scratchy distortion in 1st few seconds of vocal

pazu

New member
Hey there, trying to troubleshoot an issue with broken up audio in the first few seconds of vocal here. MXL 990 mic. Pretty sure it was nowhere near clipping but, could there be an issue with the mic, electrics/mechanical? It seems to clear out fast. As if the first vocal pressure results in flapping or something, then it clears out. There are no effects on the vocal, well I might have fft filtered the master track though the song isn't mastered. The issue is in "First thing we'd climb..." Not sure if it's audible in the .mp3, could snip the few seconds in aif form. Sort of like a bit of "playing card in the spokes" thing happening. Could be in my vocal or it could be a clipping that I am not familiar with, where pressure is too high yet it doesn't raise the level? I have a pop screen in front of the mic. Been mulling over buying a mod mic element for the MXL 990, have read that they are worth the money. If I've got a bad module maybe swapping it out is the only way. Or perhaps it is just me... ugh.

Apologies for the attachment, haven't figured out how to embed .mp3's. Or have I... Vocals are a bit breaky but then have just got vocal range back from a chest cold, have to get used to hitting higher register notes with accuracy a bit.

Not my song, it's

Thanks for any thoughts, I realize this stuff can be painful to review. It's only the first few seconds of vocal that bother me, rest of the probs I can work on - though any advise helps. THank you. -Jonny
 
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I am not hearing any clipping or static nor distortion is the first phrase? Is that where you are talking about? "First thing we climbed the tree"?
 
Dude thank you for checking. Yes it is in "First thing we..." Like 5 or 6 scratchy breakups in there I'm hearing... Or am I? F v c k... Maybe, it could be something in my monitoring setup. Now I can't hear it either in the .mp3. What about in this, this is the original .wav recording, left channel are vocal. Might you hear it there? It is recorded low so be sure to turn down after!

Aw crap I can't attach a .wav? really? Here is the .wav snippet on box.



I am not hearing any clipping or static nor distortion is the first phrase? Is that where you are talking about? "First thing we climbed the tree"?
 
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maybe you have better ears than I do, but I don't hear it there either. I am listening on a computer system and not my monitors, but I still think they would pick it up. Sometimes, a hard drive may cause a static sound as its loading up the clips to play especially if its an older system. When you bounced it down, the static was not there. If thats the case, you can try and "free up" your computer by having less background stuff going on and use the bare minimum graphic settings. Just a thought
 
Thanks for the thoughts. I must be an artifact of my playback, this helps me to isolate it. Definitely I don't have better ears, just used to listening to my own voice, and it usually doesn't throw scratch unless I don't clear. I think it is in my playback somewhere, not headphones as I check with a matched set and it is the same. It is very minor, my concern was that if I caught something of value it might surface there. I've spent no money on monitors and listen through headphones, and a huge pair of EV cabs plus 12" berry cabs, hardly appropriate. Probably a crap connection somewhere in the board, I'm re-seating/retwisting everything, been awhile since I have.
Sure appreciate your having given a listen Bruthish thanks! - Jonny

maybe you have better ears than I do, but I don't hear it there either. I am listening on a computer system and not my monitors, but I still think they would pick it up. Sometimes, a hard drive may cause a static sound as its loading up the clips to play especially if its an older system. When you bounced it down, the static was not there. If thats the case, you can try and "free up" your computer by having less background stuff going on and use the bare minimum graphic settings. Just a thought
 
NO, I don't hear the 'scratchiness either. There's a little thump sound in the guitar intro and a couple of other places - probably your hand or arm hitting the guitar. The vocal is 'back from the mic' - getting the (not-so-good) sound of the room's reverb that is not captured in the guitar track.
 
Exercising my connections might've taken care of it, this morning I can't hear it in the clip. Have to conclude it was in playback somewhere though, have to say I would have never guessed that. So thanks for having checked.

Far as proximity, the vocal mic is about 3 - 4" from my face, the guitar mic is about 3" from the guitar. I am using the guitar's line out as well and mixing the guitar mic & line out at the small board i am using. Using the small board because it's solid state, no fan. For laughs, this is my setup. Obviously this is not what I am monitoring from, but next time if I hear an issue such as what I was hearing in this case, I'll just check it out there. Generally I take the DR-05 to the computer and transfer via USB for playback. Could be that the room has bad reverb in recording, haven't noticed it but, haven't been looking for it either. Yes my hand hit the guitar at many points, some times intentionally, some times not. The guitar is picked up by the vocal mic as well of course. My intent was not to put forward the song as something worthy, more to figure out whether I had a serious problem that needed addressing before pursuing further recordings. Seems that it is okay, relatively speaking so, thanks!

Edit - I'm burning that snippet and the .mp3 to CD to check out in the car as well, just to be sure that isn't showing up. But, I think that it is gone. Could have been 'ear fatigue', self-doubt, any number of things really. That thumpy hand sound, I had that gone in the mix but lost some guitar tone with it, so left it. Been a real struggle, trying to capture my guitar sound in a way that was really satisfying. Nowhere near finished testing that, all takes time.
 
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NO, I don't hear the 'scratchiness either. ... The vocal is 'back from the mic' - getting the (not-so-good) sound of the room's reverb that is not captured in the guitar track.

I don't hear it either. And if it's a high pitched pop-type sound, I'm usually pretty good at picking those up. Listened a couple of times and never heard it.

Also noticed the "bad room" sound to the vocal as mentioned above.
 
yeah that mic is going to pick up EVERYTHING and EVERY REFLECTION off the walls and windows. Being in that spot is probably not a great idea. I would consider moving it to the center of the room with the back of the mic facing the windows and then either buying or constructing a foam isolator to prevent it from bleeding into your mic like this:
images.jpg
 
I ah, don't know what 'bad room' sound is intended to mean, or how to get around that. It was just in the timeframe of the first part of "First", as if the sound were playing cards flipping through fingers - as if the sound were missing, in slots, for a millisecond like 3 or 4 times but just a bit, and very fast, just after the attack of the first part of the vocalization. Clearly it is not there now, never was there, it was an physical connection issue somewhere that surfaced briefly in those tones. Thing is, I listened to that frigging piece 30 times before I thought of this forum to maybe ask a question. It was there I tell you! Bigfoot! Also, if you play it backwards you can hear the devil. Worse yet if you play it forwards, you can hear me playing & singing :eek:

Thank you for your analyses.
 
Thank you all for the tips. At times I've put a jacket on the back side of that. I have lots of foam and can easily construct something, and get the mic away from the window.
 
If you ever need any help with editing vocals, we provide a professional service that can do this for you!
 
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If you ever need any help with editing vocals, we provide a professional service that can do this for you!


Get out of here with this crap and stop spamming the boards. This is home recording where people LEARN to record themselves not pay someone to do it for them.
 
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Just a thanks for the advise to control the room's crap dynamics with foam. I was able to devise something, and the corrective result of that has revealed irrefutably that I do have bad room dynamics. I may move to another part of the house for recording. This new realization gets me closer to understanding my own faults in playing and singing. Puts me in a much better position to get better recordings. I'll make a better baffle but this temp rig-up, and moving 3' further from the windows, seems to have helped. Good work guys.
 
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I'm not an acoustics expert, I just know a few of the basics.

But what material was that baffle made of? It might be a bit of an improvement. But I'd also either move the mic to a different spot in the room or move to a different room altogether (as you suggested you might). It looks like there are a lot of windows in the room. That's probably always gonna be a sumbitch.
 
I'm not an acoustics expert, I just know a few of the basics.

But what material was that baffle made of? It might be a bit of an improvement. But I'd also either move the mic to a different spot in the room or move to a different room altogether (as you suggested you might). It looks like there are a lot of windows in the room. That's probably always gonna be a sumbitch.

Hey, well the material is a polyester wall insulation that was on discount at Home Depot awhile ago, they only sell fiberglass around here, but this stuff is good because it's not itchy & scratchy. Is it the best acoustically speaking, well surely not but it's made quite an improvement. I did move the mic, but the room has 6 windows and is only about 10x10. I want to move to a larger room, but need to boot my son from the room first. I haven't had a lot of time but I'll make a bigger rig-up for it. Thanks for the thoughts, I should be able to get away from those windows.
 
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