Mixing Vocals, EQ, Reverb & Compression

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shanetsh90

New member
I have a few questions for the Gurus out there regarding this cover that i made a while ago..

1. how do i increase the warmth of my vocals?
2. how do i boost the air in my vocals (i hear them in my monitor but the youtube one seems to squash it)
3. how to i reduce the shriek in my high range?
4. why does the mids sound so muffled in the youtube video.

thank you in advance,

here's the video in question:
I Put A Spell On You - Nina Simone (Cover) - YouTube
 
shanetsh90 said:
I have a few questions for the Gurus out there regarding this cover that i made a while ago..

1. how do i increase the warmth of my vocals?
2. how do i boost the air in my vocals (i hear them in my monitor but the youtube one seems to squash it)
3. how to i reduce the shriek in my high range?
4. why does the mids sound so muffled in the youtube video.

thank you in advance,

here's the video in question:
I Put A Spell On You - Nina Simone (Cover) - YouTube
Click to expand...

Warmth, air, shriek and mud are all things that can be adjusted via a standard 7 band style eq in pro tools or similar. Do some googling to get you started on which BALLPARK frequencies to attenuate or boost for vocals. Google things like "how to eq male vocals" or "how to use a parametric eq" etc. You're going to have to play around and see what works best.

Some other tips though. I think your voice sounds more natural when you're a good mid distance from the mic. When you get too close, it sounds "too close". But when you sing louder passages, you can really hear the sound of your room. While in most cases you DO want some naturalness of the room, it sounds to me like "oh he recorded this in his bedroom". It makes sense because louder noises excite the reverb in a room. I would suggest perhaps at least a moving blanket draped a few feet behind you to tame some reflections. I see you're trying to emulate a "vox guard" by putting that chunk of foam right up against the mic but GET RID OF IT> It's guaranteed muddying up your mid range and robbing the highs you desire (the air). It's practically touching the mic. I have a home made vox guard, and it doesn't rob any highs as it is far enough away to just block incoming early reflections. So google more things like "how to set up for a vocal recording". Things like that.

I usually have a few thick moving blankets behind me. I face away from the blankets, and I'm looking out into the room (standing near corner). Vox guard behind the mic and that's it. It's open sounding but not all "oh I can hear he recorded this in his bedroom" sounding.

Here's a cheap way to make a better shield. If you don't make or buy one, DON'T use that chuck you're using at all. DIY: $10 Microphone GOBO - Sound Dampener Shield - YouTube
 
thanks for the constructive comment.. i will try to get a better shield..

for the meantime, is there any good website u can recommend me to study about the ballpark frequencies so i can fix the current audio?
 
Sorry I'm not going to recommend any sites since there are hundreds/thousands with a simple google search. You've actually already keyed in the characters on your keyboard ^ of what you need to search. So If you want to save a few seconds, you could copy those characters above and paste into Google. :p

All sarcasm aside, What I recommend is this...grab and eq and use your EARS to sweep around the spectrum. First, think of the most annoying frequency you're hearing that you want to get rid of (or attenuate). Is it the shrieK? Ok, so raise up a narrow boost in your eq...sweep it around until the shriek nearly rips your ears off. Once you've found it, bring it down. It may require a 1dB cut or even up to a 15dB cut or more! Next, look around for the wooly/muddiness. When you find it, do the same. Chances are after you do this with all your unwanted frequencies, you likely won't even need to boost anything.

However, common places for "air" would be....where do you think? 100 hz? 500 hz? 1k? No. Use your ears. If you raise up an eq shelf a could db in the high end, you'll hear the "air". This may start at 6k, or it may not be til 8k, 10k, or even 12k! It all depends on the voice, mic, room, pre, and even the type of eq you're using.

Best of luck, man! :)

PS: Great voice. May I suggest standing up when you record? Then again, there's Dave Grohl who always sits down to record vocals!
 
First off, YouTube sounds like crap and there isn't much you can do about it.

Most of he things you are wanting to change are things that need to be captured a certain way. The warmth is really something that needs to be captured at the source. If your voice is shrieky, that's more of a performance issue and not something that you should try to fix in the mix.

Btw, I have never ever needed seven bands of parameter eq...ever.
 
For me the vocal, not the backing, could do with a bit more compression of the peaks. That will help tame the loud screechy parts a bit. It will also bring the reverb up a bit so watch that.

I'd add a little bass and reduce a little treble on the vocal. Nothing fancy, but use your ears and dont be afraid to use it till it sounds better in the mix.

Seems like a bit of clipping going on there at times. Just lower your vocal recording volume by 10db or so and make it up later.

Vocal style very reminiscent of the great Ray Charles. Keep it up. Good work.



Tim
 
dude, that's a huge compliment that i'll try to live up to XD
hope do i boost the bass? i'm completely new to this.. do i boost the low frequencies?

and it terms of compression, do i increase the attack? or ratio?

again.. really sorry.. this all seems real confusing to me XD
 
I don't have any advice to offer. But I want to say that I think you're a great singer. I wish I could sing half that well t under perfect conditions, let alone sitting down at my desk. :eek:
 
thanks man.. its just a test run..

i just wanna make my videos the best i can be so that if a person does enjoy my voice they wont get thrown off by the annoying stuff XD
 
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