'fattening' a thin vocal, after the fact

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TIGERSHARK

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i recently recorded some vocals that ended up sounding 'thin' in the mix. i'm not going to be able to recut them until way later and wondered if there were any suggestions for fattening them? i have the individual tracks to work with and can remix it all, afterward. anyone have some creative approaches to fattening up a thinly recorded vocal? i certainly appreciate ANY help i could receive!!
 
Add short delay... double the track and delay the 2nd track a bit.... try EQ.... try slight chorusing... you could even try a pitch shifter pitched an octave down, and bringing the effect tucked in just under the original track so its barely audible....

Be creative... if nothing works, the best way is to simply re-cut the track.

Bruce
 
bruce,

just a question, but wouldn't adding a slight delay cause one of two things,

a) a filtering effect (digital filters and reverbs work by using copies of a delayed signal)

b) Distortion, as both signals would in some cases add together, and thus drive the DA converter into saturation.


just my 0.00002c

d
 
one of the great things about having a daw is the copy and paste thing.... copy the vocal to a new track... take the newly copied vocal and compress it really hard, like 8db or more, with a nice sounding compressor, something with some thick character is best rather than a really clean one... after scrunching it really good, add some eqing to exite it and make it stand out, typically around the mids and highs, but use a parametric to sweep through it and find what areas thicken it up. You may want to try rolling off the bottom, you may not... depends on the source. After that, try using something to dirty it up, like the PSP vintage warmer (free demo) or maybe an amp-sim plug-in, get it all excited with harmonics and EQ and have it squashed all to hell, then bring that track in under the original vocal (which is still your main vocal and shouldnt be compressed much at all so as to maintain some amount of dynamics). If you use an amp sim or something, you may have to use a high pass to keep the low end from getting muddy. Eq the original track as needed, but as little as possible. Roll off extreme lows and compress about 1 or db, as needed.
Try it, let me know how it works out. You most likely will like it. Just remember to keep the new track kind of hidden behind the original.
 
MANY THANKS!!!

excellent. i'll give it a try!! thank you!
 
wow

i'm trying to digest all of the info. (i'm fairly new at it, too) that's quite the in-depth procedure but that's exactly the creative approach i was looking for. i'll let ya know how it turns out. thanks!!
 
Rochey said:
bruce,

just a question, but wouldn't adding a slight delay cause one of two things,

a) a filtering effect (digital filters and reverbs work by using copies of a delayed signal)

b) Distortion, as both signals would in some cases add together, and thus drive the DA converter into saturation.


just my 0.00002c

d
Click to expand...
a) No... not necessarily - depends on the delay time, and how much of the delayed signal you put back into the mix.... (and I don't understand your point about filters & reverbs working by using a copy of the delayed signal... it's not true in many cases, and irrelevant in others!)

b) again, depends how much of the signal you put back into the mix... and why would essetnially adding another track put the converter into saturation any more than another track in the mix would??? You always have to practice "safe headroom" for your main mix buss no matter how many tracks you deal with!

I guess I don't understand your concerns Rochey -- unless you mean something different than the way you said it - 'cos the way you said it, you're kinda way off on a 90 degree angle! ;)

Let me know and I can clarify things for you... maybe! :D

:)

Bruce
 
As Bruce says,not necessarily will you have comb filter effects but it is possible depending on the delay times.Typically though,using a short delay to "thicken" a voice won't give you phase problems.Listen to the result or use a frequency analyzer to spot any funny peaks or dips.Don't be afraid to try all the various ideas you hear about.The bad results will often teach you more about tracking than slavishly following a "recipe" of techniques.Good luck!
Tom
 
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