]

Yeah, well I suppose I will be saving up for AA. I've picked up n-Track, and for the bang it's nice- though it's a bit 'buggy'. But after you get settled in with it, I think it works pretty well.

But the thing about CEP (AA) is that certain features are just better, like using envelopes. I haven't seen a better application or execution of this feature anywhere! They're very smooth and easy to manipulate.

The Editing is super-sharp, and that edit window is unbeatable. Dragging tracks in Multitrack is easy and accurate- no struggling. Laying-out and grouping whatever blocks you're grouping together is breezy. Configurable keystrokes...

I can do MIDI with n-Track, which is a rarity though; and I find the Mixer window somehow a bit friendlier to look at and use. Hey, dunno. So it's n-Track for recording and finding the 'mix', and CEP for arranging, editing. I don't spend near enough time doing music, so I'm not the expert I should be with this by now! But it's all getting reasonably comfortable.

Anyway, whatever I might go on to for apps, nothing will replace my CEP/AA I don't think.

The n-Track forum is also a great site, as far as being able to get ready help for whatever you have going on in the way of problems. A hip crew over there, very forward and pretty darned cheerful- and it's not a huge site or user-base I think, which makes for a good community. Like this one, I'm thinking.