mastering techniques for vocals

[kevin C.]

i would just like to know some of the settings and effects that yall add to your voice to get a crisp sound and what not!!

and yall have any ways let me know!!

[andyhix]

1, 1.5, -0.6, Preset 3, and, of course, 24.

[Sinistah]

i don't know what to tell ya, but i'm sure most will tell ya "it depends on what you satisfied with"

but try to mess around with compression settings to help lay ya vocals into a track......

alot of people usually use between a 2:1-4:1 ratio with a fast attack and semi-fast release..... hopefully that should help ya as far as a starting point..

also you might wanna see if maybe it's your recording environment killing ya sound clarity, and maybe try to get in-depth info on normalizing, it helps keep the tracks overall decibles at a certain point so it wont clip..... so maybe you just might wanna work with those two settings and see what's right for your voice.

i'm pretty sure someone more experienced than me can help ya as far as what steps and applications would be best for vocals....

[Farview]

What you are talking about is not mastering. It's part of mixing.

I'll tell you what you want to know when you tell me how long a piece of string is.

[WERNER 1]

That's funny!!!

Originally Posted by Farview

What you are talking about is not mastering. It's part of mixing.

I'll tell you what you want to know when you tell me how long a piece of string is.

e=mc²

so that would make it 32.3 meters

[superspit]

Originally Posted by danny.guitar

e=mc²

so that would make it 32.3 meters

or....(the centre to one end) x2

[RawDepth]

Originally Posted by Farview

...when you tell me how long a piece of string is.

I think the length of all string extends at least to its own end.

[Sinistah]

and oh yeah, you don't "master" vocals.......

in case you were wondering why your thread turned into comedy central

[Farview]

OK here is the answer to this and all other questions like this: There is no one answer.

You have to go through this process:
1. Listen to the vocal that you recorded
2. Imagine the sound you want the vocal to have
3. Do what ever it takes to turn the vocal you have into the vocal you want using EQ, compression, etc...


"Crisp" means different things to different people, add that to the fact that any one vocal doesn't sound like any other vocal to start out with, you can imagine that there are no magic settings that will make everything wonderful.

[lpdeluxe]

You should start with the mic: pick one that has the sound you're looking for.

You only have one mic? Learn what its characteristic sound is, and then apply the effects to change it to what you want.

Or buy another mic that has the sound you want.

Or a preamp that complements the mic you have already.

Or...the list is endless. The fact is, that EQ and compression don't make a poor sounding vocal anything but an EQ'd or compressed poor sounding vocal.

Another strategy is to TRY THINGS OUT. That's what all of us do. The singer in my band LOVES the "Vocal Presence" Reverb preset in Cool Edit Pro 2.0. He's thinks I have some magic that makes his vocal sound wonderful, when his own recordings don't do it for him.

It helps that I have a condenser mic that works very well on his vocals in the room I record him in...but I wouldn't have discovered that combination without patiently sitting at my computer and listening to his vocals, over and over, until I found the sound he liked.

[Sinistah]

co-signs Lp Deluxe....

shitty technique will produce a shitty sound no matter if you got Young Guru or Bob Katz mastering ya shit....


vocally try to make sure your on ya "A" game in the booth, and it makes that "crisp" (or whateva) sound you trying to achieve that much easier to having do little to nothing at all to accomplish ya mission.