Original Acoustic W/Female Voice - Working on Vocal Track Improvements

[homerecor]

Let me know what you think of the mix, (tracking and processing,) not just the singer.

No mastering at all yet.

Thanks.

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

There is too much low end or body on the low notes. The vocal really needs a de-esser or a cut in brightness. I can feel her tongue in my ear.
There was section around 3:30 where I'm not sure if the guitarist just partly missed a fret or if that was clipping.
Very nice performances.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Big +1 about the deesser. You might want to roll the high end off your reverb too.
Without doing that, reverb can really make the problem worse.

I agree about the lower frequencies too, but only on vocal. The guitar sounds nice to me as is.

I'd add in another part during the vocal break or do some work on the existing guitar performance.
I thought there were too many flubs here and there that guitar line to be the solo/main part.

 

[homerecor]

Yeah, I heard it too (the esses) on one set of monitors. It sounds the opposite on another pair of speakers. So, I was hoping that it was just my shitty monitors lying to me.

I dislike the sound of a female vocal track after it's been de-essed. It ends up losing that "air" quality that it so desperately needs.

I used an SM27 on vocals. Time to invest in some better vocal mics that don't have that cheap Japanese hype between 5,000 and 10,000 Hz.

Thanks guys. I'll try editing the track manually to reduce the ess levels.

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

Time to invest in some better vocal mics that don't have that cheap Japanese hype between 5,000 and 10,000 Hz.

Never heard this phrase before. Care to explain?

 

[Live42]

I think there are really 2 problems with this vocal. The first is that there seems to be a bump in the upper mids. So the vocal sounds muffled when the sibilance isn't jumping out. You just need to get the 'S's under control, and then take that lump out of the upper mids (800 to 1000hz I'm guessing?). Or if you cut the highs to try to get the sibilance under control, you might have gone too far. Also, double check your compression settings. If you're getting a ton of gain reduction and make up gain on your compressor, you'll make the Ss that much worse.

The sibilance could be a mic placement issue as well. You could try getting the singer to back off the mic a bit, or try a slightly downward angle. Also, a de-esser doesn't need to kill the air around a vocal if set correctly, since it only kicks in during the sibilent areas.

 

[homerecor]

Never heard this phrase before. Care to explain?

Most, if not all, inexpensive Japanese or Chinese mics are very bright sounding in the upper-mid range, say, 5000 Hz to 10,000 Hz. Take a look at the frequency response charts and you will see that they have a rise in that region. Here is the mic I used... http://cdn.shure.com/specification_sheet/upload/79/us_pro_sm27_specsheet.pdf (Chart at lower right.)

That happens to be the range where the "ess" sound occurs in voices. Applying compression to a vocal track tends to worsen those ess sounds because they don't have tall enough peaks to trigger gain reduction compared to other syllables and sounds. Thus, you end up with ugly sounding tracks like mine.

Usually, your higher-quality expensive mics tend to be more flat or smooth throughout the entire band, giving the mic a more natural and less problematic sound.

I think Matt McGlynn explains it fairly well on this page... RK-47 Microphone Capsule | K47 | Microphone Parts

Hope this helps.

 

[homerecor]

I think there are really 2 problems with this vocal. The first is that there seems to be a bump in the upper mids. So the vocal sounds muffled when the sibilance isn't jumping out. You just need to get the 'S's under control, and then take that lump out of the upper mids (800 to 1000hz I'm guessing?). Or if you cut the highs to try to get the sibilance under control, you might have gone too far. Also, double check your compression settings. If you're getting a ton of gain reduction and make up gain on your compressor, you'll make the Ss that much worse.

The sibilance could be a mic placement issue as well. You could try getting the singer to back off the mic a bit, or try a slightly downward angle. Also, a de-esser doesn't need to kill the air around a vocal if set correctly, since it only kicks in during the sibilent areas.

Thanks, man. I just ordered a better mic from Joly. Once it comes, I'll have this singer retrack the song, (hopefully, minus the flubs this time). I'll repost if it comes out better. I could really use some new monitors too, but that will have to wait. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Btyre2013]

I recommend getting a proper external pre-amp as well, don't underestimate how important it is, something like the GAP 73 is good for the money, good mic + good mic preamp will always make the biggest difference.

 

[Bubba po]

I didn't think the guitar had too many lows, only that the whole thing was a bit over reverbed with a slightly boomy reverb setting. I thought the singer had a good voice, but I agree about the sibilance. The performances were great. The thing I picked up from the vocal is that she might be a bit close to the mic. When she gets louder you can really hear the compressing/limiting kick in, which you really don't want to hear in a recording with minimal instrumentation.