Help with "drowned vocals"

M

Mr. Cachi

Member
Hey guys, recently, I began mixing a track with vocals on it. The vocal track had quite a lot of background noise, so I used the Reafir plugin that comes with Reaper (sort of a noise reduction tool). It removed almost all of the noise, but the vocals sound a bit "underwater", with a lot of the top end gone.

Now, I tried to solve this by eqing and adding an exciter, and it partially solves it, but it comes with a huge amount of sibillance on the esses. Tried compressing, adding a de-esser, and more eq (was able to pinpoint the guilty frequencies), but it still comes out a lot. Does anybody have advice to this issue? this is my first time mixing vocals, always been doing instrumental stuff
 
First would be what kind of background noise? If it's in the nature of live/band bleed etc- gives more latitude to run with it (embrace it.
Compressing might be the wrong direction (lower stuff ends up closer not lower.
 
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The vocal is an isolated track, looks like the noise comes from the hardware used (the mic, preamp and cables are not highest quality he). You´re right on the compression, I´ll try backing it off
 
Mr. Cachi said:
The vocal is an isolated track, looks like the noise comes from the hardware used (the mic, preamp and cables are not highest quality he). You´re right on the compression, I´ll try backing it off
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Yeah interesting though- in that even the most basic/budget rig ought to be capable of good sig-noise opperation.
 
Agreed. The mic, preamp cables aren't going to add that much noise unless there is a defect. Using a noise reduction plugin is probably going to make it worse, hence the underwater effect. Compression can surely mess up a track if used wrong. So, that prompts the questions: How does the track sound without any effects/processing at all?
 
Well, the unprocessed sound has quite a lot of buzzing noise, you can even hear it in between the singer´s small pauses. The Reafir VST removes pretty much all of that, but that small but noticeable underwater remains. Beyond that, the voice is mostly ok, with sibillance audible but not overwhelming.
 
I just gotta ask....so when someone is recording a track, and they listen to it and hear all kinds of issues...why don't people just take care of the problem right then an there instead of trying to fix it after the fact...??? :)
 
miroslav said:
I just gotta ask....so when someone is recording a track, and they listen to it and hear all kinds of issues...why don't people just take care of the problem right then an there instead of trying to fix it after the fact...??? :)
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Why worry, the magic button will fix it.

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first thing that comes to mind is that a noise remover thing probably just takes away high frequencies, where that noise usually is. it's most likely just an EQ tool - that's why it sounded dull after. somebody tell me if that isn't right plz
 
andrushkiwt said:
first thing that comes to mind is that a noise remover thing probably just takes away high frequencies, where that noise usually is. it's most likely just an EQ tool - that's why it sounded dull after. somebody tell me if that isn't right plz
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ReaFIR is more than an eq. But it's not specifically a noise reduction tool, more of a multi use processor.
 
Re-record the vocal, and make sure things are as perfect as possible. The amount of time you spent trying to fix the unfixable would be better spent working on a new recording of the vocal.
 
Mr. Cachi said:
Hey guys, recently, I began mixing a track with vocals on it. The vocal track had quite a lot of background noise, so I used the Reafir plugin that comes with Reaper (sort of a noise reduction tool). It removed almost all of the noise, but the vocals sound a bit "underwater", with a lot of the top end gone.

Now, I tried to solve this by eqing and adding an exciter, and it partially solves it, but it comes with a huge amount of sibillance on the esses. Tried compressing, adding a de-esser, and more eq (was able to pinpoint the guilty frequencies), but it still comes out a lot. Does anybody have advice to this issue? this is my first time mixing vocals, always been doing instrumental stuff
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I am not sure how anyone can even give any advice here without hearing a actual audio file of what you have. It isn't worth any time hypothesizing without hearing it.

Post a sample.
 
TimN said:
Re-record the vocal, and make sure things are as perfect as possible. The amount of time you spent trying to fix the unfixable would be better spent working on a new recording of the vocal.
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jimmys69 said:
I am not sure how anyone can even give any advice here without hearing a actual audio file of what you have. It isn't worth any time hypothesizing without hearing it.

Post a sample.
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Those two thoughts are sort of the alpha and omega of this sort of thing. If you can retrack it with less noise, do that. If you can't post a sample so we can give some real advice.
 
Well guys, the issue has been fixed. Turned out, it was the mic cable that was defective and was causing a robotic buzz. Changed it, and voila! perfect vocals. Thanks for the posts!
 
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