PLEASE HELP ... Frustrated about recording technique

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stevepeter83

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Sorry guys I'm a new member and I need to post 10 times before I can submit a URL so bear with me while I write 10 posts. Please scroll down to the actual question. Thanks for your patience.
 
Sorry guys I'm a new member and I need to post 10 times before I can submit a URL so bear with me while I write 10 posts. Please scroll down to the actual question. Thanks for your patience.
 
OK here it is, the actual question.

Guys,

I'm so frustrated with my recording that I can't achieve the vocal sound as this song here:

I am a friend of God - YouTube

My questions are:
1. What effects do they use that the vocal has a bit of trail in the end of an "open" syllable like "a"? I tried to use echo but that doesn't work.
2. On the chorus, the vocal sounds very-very rich. Do you think the vocal is done by 1-2 singers and then cloned/hard-panned, etc? Or do you think the chorus is done by many singers and backing vocals?

I'm always interested to make that "high-school music vocal" sound just like the chorus in that song.

I'm new to home recording and somehow I'm still curious why my music can't sound like these pros although when I listen to them, their instruments are not that many but yet the result is very-very rich.

Your help is appreciated. I'm a skilled musician and play multiple instruments but it's just the recording technique that I'm lacking.



Steve
 
Hi there, and welcome.

The technique on the verses is an automated long reverb tail.

By that I mean, there's a reverb with a long tail, but it's only introduced on certain words and phrases.
The easiest way to achieve this is to have your normal reverb on the vocals and then use automation to increase the reverb length briefly just in advance of key words.

The sound you hear in the chorus is multiple recordings of the main part, but also multiple recordings of at least one harmony part.
I'll admit, I only listened for long enough to get the idea, so I haven't counted them,
but a good start would be to record the chorus part twice, then record a harmony part twice.

Once done, you can pan a main and a harmony some degree to the left, and the other main and harmony the same degree to the right.

Hope that's useful to you.
 
stevepeter83 said:
I'm new to home recording and somehow I'm still curious why my music can't sound like these pro
Click to expand...

I didn't listen to the clip, so I'll just answer your more general question above with a question or 2 of my own.

OK, first of all, if you think you're frustrated now, get ready for years of frustration. The reason these records sound pro is because they're made by pro's. Just like a pro football player, or a pro carpneter, or a pro....well you get the point, it takes years of practice, learning, making mistakes, developping skills, and experience. It's not just a matter of how many instruments are in a recording, and there's no special "technique" or "secret".

Now, to hopefully help answer your question without even listening to the clip you posted, I have a few questions that, once answered, my might help others answer your specific questions on the clip.

Where are you recording (bedroom, basement, bathroom?, etc....)

Is the room treated for recording and/or mixing?

What kind of equipment are you using? In this case what kind of mic?

What are you plugging your mic into?

It would be hard to tell you what's missing without knowing what you have and a general idea of how and where you're recording.
 
Hmm where to start..

Ok so for the trail in the vocal, that it sounded a like and extended reverb. Not echo.

And for the chorus I could definitely hear layers of his own voice. I don't think they used other singers.


Ok so you say that you're new to home recording and you're wondering why you can't make your songs sounds like the pros.. Well that's just it, you're new lol it all comes with acquired skills through experience and study. Also, good gear and software.


What are you recording on? What type of mic you got? What kinda room are you recording in?
 
Thanks everyone for the reply.

I have Rhode NT1-A microphone. My audio tool is M-Audio C400 and comes with ProTools software but I use N-Tract instead.

I just plug my instruments straight to the audio tool.

My room is a dedicated room for recording, size is about 3mx3m, painted brick wall obviously and has TV, a sofa and carpet.

I know that obviously my tools compared to the pros are way way far...but what I'm confused about is just the blend of the mix itself. I mean...a guitar will sound like a guitar...even a very good guitar when not mixed properly will not sound professional.

I think instruments wise I'm fine but it's the vocal that I'm irritated about. Somehow I just can't get a good quality of the vocal. I'm a professional singer myself and I've heard other people who do not sing as good but yet their recording still sounds a lot better. That's why I'm frustrated.


Thanks so much for replying.
 
Hi again.
Your vocal problem is primarily a spacial one.

Either you're using a bad sounding reverb, singing into the back of the mic, singing too far away from the mic, or your room sounds bad.

I'm sure there are other possibilities, but those are the first things I thought of when I heard your vocals.
 
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