How to remove a nasal/plugged up sound?

S

shoggoth80

Member
Hey all.
This seems a little silly, and perhaps it is. The only aspect of my voice that I am generally unhappy with is that I sound stuffed up almost all the time (and this is true in physical terms...I really am). It only becomes noticeable when I start hitting middle voice ranges. If I stick to the lower registers, it is much harder to notice, and if I gravel out, you can't hear it. :D Largely this is due to not having my adenoids removed as a child.

Any tips to help minimize the sound? I tends to get overpowered when there is music behind my voice, so I am sure that it is possible to EQ it, or blend it out of a mix somehow... but better going in, will be better in outcome... so...??? :confused:
 
i could be wrong here but....

what i've always heard from my vox teacher, plugging/holding your nose closed, shouldn't affect your sound tremendoulsly unless your singing with improper technique...

ie too nasal

i would suggest afrin nasal spray for congestion, it works wonders for me whenever i'm stuffed up :)

but honestly it's likely your technique, as it is common for singers, when attempting to sing "high" notes to over compensate and make the sound nasal in order to "thin" it out.

.02
 
Well, it is still there on the low end, but not nearly as noticeable. It might be possible that I am pushing too much through the nose to get the sound on the high end, but it doesn't *feel* like it. I sound stuffed up when I talk too. Lol. Maybe I'll get gutsy, and post up a .ogg of some takes I did for shits and grins to help more clearly illustrate what I am talking about. I generally don't sing in a very high register. I tend to avoid falsetto. I think a man, should sing like a man. Ha ha ha!

I have to do some searching though, as I do not know how to add audio files. Are they just attached/uploaded to thread?
 
Now, this is about the gutsiest for the moment. I have attached a short 30 second or so MP3 take. This was done with my Mp105 tube pre, run through an ART interface. Used a smidge of 'verb, a low pass filter, and some compression. You can hear a little of my stuffiness in the lower end here, but not as much as you would had I punched it out. Lol. Just a quick snip of a Nick Cave song I really like.
Thoughts?
 

Attachments

  • Nick Cave Vocal take .mp3
    577 KB · Views: 96
You can get those sticks that you sniff to clear out stuffiness temporarily? Perhaps take a sniff before recording? A friend of mine used to use these all the time before he had to get a nose job to sort it out.
 
ok i've listened to your vox clip and i have a few suggestions.

it sounds a bit to me like your over compensating too much to get a "deep" sound that is unnatural for the timber of you voice. you are doing what is common for a lot of singers and adding too much artificial "weight" to your voice. as a result the annucation of the words your singing have moments of unintelligibility. focus on vowel purity.

lighten your voice a good bit... don't worry about sounding "thin" or "girly", sing naturally don't over emphasize by being to bright or too deep. once you've sung for awhile you will find your "weight" i which you can sing with ease.

actually some falsetto exercises would do a great deal for helping to "lighten" your voice.

try singing scales with foo, fee, zoo, zee. these vowels enact more falsetto muscle coordination than the much more chest heavy fah, zah, mah, fay, zay, may vowel sounds.

once you've found a good falsetto "placement" (aslo known as up and back) try to sing your lower notes from that "placement". it won't be exactly the same but better, clearer, and more intelligble :)
 
"once you've found a good falsetto "placement" (aslo known as up and back) try to sing your lower notes from that "placement". it won't be exactly the same but better, clearer, and more intelligble "

Interesting. This is something I have never heard before. I'll have to work at that. Anything that increases skills is a good thing to try. My choir prof never mentioned why certain things worked... we just warmed up the same way every time before singing. This was also many years ago, so I could be not-remembering something. I will also openly admit to being quite rusty... as I haven't worried about singing for several years.

"sounds a bit to me like your over compensating too much to get a "deep" sound that is unnatural for the timber of you voice. you are doing what is common for a lot of singers and adding too much artificial "weight" to your voice."

-If this is something that I am doing, it's something that I am not thinking about as I am doing it. Which means that I am going to have to un-learn bad behaviors if this is the case.

Thanks for listening though... it took a bit of guts to post that MP3. I've been recorded in choir groups before... but I only have ever recorded my voice solo in a fun capacity. Anything constructive is always welcome.
 
You're swallowing your vowels. It's all in placement. The "Ah" sound should place between the back of the tongue and soft palette, but I can't tell you exactly where. It's an entire system and you're cutting off part of it. You want to sing in your baritone range? Good. Get a coach. If you want to sing it is worth the money.

Hey, and learn Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin."
 
Actual vocal coaching would be an eye opener I am sure. Most of what I know I have either learned from reading, doing, or actually working with choirs. Pity my prof, who was an excellent singer, couldn't really give one on one time.
 
I'll post up a clip of just speech level sound. Just to show what I mean a bit better. While I admit that there may be some flaws in technique, I will also say that how I am singing feels fine. Though that could also simply be because that is the way I have been doing it for years. But because I am always stuffy, I think my vowels always sound muffled out a bit. Easier to show than to tell, so I"ll make a clip after I get some homework done.
 
Here is a brief speech level clip to illustrate more how I sound "normally." Pretty much always stuffy.
 

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  • HR.com Hello.mp3
    239.9 KB · Views: 20
But you're speaking out. Here's a suggestion. In a song, speak the line as you would say it. Then speak it in the fundamental note of the passage. Feel where the resonance is happening? Now when you sing the line, feel the resonance in the same place.
 
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