How do I get that Professional sound on my vocals? which effects settings to use?

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Logik_01

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How do I get a decent sound on my vocals? which effects settings to use?

i was told to post in here... im using cool edit pro 2.0 with a dbx pre amp and a shure sm58


i just want my vocals to sound kinda professional (i know im not gonna get pure pro vocals)... but i wanna know which basic effects to use to make it sound "cleaner" can anyone tell me a list of which basic effects i should use on my vocals? any tips or tricks?im doing rap vocals...

im not aming for anything loud and in your ear type of thing, i do more storytelling type tracks where i want my vocals to have a clean sound with some effects..

thank you..
 
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As a warning, never use the phrase "professional sounding" on this or any other BBS because you'll end up getting railed bigtime. Professional studios have tens of thousands if not millions of dollars worth of equipment to choose from, not to mention engineers with decades of experience.

As for you question - there is no real answer. You can only process a signal if you know that you're at point A and want to go to point B. If you don't know really where you're at nor where you want to go, then you're not going to get anywhere very quickly...if you're in experimental mode that might not be such a bad thing. Keep this in mind.

That said, "typically" with vocals you're going to see a compressor somewhere, and some reverb and maybe EQ if necessary. The usual suspects. Settings? Totally depends! With rap I would expect to be using fairly heavy compression and a short reverb or delay. Doubling rap vocals is something that I seem to hear a lot. For grit a little bit of distortion might be interesting. Your microphone is going to be important...I would think an SM58 would be useful.

Just my amature opinion!

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster2K said:
Your microphone is going to be important...I would think an SM58 would be useful.
Slackmaster 2000
Click to expand...

Like Slackmaster told, the microphone is the most important of all, No matter how many processors you use, if you have a muddy mic, your vocals are dead. Go for the best mic you can afford and then come from there to preamps, processors etc.
 
Start with sing professionally...then move on to the signal chain.
Get a good singer and get as much of the sound of their voice to 'tape' as possible without going too far red.


Seriously, I'm not just being a smartass.
 
For vocals, typical scenario might be:

Start with a good vocalist recorded in a good room with a good mike. This is by far the most important step.
Go straight into the computer with as little in the signal chain as possible (hopefully just mic to preamp to soundcard). I don't even compress when recording. I try to control peaks with mic position and the singer's delivery.
Once in the DAW, my chain usually looks something like this: compression, EQ, either a Delay set as a "spreader" or a short, wide reverb, and then a longer reverb or delay.

By "spreader" I mean a stereo delay set with a very short delay time, like 20ms, and only one 1 echo, and mixed really low so that it's barely audible - just enough to widen out the vocal. You can use early refelections on a reverb for a similar effect. It sort of establishes an "immediacy" or "intimacy" for the vocal. Then I use a longer reverb or delay to make it sit in the mix. Then again, sometimes the short one's enough. It really depends on context.

If I had to pick only two effects, I would pick compression and EQ without hesitation. Those are the two most important tools for creating a good mix.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
You might want to try a LD Condenser. I know it made a huge difference to my vocals. A studio Projects B1 is pretty affordable and I like the way it sounds.

In the US the MXL V69 is pretty cheap too. Its got a slightly brighter sound than the B1. Any other reccomendations will be in the microphone forum.

Good luck.
 
not to be an ass- but, compression and eq are not effects- they are processes- the big difference- a processor takes a signal in, changes it and sends it out ( think series) an effect takes signal in, changes it somehow and combines it to some extend with the original signal to create a new signal (paralell)- eq, compression etc, would do very little good if you mixed the processed signal with the original.

- just a technicality, but important to recognize

-jeff
 
Sorry, Kremit.


If I slam a compressor / limiter very hard, and use the attack/release time to give it some major attack, distain, or fuzzy distortion . . .

. . . then it's an effect.

If I cut a ton of highs and lows from a vocal in order to make it sound like it's coming through a telephone or megaphone . . .

. . . again, it's an effect.

Maybe I'm using a processor to achieve an effect, but it's still an effect, so to be even more technically accurate, effects versus processing has a lot more to do with the way in which it is used.
 
kremitmusic said:
not to be an ass- but, compression and eq are not effects- they are processes- the big difference- a processor takes a signal in, changes it and sends it out ( think series) an effect takes signal in, changes it somehow and combines it to some extend with the original signal to create a new signal (paralell)- eq, compression etc, would do very little good if you mixed the processed signal with the original.

- just a technicality, but important to recognize

-jeff
Click to expand...

Umm.... ya, I s'pose your right. But whatever you want to call them, they all distort (and by distort, I mean alter) your original audio. I'd still pick EQ and compression over anything else.

And just fer the record - I've heard of many instances where someone has given the same source signal heavy compression or EQ treatment and then partially mixed it back in with the original signal. I can't remember what the term is for it now.....

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Aaron Cheney said:
I've heard of many instances where someone has given the same source signal heavy compression or EQ treatment and then partially mixed it back in with the original signal. I can't remember what the term is for it now.....
Click to expand...

It's the New York technique. Although I think Motown has been trying to claim credit for it, also. New York / Motown . . . whatever you wanna' call it.
 
thanks for ur replies, ive been fooling around with the effects in cool edit and i think i got the sound i wanted for the song...

Amplitude-Dynamic Processing-RealAudio Comp.
Amplitude-Amplify- Center Wave
Reverb-Nice Presense

i liked the sound i got from that anything u think i might want to add?

thanks again.
 
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