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.

 

[Thekesslerboy]

The voice sounds pretty good to me. Most solo-ed vocals from the best singers will sound far less impressive alone than when they are bolstered by the music. Yours has a bit of Eddie Vedder to it, just a guess as it could be put to music from any genre. But that's what I'm hearing.

 

[JimmyS1969]

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!

Hey man. Wow, you really sound like a buddy of mine that recorded an album here back in 2018.

His voice is very similar to yours. Lot's of character and emotion. I tamed some stuff with a bit of Melodyne, but it is that 'shaky' thing that to me that makes his voice unique. I would say the same thing about your voice. Learn to control it a bit more and use those distinctive things as being 'you'.

Here is a tune by my friend Victor. Band name Drone Livingston. Think the songs lyrics also have good advice for you as well.

 

[NSH333]

I have close to 25 years working with vocal tracks. I did a processing demo attached below. In singing that is a glottal shake, it is an extra vibration in the vocal chords, sometimes done for creative effect. I did not change or correct the pitch, that might be needed in some moments. It's not necessarily bad sounding to let the pitch move a bit. What needs to be done is to smooth out the level of the vocal recording because the dips in level (caused by close mic) sound unpleasing to the ears.

One concept to understand is that a far away mic (not practical for home recording) does the same thing to the sound as a compressor: it evens out the level. So every recording that is close mic recorded needs to be compressed hard to take away that artificial sensitivity. It would be like sitting right next to the singer and hearing them when we typically hear them from the seat while they are on a stage. I got most of the sake to go, but what is left is the sound of the tone change.

Most of vocal processing should be to take the raw recording and to even it out so it sounds like its coming from a stage in terms of it's dynamics.

I have done this with my typical set up and posted images of the old 32 bit plugins that I have on my old 32 bit laptop!

---

I sent your track through my normal chain (attached below with wet and then dry 'the original take'):

Overall compression > Specific resonances compression with multi-band > very specific character boost EQ > add reverb

the threshold of the compressors is key: basically you want to get it so you are putting the threshold of the compressor at the level you want the vocal to be on average. Then everything above it gets smashed a bit, and the softer sections below remain untouched. The multi-band compression then smooths out the various resonant issues.