Best vocal pluggins.

B

boomtap

New member
I want that airy vocal sound. I know that mics are a big part of that, but is there some great plugs that I might check out that are ecspecially nice on vocals?
 
some eq . . a touch of reverb . . or delay if you know how to use it . . and you can get anything you want as long as the singer is headed in the right direction
 
No magic bullets that I know of. The voice, the mic, and the preamp are going to determine 90% of your sound. I always suggest front-loading the recording chain in that way. There's no way to fix a bad vocal track with plugs.

That being said, there are a few (free) plugins that I use commonly on my vocals:

Compressors:
Digital Fishphones Blockfish (has an 'opto' mode and an 'air' button to make you feel more special)
Kjaerhus Classic Compressor - a solid all-around compressor plug

Reverb:
Kjaerhus Classic Reverb
SIR Convolution Reverb
GlaceVerb

Delay:
Kjaerhus Classic Delay

De-Esser:
Digital Fishphones Spitfish

Tube Emulators (I don't usually use these, but they can be helpful for certain sounds):
Steinberg's 'Da Tube'
Ruby Tube

Those are generally the only plugin effects I put on vocal tracks and I tend to use them very sparingly.
 
Maybe that is what I need to do, is get a pre for the vocals. I like the sounds from everything else, but the vocals don't set into the mix well. I might try getting that "special feeling" from Blockfish.
 
I'm behind Scrubs completly with the idea that vocals should get as little processing as possible. The voice is just one of those instruments like piano where if you don't get the sound you're looking for (or at least reasonably close) right off, no amount of processing will get it. Mic selection and placement, preamps and A/D converters are the key points in the signal chain here.

G.
 
Try googling Wave Arts and download the 30 day trial of their full set up, in that is a "vocal channel" that has compression/eq/desseing built in. I really don't use it much and my free trial period is about to run out but you can at least try the plug out free and without the annoying clicks, pops and audio dropouts that other demo versions have. Other than that really just a good compressor eq reverb plug would get you were you want to be, you don't really need a "vocal" plug in.
 
Plugins will never get you there unless you are close enough to start with. They can certainly assist in fine tuning that sound, but if the source isn't close enough it will always sound like you tried to make something sound like something it didn't (if that makes sense:D ) .
 
If you want to add "air" to your vocals after they're already recorded. I would say your best bet is a nice EQ (either outboard or plugin) and boost around 20-25k.

Either that or using multi-band compression around that same range.

Using a cheap EQ for this will not result in a good sound. The Waves EQs are nice as far as plugins go.
 
About the waves eq

I'm using Cubase SX 3...any major difference between the waves eq and cubase's built in eq?

Jacob
 
Yes, there's a big difference unfortunately. Try it out and see what it does though. It might end up working for you.
 
I'm partial to the UAD-1 card, and found the LA2A compressor plugin was very nice on vocals. It can instantly make high frequency content in tracks smoother (which is usually desirable on vocals). The Cambridge Eq for the UAD-1 is a very high quality, extremely clean sounding Eq, and the Pultech Eq plugin good if you want a vintage eq sound or need to add excessive amounts of high end.
 
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