Getting SHITTY Vocals

[Nick The Man]

now i know the first step is to have a really good singer and in this case i dont have a REALLY good singer but hes pretty good. i have a sample for you to listen to. No matter what i did i couldnt get a good sound. i tried 4 different mics and i ended up keeping the SM57 track. I tried a MXL 990, AT4050, MXL V63M, and a SM57. he seems to process alot of high end frequencies when he sings so the condensors were just too much but i still think the 57 track sounds bad.. almost sounds like hes talking out of a phone. anyways is there any things i can do to give his voice some balls?

Its the top one "vocals"

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=644522

 

[jonnyc]

Really hard to judge without being in a mix. It doesn't sound good though, does sound a little lofi and hi-mid.

 

[Nick The Man]

yeah i cant figure out what im doing wrong.. are there any adjustments i can make to maybe give it more power..EQ it maybe?

 

[Deadlove]

Double tracking always seems to help reinforce vocals.


"Up All Nite Blues" sounded good, reminded me of a John Lennon kinda bluesy Beatles thing.

 

[jonnyc]

yeah i cant figure out what im doing wrong.. are there any adjustments i can make to maybe give it more power..EQ it maybe?

How far is he from the mic? Maybe the mic's not picking up enough lows from his voice, maybe he's too far from it.

 

[danny.guitar]

Sounds harsh in the higher frequencies, very fatiguing to listen to. Maybe that's just his voice, might want to find a mic that will suit him better, or you can try EQ but I think that'd be kinda difficult since it seems like that's just how he sounds.

Didn't sound that lo-fi to me. Just kind of harsh and hard to listen to.

But I would try placing the mic and/or using different mic techniques before anything else.

Maybe even have him record in an isolated/deadened area (closet with clothes in it?) if he's not already.

 

[Cult_Status02]

You won't be able to fix that convincingly with EQ, I'd retrack it with him right on the 57, or any mic actually, and the proximity should give it more balls. You may want to also try having a condenser near his chest, it'll pick up the low-end of the voice. Or, just try doubling the voice (have him sing it twice, not just copy and paste the track and sliding it a bit), that'l help a bit too. Other than that, he has a pretty bad voice so it'd be a chore to make that sound good.

 

[zed32]

reach for the SM7 on this one!

but really, it doesn't sound all that bad to me, i mean it's possible to get that to sit with a bit of EQ or something. but yeah when you're singing into a SM57, you gotta be right up on it. do you have any more vocally suited mics, like a SM58 or something? that way he can get his face right on it without too much popping. or stick a windscreen on your 57.

 

[Decipha]

sound like its out of phase... disable any stereo effects if you have any.. try recording the vocals in a mono channel.. its deff cancelling big time

also try turning off the high pass filter.. let everything thru and add EQ later in the mix

 

[Decipha]

heres an example of what im talking about

 

[cusebassman]

I'd say try out another mic before you start getting into double-trackin vocals... I can't recall if it was you or someone else had just run a thread regarding double-tracking vocals, but it isn't easy, or so has been my experience.

You should be able to get somewhat decent sounding vocals without having to double-track, in my opinion - yes, it might help thicken em up and bring em out front in a mix, but recording the same crap 9 times is just going to give you much louder crap with some timing and phasing issues.

Just my opinion - I've never told anyone not to exhaust all options, so who knows, maybe it will do the trick. Im at work again so I can't listen to the track specifically, sorry

 

[Nick The Man]

Double tracking always seems to help reinforce vocals.


"Up All Nite Blues" sounded good, reminded me of a John Lennon kinda bluesy Beatles thing.

lol yeah that was recorded by a bunch of members on this site.. i just mixed it, go check out the thread a bunch of people mixed it

go to search and type in "up all night blues"

 

[Nick The Man]

How far is he from the mic? Maybe the mic's not picking up enough lows from his voice, maybe he's too far from it.

well i put a pop filter about 2 inches away and then he was probably 2 inches away from the filter.. so thats too far .. maybe ill try a windscreen

 

[Nick The Man]

Sounds harsh in the higher frequencies, very fatiguing to listen to. Maybe that's just his voice, might want to find a mic that will suit him better, or you can try EQ but I think that'd be kinda difficult since it seems like that's just how he sounds.

Didn't sound that lo-fi to me. Just kind of harsh and hard to listen to.

But I would try placing the mic and/or using different mic techniques before anything else.

Maybe even have him record in an isolated/deadened area (closet with clothes in it?) if he's not already.

i agree it is very fatiguing, i think its just the way he sings because we tried this with quite a few mics and placments. He is in my laundry room which is full of clothes.. even though there is a washer and dryer in there it actually is pretty dead.

 

[Nick The Man]

You won't be able to fix that convincingly with EQ, I'd retrack it with him right on the 57, or any mic actually, and the proximity should give it more balls. You may want to also try having a condenser near his chest, it'll pick up the low-end of the voice. Or, just try doubling the voice (have him sing it twice, not just copy and paste the track and sliding it a bit), that'l help a bit too. Other than that, he has a pretty bad voice so it'd be a chore to make that sound good.

near the chest.. never tried that one, thanks for the idea, ill propose it to the band and see what they think of doing some retracking. We did try double tracking and we couldnt get it right on... but we didnt try to hard to make it work either.

 

[Nick The Man]

reach for the SM7 on this one!

but really, it doesn't sound all that bad to me, i mean it's possible to get that to sit with a bit of EQ or something. but yeah when you're singing into a SM57, you gotta be right up on it. do you have any more vocally suited mics, like a SM58 or something? that way he can get his face right on it without too much popping. or stick a windscreen on your 57.

yeah a SM7.. i have a AT4050 i usually like that but its just picking up too many highs on him. and a few MXLs and some small consensors. Rodes Oktavas. havent tried those yet.

 

[Nick The Man]

sound like its out of phase... disable any stereo effects if you have any.. try recording the vocals in a mono channel.. its deff cancelling big time

also try turning off the high pass filter.. let everything thru and add EQ later in the mix

this is also a good idea. I will record it mono next time for sure. On the mics there is no filters. well on the 4050 theres a bass cut but i have it on flat.

 

[Nick The Man]

heres an example of what im talking about

hey.. what did you do in the sample.. already sounds better. sounds like you just took one of the channels making it mono.

 

[Nick The Man]

I'd say try out another mic before you start getting into double-trackin vocals... I can't recall if it was you or someone else had just run a thread regarding double-tracking vocals, but it isn't easy, or so has been my experience.

You should be able to get somewhat decent sounding vocals without having to double-track, in my opinion - yes, it might help thicken em up and bring em out front in a mix, but recording the same crap 9 times is just going to give you much louder crap with some timing and phasing issues.

Just my opinion - I've never told anyone not to exhaust all options, so who knows, maybe it will do the trick. Im at work again so I can't listen to the track specifically, sorry

yeah double tracking ist really on my list at the moment i agree sometimes it jsut ends up making it crappier. ive used it times when it worked out but this time we were having troubles doing it.

when i mix the whole song with the vocals ill be posting

 

[NL5]

You are recording vocals in stereo?