lo-fi sounds better?

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HeatSinks

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The more effort I put into making a high-quality, clear vocal track, the worse my singing voice sounds. Sort of the audio analogue of a high-resolution closeup picture of an ugly person versus a blurry long shot of an ugly person.

Thoughts? Ideas?
 
First of all, I wouldn't judge one track in isolation. Find out how well it fits into the mix. That will be where you have many opportunities to pretty it up.
 
Good point, diggy, but I'm dealing with a poor-to-mediocre singing voice here. Even in the mix, my vocal tracks sound worse when I do a better job of recording them. I realize I can (and need to) work my singing, but to continue the analogy, I want to find the audio equivalent of the Fat Girl Angle Shot.
 
Yeah I agree, eg lo-fi old sixties songs like the early Who and Stones > any modern digital recording. Nothing against your singing but I just prefer the raw lo-fi sound
 
HeatSinks said:
Good point, diggy, but I'm dealing with a poor-to-mediocre singing voice here. Even in the mix, my vocal tracks sound worse when I do a better job of recording them. I realize I can (and need to) work my singing, but to continue the analogy, I want to find the audio equivalent of the Fat Girl Angle Shot.
Click to expand...

:laughings:

Love the analogy! :D

Well, track the vocals on analog if it makes you feel better about the product. There will presumably be enough other things going on in the mix to mask the tape hiss, right?
 
I don't just mean analog versus digital. My voice does not sound terrible when I record myself singing and playing guitar with the mic halfway across the room. But when I record multiple tracks, one for guitar, one for vocals, etc, the guitar ends up sounding better and my voice makes people say "yikes." With the vocal recording clear and crisp, and all of my flaws are in high definition.

If I keep the mic halfway across the room when I sing, that's like taking blurry long shots of myself with an old camera. But with this fancy new camera, I want to take a close-up and look hott, like in the Fat Girl Angle Shot. Ethics of deception aside, I just want to know how I can make myself sound my best.
 
What exactly do you feel is bad about your vocals?

Like grim said...practice if you just need some vocal training. Even mediocre singers can sound pretty good with practice.
If it's a technical issue...well, that too can be fixed once you know what it is.

Without hearing your vocals, there's no specific advice that can be given.
 
HeatSinks said:
The more effort I put into making a high-quality, clear vocal track, the worse my singing voice sounds. Sort of the audio analogue of a high-resolution closeup picture of an ugly person versus a blurry long shot of an ugly person.

Thoughts? Ideas?
Click to expand...

hey man. i also have "one of those voices". it sounds especially rank through a nice condenser mic. it's like the world should not have to hear the snot rattle around in my throat. and i'm always just a hair off no matter how hard i try. lately i've been singing through a 57 and it helps a little. you might want to experiment with putting the mic through certain guitar pedals too (like light flange or light overdrive). they can help strip your signal of the dynamic range that is the enemy of singers like us. but yeah practice and stuff if you're interested in improving your voice waaaaaaay down the line. and cut down on dairy!
 
All you get when you mic from far away is bad vocals that sound far away. Get a good mic, use good tracking headphones so you can hear what you're singing. Work on songs one line at a time getting each line perfectly in key. Then repeat each line several times to get your muscle memory (vocal cords) used to what in key sounds like. Once you have line 1 work on line 2, then sing line 1 and line 2 when they are both perfect. Continue until you have a whole song perfect. Unless God gave you some special magic voice gift, you have to practice. If you are tone deaf then you should not sing. Oh yeah don't drink alcohol or smoke and drink lots of water.
 
"well I could have been a famous singer, if I had someone elses voice.
But failure's always sounded better, let's fuck it up boys...MAKE SOME NOISE!!!"
-Conor Oberst

Don't worry so much about having a proper voice. Just worry about getting in key. That just comes with .....yup......

PRACTICE!!!
 
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