tips to make a deep voice sound better ?

I

idontxpanic

New member
i've been having a difficult time mixing my voice to my beats. i feel like i have a great knowledge of the tools i use and the techniques i use also, but my voice is too deep and has alot of low/mid range frequencies. i use multiband compressors with all kinds of eq cuts but i just end up taking away from my vocal. my friend brought over his mic which i thought would make a difference, but when i got into mixing his voice was easy to process no bad frequencies or anything and mine were very dense. i have also tried putting blankets on my wall for reflections which didnt make a difference and changing my posture as well as my mic positions but all of that does not work. is their any tips to making a deep voice sound better ?
 
What mic are you using? What all mics have you tried for your voice? Do you have any samples that you could post for us?

I always get a little gross feeling when people mention using multiband compressors. I think that if you're to the point of resorting to using a MBC, then something is probably wrong farther upstream. Your voice, your room, your mic...most likely one or more of these will be the culprit.
 
Hey,
Might not be much use to you but it sounds like you've gone too far.
The voice in the soundcloud clip is too thin.

Try losing the multi band (or any compression, really) and just run with an eq.
Lose any reverb and delay for now too.
Use one eq, and if you're making cuts in the lows or mids, use narrow shallow cuts.
Try to isolate particular areas which sound bad, muddy, dull, whatever, and reduce them slightly.

Don't be tempted to scoop wide or deep because you'll always just end up with thin vocals.

Once you think you have the balance right, go ahead and try your compression or time based effects, but if something sucks, go back a step rather than fixing the fix.

If that's not working out, maybe upload your inst and vocal separate, both starting from a common point so we can take a proper listen.
 
Those are a couple of solid entry-level mics. I'd imagine that it should be possible to get acceptable results with either of those for vocals, even a baritone voice.

In that soundcloud song, the vocals sound boxy, like there's a big midrange frequency bump in there. Or maybe the highs and lows are cut out of it...either way, it's definitely an unnatural frequency curve to all of the vocals. It could be a side-effect of the compression that's on them, depending on which compressor was used. Even though it's out of my normal listening habits, I did enjoy the song. It had lots of energy and variety.

I'd go back to basics on the vocals. Experiment with the distance between you and the mic. Closer will pick up more bass (and mouth noise) and farther away will pick up less bass. Ditch the multi-band compressors for now, and see what you can get with regular old-fashioned single band compressors. You can stack them up in series if you need to, with each just doing a little bit of gain reduction. Use EQ more to remove boom or mud, and accentuate the higher frequencies rather than to crank up the mid frequencies.

*edit* Ha, Steen...I stayed on the "reply" page for way too long and you beat me to it :D
 
try a simple high pass filter on the track after it's in.

start at about 150hz, and roll it up until you find the sweet spot.
 
I think part of the solution is to clear space for the vocal in the mix. If you're dealing with a voice that has lots of energy in the low mids, you may not be able to thin it out to the point where it will cut without making it sound unnatural. So cut other things instead.
 
Does sound like it does need help in the eq dept. I would try highpass at 90 hz with a notch at about 380 hz and a small notch @ 3.2Khz and 12K. I also would have the beat track a little bit louder (closer together to the vocal level). When you mix these tracks be mindful to revisit the eq and balance the frequency level between the two tracks to correct the overshoots when you mix.
 
You can also simply use a brighter mic. Voices are like fingerprints...one of a kind, so I suggest you experiment with other microphones.

For example I like to record my vox on a Shure SM57. I've tried using condensers, other mics, but when I use the good ol' 57, I'm always pleased with the results.
 
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