How to beef up vocal tracks? Inexperienced!!

J

jakenauta

New member
Hey, i just recorded my first album with my own equipment that i borrowedoff people....

using n-tracks mainly

just wondering ---

my vocals need to be constant...there are loudness and softness that i would like to make equal volume the whole way through the vocal track,

how do i acheive this??

thank

Jake

jakemantm@hotmail.com
 
Besides the compression learn some basic mic techniques like backing off the mic for loud passages and leaning in for the soft ones.
 
Bruce-

I would've thought in a studio environment, it would be better to not move around to keep from ruining a take? To have a consistant signal going in, compress/ride the fader after if you want to change the dynamics. Or are you saying for an experienced vocalist, working the mic keeps you from processing so hard?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject...I know the benefit to working the mic in a live situation, but now that I'm recording in a studio, it'd be good to know (in general) how I should proceed.
 
randyfromde said:
I would've thought in a studio environment, it would be better to not move around to keep from ruining a take?
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In a studio environment, if you mess something up, you can always do another take or just punch it in. :D Not so at a live gig. Although there was this time when . . .
 
What I meant was, stylistically you could have had an amazing take, but by trying to control the volume, you might end up getting the dynamics wrong. By just singing at a constant distance, you have a certain level of dynamics and volume going in, which you can bring down later. If there's no signal coming in (working the mic wrong), you can't fix it later.
 
randyfromde said:
What I meant was, stylistically you could have had an amazing take, but by trying to control the volume, you might end up getting the dynamics wrong. By just singing at a constant distance, you have a certain level of dynamics and volume going in, which you can bring down later. If there's no signal coming in (working the mic wrong), you can't fix it later.
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The use of the word 'technique' kind of implies that it's something you have to learn and that it's something you can be bad, good mediocre at etc.

For me the quality of my vocal suffered when i learnt I had to 'work' a mic, because I was concentrating too hard on my proximity to the mic and this detracted from the performance. After a while it becomes second nature. Incidentally I'm pretty sure I don't do anything different singing live or in the studio, after all you want to convey the same emotions, I believe every take should be a 'performance'.

I think you could probably use compression to make up for vocal technique but surely it's better not to have to. I'm sure the more experienced recording guys would probably be more help in that respect.

I just reread my post and have no idea whether that's helpful to you or not. Oh well.
 
I think now you're getting more in to a philosophical venture as opposed to a technique issue. :D You could make arguments for or against. Ultimately, it comes down to doing whatever you can pull off and can make work best for you.
 
Compression will help, but don't try to get the compressor to level out all of the differences in volume. You need to "ride" the vocal fader during the mix. Fade down the loud words, fade up the soft ones. You may also want to bring the fader down at the beginning of a word or phrase, then bring it up toward the end of the word or phrase. Your vocal fader should be moving all over the place.
 
have you ever seen singers in the studio? i hate to use her as a reference but jessica simpson for instance. she is about 6 inches from the mic at a standard position and when she starts singing louder, at some points, she her head tilts back and to the left (back..and to the left.....back and to the left lol). she does that whole eye squinting thing to so it looks like shes all passionate about the song...the movement of her head though (back and to the left) actually helps the track cause the mic isnt getting hit with a direct attack of from her voice which could make the mic distort. she may not be the smartest blonde but shes got a set of lungs on her.
 
Talented vocalists who work the mic make an engineer's job easier since they are controlling their own dynamics much like a skilled guitarist will vary the "pluck" of their fingers for dynamic control.
 
distortedrumble said:
she does that whole eye squinting thing to so it looks like shes all passionate about the song...
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This leads me to believe that maybe she does in fact have some hidden talents. Somewhere.
 
Be careful with the proximity effect

Recorded a song once where I went between whipering and screaming. Had to discard the 'best' part, as I had to back off so far that the missing proximity effect maded the shouting thin out too much...

I think the next time, I'll try to record two tracks at the same time with different preamp settings. My mic handles the pressure without problems...

aXel
 
Some good advice one here...

If you've already done all the vocals, and can't redo them, then both compression, and changing the volume of the vocal track during the course of the song (hopefully, you can automate this!) will fix the problem.

This may help: bounce the quiet parts to another track, so you have two vocal tracks. You can then set the eq, compression, reverb and level on each track independently.

You may find this really useful because you can get nice breathy quiet passages, and loud passages that aren't overly sibilent or present. You can then do lots of creative things such as adding a doubling effect to the loud passages, or taking almost all the reverb out of the quiet parts to get that "in your face" whispering sound.
 
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