Crisp & clear vocal sound

[philbagg]

I was listening to this song today:

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(skip to about 32 seconds for the vocals, and go HD - better audio quality)

It's one of the clearest vocals I've ever heard. It's close, yet spacious. You can hear every breath, every consonant so clearly. She sounds huge (not literally ) even though she sounds like she's whispering. I think it's an amazing sound.

It sounds like it's been high-passed to somewhere quite high. I think there's also a reverb (in addition to the main one) that's being triggered by S's and T's.

I'd imagine: Good singer with "airy" voice > Good condenser mic > Good preamp > Lots of HPF > Compressor > Tasteful EQ like HF boost for air > Delays and Reverbs

How would you guys go about getting this kind of sound?

Even with that idea (above) in mind, I still don't think I'd be able to get a sound like that. It sounds like really good compression to me. She's close, you hear every detail, yet there's no pumping or artifacts.

 

[nialldoran]

yeah phil i know exactly what you mean, im not a big fan of either deadmau5 or kaskade, but deadmau5 knows his production the guy is great at what he does,

the vocalist is called Haley Gibby and has done vocals on other songs with the same two guys collaberating, and she sounds much the same on these tracks, definatly would be a difficult sound to achieve, she sounds like she has great mic technique too because as you said there is no pumping etc add good compression and you flying,

she reminds me of beth gibbons from portishead alot too, great voice

 

[moresound]

That's an easy one ...EZMIX was used



Seriously the major factor in the vocals is the compression used and I'm sure that it was of the high end gear that was used.

 

[philbagg]

Huh, didn't think anyone replied to this

It's a tough one alright. I'd love to be able to achieve that kind of sound, but at the moment, I doubt I could do it with a 57/58 and an MBox 2

 

[moresound]

Sure you can philbagg......just think happy thoughts.

 

[sumpm1]

Hey, I suppose you will probably try to reproduce this sound with a female vocal performance. I am interested in finding how this sound was achieved as well, so I would like to know what you find if you do end up trying.

My input:

1. It does sound like the freq rang is limited in the main vocal. But there is also a harmony vocal that can add air to the mix with effects on it. So don't leave out a harmony vocal; and if you need one, you can send me the vocal wav and I will provide the vocal harmony using melodyne.

2. The vocalist may have been singing with a "breathy" performance.

3. It is possible that the reverb is providing the "air" in the performance. Using a shorter reverb, and setting the high and low pass filters on the reverb, so that on ly the higher freqs come from the reverb, creating an eq effect of boosting the "breath" freqs.

4. There is a delay going through the entire vocal track, it is just set at a low level, and the notes are blending well with the music.

 

[sparqee]

The breathiness sounds ever so slightly disconnected from the vocal. I'm guessing that there's a vocal double that's been severely high passed and compressed so that the breathiness is really all that's left and that is then being stereoized with a delay and reverb.

The singer's breath control is excellent. There's no wobble to her tone, pitch or breath. These days I would suspect digital pitch correction but I don't hear any of the typical artifacts so I think she's just damned good.

Oh, I've also heard that VocalAlign can be used to perfectly align a vocal with a second "whisper track" to create a very breathy sound. I've never used the software myself but just thought I'd throw that in for speculation.