How do you treat a Shaky/Wobbly Vocal take in post production?

[silentfall10]

Hey everyone! Newbie here in audio recording. I’d love to get your thoughts on a vocal take of mine:
Raw Vox Take

I’ve noticed my voice tends to sound shaky, especially on sustained notes. If you were mixing this kind of take, how would you approach it?

• Would you use Melodyne (or another tuning app) to smooth out the wobbly parts?
• Would you leave it as is and just mix around it?
• or does this kind of vocal performance on audio recording normal or acceptable?
• Or would you ask the vocalist to re-record the part?

Any feedback or advice would be super appreciated. Thanks!

 

[RFR]

Not as bad as I expected. But I’d simply practice, practice and re-record.
As it is, it makes a perfectly fine scratch track.

Ps. If it makes you feel better, my vocals are much worse

 

[Papanate]

Hey everyone! Newbie here in audio recording. I’d love to get your thoughts on a vocal take of mine:
Raw Vox Take

The issue is the vocalist hasn’t sang enough - If I had time I would have him do about 50 takes till he had the confidence to sing
with energy and style.

I’ve noticed my voice tends to sound shaky, especially on sustained notes. If you were mixing this kind of take, how would you approach it?

• Would you use Melodyne (or another tuning app) to smooth out the wobbly parts?

If i had a lot time to work and couldn’t sing it again - yes I would manipulate the vocal.

• Would you leave it as is and just mix around it?

If I didn’t want to work on the vocal and just wanted the song done - yes

• or does this kind of vocal performance on audio recording normal or acceptable?

I would’t accept the vocal as is - but balance that with the amount of time the vocalist has to record.

• Or would you ask the vocalist to re-record the part?

I would ask them to practice their butt off until they could hit every note with confidence.
But when left with the recording and no hope of getting the singer back - I would
bring it into Logic - and use the tools to fix the vocal - Flex Time, Pitch Correction etc...
It’s my least favorite thing to do - as with this vocal it would take the better part of a day
to fix everything and get it to sound natural instead of robotic.

 

[TalismanRich]

Since this is YOU doing the singing, I would redo things until you get it the way you want. You might even need to do it in pieces. It's called comping. Most people don't do complete songs in one take these days. Keep running those weak phrases until you get them right.

Work a bit on making sure you breathe. Voices get weaker when you run low on breath. You need to make sure you keep your recording environment the same to avoid obvious changes in the sound.

 

[Papanate]

You might even need to do it in pieces. It's called comping.

Yeah I forgot that - as these days I doing whole song vocals more often - but comping - especially if it just the OP - is a perfect way to go

 

[Slouching Raymond]

I listened.
Not too impressed with the singing. Is it even singing?
Sounds to me like very strained speaking.
I suggest axe all the straining, and try to hit all the notes with a clear voice.
Don't even think about 'correcting' it with software.
Maybe not what you want to hear.
Alternatively ask AI to polish it all up. But then it wouldn't be you singing.