Strange robot-like noise in vocal recordings

Lever

New member
Hi all.

I am in the process of recording some vocals for a project of mine and I am using an SM58. As soon as I push a little bit with the voice, I hear a strange robotic sound that follows my voice. I can remove some of it but not all if I cut around 9500Hz, but I think I really need to remove it at the source rather than afterwards.

The microphone is dynamic and I sang about 20 cm (8 In) from it to ensure that I was not putting the capsule under stress. The gain on the soundcard (a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6) is pretty low and I'm miles away from clipping.

There was some reverberation in the room, so I sung facing a blanket in a closet also covering my head and shoulders with the same blanket. The noise is still there.

Does anybody have any idea what could be causing it? I am starting to think it may actually be my voice itself producing it somehow. Perhaps, I should ask if you hear it in the first place? I recorded 4 seconds where I think I can hear it pretty well, let's see if I manage to attach it to this message.

View attachment 106507

Thanks!
 
I think you need to host it externally - soundcloud or similar, as it tells me it is invalid. Not sure if there's a restriction on new members posting links because of autobot spamming? I can't listen sadly.
 
Thank you, Rob. I was posting a link but was advised I cannot do that until I post "a few times". I'll update this thread once I get the correct rights.
 
without hearing it, my guess is that what you are hearing is a bit like comb filtering, and would most likely arise from you inadvertently recording two or more signals, i.e. your voice, then also your voice again through recording software monitoring somehow.
 
Thank you for all your replies. I am respectful enough not to spam this forum with messages until I get the rights to post links and I will only add information when it is relevant. I have to say that today I made another experiment and I sang the same 4 seconds into an iPhone. Apart from the hiss, noise and poor rendition of a mobile phone, I did clearly hear again the "metallic sound" and I have therefore to conclude that it is actually part of my voice. Meet Robocop. I will try to find decent microphone positioning and EQ to limit it, but I have to live with the fact that I do produce some strange resonance when I sing loud.
 
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