Making vocals loud and even without the breathing noises taking over

  • Thread starter Thread starter zengalaxy
  • Start date Start date
Z

zengalaxy

New member
Hi guys.

I usually tend to overcompress vocals and then I get this breathy noise throughout the track, to the extent that removing breaths still leaves the vocal sounding breathy or just plain noisy to me. In a rock track, fine I can get away with it, but on acoustic stuff it's annoying. And this goes beyond the singers vocal technique...That's not an issue.. It's just hard to get that in your face constant volume and keep the vocals pristine clear and clean.

I know, I should probably add 4 or more compressors in a series instead of using 1 or 2, but my pc just isn't that powerful.

I was wondering how you guys go about this? I've been thinking of trying to use limiters instead of compressors. Yet I find there aren't as many limiters out there as there are compressors.. OR, stop compressing and doing more phrase by phrase comping...?

How do you guys go about this?
 
I get away with a pop shield and reduce the volume of the track when the vocalist isn't singing. So i basically edit out all the unwanted breaths.
 
Go through the vocal track and pull down all the breath noises using an "envelope" or "rubber band" or whatever your DAW calls the function before applying compression.

Sometimes a bit of manual tender loving care is a better approach than trying to find an automatic technical solution.

...and, yeah, avoid the breath noises in the first place with careful mic positioning and use of a pop shield.

Bob
 
+1 for manual editing. personally, i cut them out if they're over the top.
 
Less heavy handed compression, more fader rides to even out the vocal track
 
on softer stuff it's easy...don't compress. Or don't compress so hard. Two suggestions 1) manual volume control, 2) better volume control during tracking.

if you wanna spend some time on it, comp each phrase, and boost the volume one the quieter ones.

Limiting won't help the issue either, a limiter is just a higher ratio compressor set differently. 4 compressors in a row will make it 4 times worse. compression brings up quiet parts and down loud parts (so does limiting). So manual (i.e. moving the fader up and down, or boosting the volume one each phrase) will give you a lot better sound for quiet songs.

final note...don't use 4 compressors in a row for soft vocals. if 1 or 2 is too noisy, 3 or 4 won't be better.
 
I know, I should probably add 4 or more compressors in a series instead of using 1 or 2, but my pc just isn't that powerful.
Click to expand...
Thank goodness your PC won't let you do that, I suppose...
 
Thanks for the answers guys! I'm gonna be patient and try comping every phrase... I know it's the smarter thing to do, I was just kinda hoping there'd be a better way to go about it...

I get this prob in particular when working with tracks similar to e.g. Damien Rice, songs like Cannonball, Blower's Daughter, Elephant etc etc etc.. really quiet guitar tracks + dynamic vocal..

Off to tame the beast...
 
Also how hot are you tracking? You mentioned noise earlier and If you're getting a lot of noise you may be able to turn the pre down a touch without comprimising too much.. Most people are under the misconception that you need to track as close to the red as possible without actually hitting it but this is not true and can save a lot of headaches with noisy preamps and headroom in general. I agree with all the manual vox riding though.. it can be necessary to do it.
 
Sounds like bad mic technique combined with over-compression to me. If the vocal is breathy WHILE singing, not just breaths between phrases.
 
Ayou can also get some dynamics without a ton of volume by backing off the mic a bit during loud parts. To me Damien Rice sounds like he's right on top of the mic most of the time. So you can get really close during the quiet parts and back off 6-12 inches when it gets louder without a lot of tonal difference. And ride the cadets during mixing to keep it consistent.
 
Try using a DeEsser on your vocals before you compress them. This will compress the s's and make the vocals sound more natural. And then when you compress you won't hear it nearly as much. And after the fact you can add another EQ if you need to make the vocals a bit brighter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top