One mic, one amp, one minidisc recorder and I need it to sound professional ...

[kev99sl]

I have three songs by an artist that were recorded in his basement using a minidisc recorder. The general quality is OK, but he tended to eat the microphone once in a while, and he's complaining that his vocals aren't "out there" enough. My job is to accentuate the vocals as much as I can, using only the final "mixed down" songs (although there were never any "tracks" from which the songs were "mixed down").

I initially tried to make everything sound fuller by amplifying the tracks a few decibels, and then adding a little delay. The delay works fine on one of the songs - I'm calling that one finished, in fact - but on the other two it makes it sound like he's standing three feet to the left of the mic or something.

I'm guessing it's going to come down to re-EQing it somehow. My attempts to do this so far have resulted in every single "b" and "p" sound punching through the speakers like crazy - did I mention that he was pretty much eating the mic? Any suggestions as to what I should try next? Obviously, I'm not going to find a perfect solution here, but I'd like to get some ideas of what to try.

We're talking about one guy, one electric guitar, very dynamic levels.

I'm new here, so go easy on me! Thanks.

[Track Rat]

If you have the tracks seperated (vocal in one track, guitar in another, etc..) run the vocal through a compressor set up as a de-esser. If they're all in a stereo pair, you can try using a de-esser surgicly but............

[kev99sl]

Originally posted by Track Rat
If you have the tracks seperated (vocal in one track, guitar in another, etc..) run the vocal through a compressor set up as a de-esser. If they're all in a stereo pair, you can try using a de-esser surgicly but............

Unfortunately, no. All I have is a finished stereo .WAV file.

[chrisharris]

I'd boost the whole thing between 2-5K, then do the "surgical strikes" technique. It's a pain in the ass, but if you're still working on the mix when you get this, you've already spent a lot of time doing stuff that doesn't work, right?

you have my sympathy,
-chris

[kev99sl]

Originally posted by chrisharris
I'd boost the whole thing between 2-5K, then do the "surgical strikes" technique. It's a pain in the ass, but if you're still working on the mix when you get this, you've already spent a lot of time doing stuff that doesn't work, right?

you have my sympathy,
-chris

You called it: I'm still working on it. Thanks for the advice. I've gotten a lot of mileage just from amplifying and limiting the crap out of them, re-EQing to bring up the low end and the mids, and then applying a liberal dose of reverb. It's a cheap solution, I suppose, but it's as good as it's going to get with the source material I was given. Two of the three tracks sound passable, and I'll tackle the third tonight. Then the surgical strikes will begin ...

Thanks for all the input.