Vocal Processing

[Brian-Idol]

OK, here's a somewhat complicatd question, so I'll start with an example. Anyone here who has seen Blink-182 live, and also heard their albums knows that singer/guitarist Tom Delonge sings like hell in real life. It's terrible. But, on thei album they make it sound like he's a decent singer for that type of music. He sounds processed on the albums, but it works. You get the opposite with Mark Hoppus, because he sound "dry" on most songs. Anyway, I record a lot of punk music, and most of these guy can't sing. So, is there an inexpensive processor or method to make it sound like they have some aility, or strengthen the abiliy they already have? Please help.

thanks

[Seanmorse79]

It's called Antares Auto-Tune. It does a great job of correcting the pitch of a vocal track when somebody's singing is off-key (assuming pitch is the problem). Some people look at it as cheating, but hey --to each his own. It can also do that funky Kid Rock-Cher synthesized vocal type thing

As far as a "processed" sound goes, you could probably search and print out 100 pages of posts on what you need to do to a vocal track to make it sparkle. If you're doing punk stuff, you probably don't want it to sound too processed, so go easy on the reverb, compress the hell out of it, and run it through a subtle spreader (you can use any basic multi-tap delay) and you aught to be in the ballpark.

[Brian-Idol]

Thanks, I'll definatly look into information on the Antares Auto-Tune. I appreciate your help

[thornapple]

What is your recording medium? If you have adats with a brc, you can tune that tape until that singer sounds musical. Lots of other recording formats have a simular feature. My ears and knowing all the technolgy that my gear offers are my 2 best tools. You will find with that approach you can make anybody sound better. Be careful this is all subjective. What I like and what my client likes are sometimes 2 different things. I have even had to go as far as tune tapes on every word, I also got paid to do this. It's extreme, so is rock-n-roll!!

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by Seanmorse79
It can also do that funky Kid Rock-Cher synthesized vocal type thing

Yeah.... that's what we need -- more songs with that hideous effect on them!!!

Don't encourage it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bruce

[Brian-Idol]

Since you asked for my recording medium, I run from a Behringer MX9000, into 2 Laylas, into my computer, which I run Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 on. I'm planning on getting Sonar soon, cause Iheardthey have the auto-tune as a plugin. Anyway, will Autotune really make a shittysinger sound decent? And a decent singer sound good?

[Track Rat]

If pitch is a little off you can can tweek it back on note with Autotune. If they're way off it'll make them sound like a munchkin. Garbage in, garbage out. I've used it to good effect and I've also wanted hurl on some. YMMV.

[Seanmorse79]

You probably already know that there are a million things that go into "making a singer sound good". The biggest factor, though is the singer. If he's off key, it's gonna sound bad, no matter how much "sparkle" you add to it, and AutoTune can fix that, so long as it's not horribly off. I can tell you that I use CW PA9 too, and I've had a lot of luck with it, and it's saved me countless re-takes, and made harmonies work a lot better. It's definately a quality product that's very tweakable. Keep in mind, that if you're recording vocals without much key to grab onto (like more spoken-type stuff) it's not going to do much for you. Also, if your singer is on key, but the recording sounds too dry, or flat, or one-dimensional, or bright, muffled, etc.... then you've got a different problem. Give the demo a try and see what happens.

[Brian-Idol]

Hey guys, thanks for all your help, I'll definatly be trying out the demo of autotune to see if it can help me out in the situations I run into with vocals. Man, this would be a lot easier if these "singers" actually could sing ! Oh well, that's the recording buisness for you, record whatever comes through the door, the good, the bad and the ugly!

Again, thanks

[thornapple]

Ok I've read thru all theese replies. And the one thing I find disturbing is the no one is speaking about using their ears. I mean really using them. If you take the time to train your ears for critical listening you might think differently. I can instantly tell when an antares peice is plugged in. It absolutely colors the signal. This is fine if you are looking to change the tone of your signal. However, I thought we were talking about getting better pitch out of your singers. Being able to offer simple vocal techniques to compensate for flatness or sharp will go a long way. Theese auto tune gadgets are flavore of the month club. Even if I feel lazy I still will try everything else first.