Dealing with fundamentally bad vocals

I feel I should point out (in my defence) that the track is as yet unmixed - I just did a quick export with the levels where they'd been during tracking. I'm just working on programming some better drums now....
 
Get the backing music better first. Then burn her a CD (no vocals) or give her an MP3 and tell her to sing to it for th enext 2 + weeks, just keep singing to it - it will help get her timing more in synch wiht it. Maybe it'll help her pitch if she practices enough, too.
 
gecko zzed said:
Her voice has an interesting sound . . . quirky enough almost to be get-awayable with.

She sounds unconfident, as if she is not sure of the tune, or can't hear properly (or both).

The mix,as some-one has said, isn't flattering. The band and her need to be brought together more.

I would not mess with autotune. I'd aim for an honest recording, and let them deal with it.
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tada ! not on my own then :)

the flow of her delivery is like they said to her "do it this way" .. the band aint in the flow n don't get it ... imo let her freeflow and comp the more exotic takes :)


its kinda Prodigy vs Xray specs :D

 
I listened to the mp3. It isn't hopeless, IMO. The voice is not annoying, exactly. I doubt you are going to be able to fix that particular recording, but she might improve with practice and direction. She needs to work on pitch and singing more forcefully. If she is serious, lessons could help. My voice sucks too. I'm not sure Melodyne will fix that accent though...just kidding! ;)
 
I actually felt a bit guilty after my last comments, even though the vocal was out of tune, out of time and inconsistent, I did find the voice very interesting. Encourage her to practice and get a few lessons and the rest will fall into place.

By the way the vocal you are trying to fix is nowhere near the worst I have had to work with, the biggest problem is when the vocalist thinks they are really good and they are complete rubbish. Then I have to get the turd polish out.

Alan.
 
Sort of a silk purse out of a sow's ear thing, really.

*cue Mission Impossible tune*

From what I'm hearing, apart from the pitch issues, her timing is shot and the tone is a bit fingernails on the blackboard, to me anyway - thin and whiny.

Value the friendship? Might be better not to be involved ...
 
regardless of the rest of the circumstances, it's a really good idea for any singer to work with a knowledgeable vocal coach. having a vocal coach during the sessions will steer this thing in the right direction. it's not always the engineer's responsibility to "fix" the performance. you wouldn't hand a guitar to a guy on the street and ask him to come record an album on the spot, thinking that u will just fix everything in the mix. singers benefit from instruction, and a vocal coach will not only help her perform better, but also build her confidence. anytime you decide to record a bad performance thinking that you will fix it later is only creating more work for yourself. make this easier, not harder. your recordings will sound world's better when you are spending your time and energy focusing on the sound and not the performance. a good performance makes it listenable, regardless of the sound quality. a bad performance is unlistenable, especially in a good recording. when you don't have the tools or answers, bring in the right person for the job. in this case, a vocal coach. everyone involved will be glad about it, and everyone will grow and get better for it. as an engineer, having an extra set of ears allows you to actually engineer. if you are listening for both the recording and the performance, u will be trying to divide your attention in half and both the sound quality and performance will suffer for it.
 
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thehitman2375 said:
regardless of the rest of the circumstances, it's a really good idea for any singer to work with a knowledgeable vocal coach. having a vocal coach during the sessions will steer this thing in the right direction. it's not always the engineer's responsibility to "fix" the performance. you wouldn't hand a guitar to a guy on the street and ask him to come record an album on the spot, thinking that u will just fix everything in the mix. singers benefit from instruction, and a vocal coach will not only help her perform better, but also build her confidence. anytime you decide to record a bad performance thinking that you will fix it later is only creating more work for yourself. make this easier, not harder. your recordings will sound world's better when you are spending your time and energy focusing on the sound and not the performance. a good performance makes it listenable, regardless of the sound quality. a bad performance is unlistenable, especially in a good recording. when you don't have the tools or answers, bring in the right person for the job. in this case, a vocal coach. everyone involved will be glad about it, and everyone will grow and get better for it. as an engineer, having an extra set of ears allows you to actually engineer. if you are listening for both the recording and the performance, u will be trying to divide your attention in half and both the sound quality and performance will suffer for it.
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This is great advice for someone who's getting paid pretty well for his/her efforts, but I'm pretty sure the OP said there was a six-pack in it for him. Who's going to pay for the vocal coach?
 
The bottom line is the girl needs some help with her vocals. Attitude and vocal character are there, but that's not enough. She needs to learn how to sing. At her expense, of course.
:-)
 
also, don't forget that you don't need autotune or melodyne to pitch correct vocals. every major piece of software and most mobile digital workstations have pitch shifting. just select the part that's out of tune, and shift it up or down until you get the correct pitch. it's not gonna to do it for you, so you need to be able to identify where it's out and know what the pitch it should be, but you won't have to buy anything as you already have it.
 
yes, at her expense of course, but if she's really serious about this, she'll spend the money. if she's not, then she's wasting your time recording to begin with.
 
i mean seriously, how can he care more about her project than she does? does that even make sense? a 6 pack or bottle of whatever isn't worth hours of fixing vocals.
 
I think there is a lesson to be learned here.
Don't do freebies for friends with no talent.
:-)
 
for someone who's learning and growing, you sorta have to put yourself out there to a degree. it's not easy and this situation can teach a lot for the next project and so forth. we all have to start somewhere, why not with people who are you friends? so long as nobody takes it personally. but a friend shouldn't hold it against you when the results are clearly an issue of the performance, and if they do, they are kinda just wrong.
 
suggesting a vocal coach just might seem insulting at first, but let's be honest, it's the help she needs, and you wouldn't suggest it unless you were genuinely helping her to achieve her best.
 
Friends don't let friends record... well, unprepared.

You have to do what you have to do to make the best of the recording. Whatever that is for you/her that makes things better, I feel the first step would be a bunch of honesty. :)
 
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