Phasey Sibilant Vocals

  • Thread starter Thread starter steppingonmars
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steppingonmars

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Hi All,

Was recording a female artist last week and seem to have had some issues. She was nice enough to do the vocals over again, but I'd like to figure out why this happened. First of all she's a very breathy singer, meaning you can hear her breathing quite a bit through the mic. The vocals are very phasey and sibilant, they are eq'd a fair amount, but even before the eq the phasey part of it was prominent especially when taking breaths. She moves around a fair amount when singing, but nothing crazy. I've used the mic and pre amp many times before with no issues in the same room with no issues, although we were in a bit of a different spot of the room

Wondering
- is it the different spot in the room
- mic placement
- something wrong with the gear
- all or some of the above

Any opinions on the mix are also appreciated

https://app.box.com/s/6eivr1xcsbnka7ab3ju8
 
What does the dry track sound like? What kind of effects & plugins do you have on the vocal? When I've run into stuff like that I've found I've had the track on some weird send or some close delay that causes the issues. Are you using more than one mic on the vocals?
 
I'm not hearing it, at least not to the point where any phase sounds ugly. I would try thinning out some of the organ sounds, I think there might be a bit of frequency competition there. Other nits are the string sections are a bit harsh and I don't like the panning of the lead guitar. When there is no singing let the lead take the centre.

But all in all it's impressive if you ask me, and I like her voice.
 
I'm with Tobe on the Organs and the Strings. The Organ is rather fatiguing to me.
 
That sort of "Rhodes" piano sound does overwhelm the mix after a while and does not help the vocal to stand out with any clarity. The Rhodes sound is very fat by nature and gets its character from that so it's crucial how you EQ it. Too thin and it sounds bad....too fat and you sort of have what you have. Thin it out a bit on the low end and see if you don't like the mix better. By the way.....I thought the vocal track is fairly good. In fact.....I might go as far as to say you took a little too much upper end out when you went after the breathing problem. Just my 2 cents.
 
Think I found it out, she was using a music stand and looking to the side, when she took breaths she would pull back from the side at an angle from the mic. I noticed it when recording her again. Here's the new vox with an SM7 and UA 710

https://app.box.com/s/txuqzeqs8gxx1p46ifqp
 
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