Distortion on a capella vocals

lpdeluxe

lpdeluxe

The Precision Bass Guy
Here's a killer problem: I have an a capella recording 3:58 long. It has a lot of vocal parts to simulate a massed chorus. It all sounds terrific except that at one point I bring in a single female vocal underneath the lead (no massed chorus). Everything is well below clipping on the meters but when the lead & vocal start to sing together I get digital distortion on the peaks. When soloed each voice is clean so it's not in the original tracks. It only happens on 2 points in the song but it's making me crazy. Anybody have any experience with this?
 
Try EQ'ing the 2 vocals in opposite directions at the peak. Pick a frequency range to start, say 2.5K, attenuate the male vocal say, 3db, and boost the female vocal the same. If that doesn't help, reset, and do the same thing going up and down the audio spectrum. It sounds like at that peak point, the 2 voices are competing for the same acoustic space..-Richie
 
Thanks. I'll give that a try. BTW, it's 2 female contraltos...which would bear out your analysis. It's been a bit of a challenge since I have 15 songs recorded for this project and this is the only distortion I have found...and it occurs not when I have 21 voices all singing at once, but with relatively low lead and harmony vocals. Live & learn.
 
Glad to be of assistance, LP. I have to give credit where it's due, though. I learned that from Littledog during the mixing sessions for my CD "Reunion", and also in communications with Sjoko during the mastering. When 2 sounds are fighting for the same frequency, the result is mush. I had that problem with one of my backing vocalists, because our voices share certain harmonics. Even though we were singing different notes, the overtones in our voices were overlapping so that you couldn't separate them. I watched as Littledog pulled them apart in Pro Tools and heard the difference. Then Sjoko went around happily shelving frequencies that really had nothing to do with the music. I'm glad I could trouble-shoot your probem at a distance, and even more glad that I actually learned something from those sessions. God, someday, I might even be an audio engineer.-Richie
 
Gee Richard, that was useful to me too.

But occasionally that overlapping distortion can be used as an effect. Sometimes I've sung the same part exactly the same twice and played both back together - maybe it's some sort of phasing that's going on, but sometimes it sounds okay.
 
Mr Monroe, what's a little embarrasing is that I already KNEW I was getting overlap from tracking all the vocals with an AT4033. Next project, I'll use my NT1000 for the leads and the AT for backups...or maybe I'll finally have some better mics. I'm running into the problem that (in my space) the 4033 is very flattering and the singers insist on using it!
 
Yeah, whether you apply the EQ shift at the mixing stage, or just let the mic do it for you with its own built-in frequency response, the result is similar. The advantage of using a different mic is you get a different sound. Plus, of course, it justifies the purchase of a second really good condensor LOL.
 
Probably the only way to guard against this is to buy LOTS of microphones...let me go explain this to my wife.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top