Vocal Effects

  • Thread starter Thread starter Erockrazor
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Erockrazor

Erockrazor

I mix in (2x) real-time
With a lot of different music I've been listening to , I've been hearing little effects on the vocal tracks. I'm curious if there is maybe plug ins for vocal effects or do you think that the effects are usually created by some sort of vocal effect processing hardware type thingamabob. My vocals are always very close to being completely dry and only utilize a little reverb. I can never find an effect that sits well with my vocals. I am just looking for some sort of kick start onto vocal effects maybe to create more excitement or a different sound. Free VST plug-ins perhaps , expensive hardware perhaps , alien vocalists perhaps? Very broad question I know but if anyone could maybe give me a little jump start with vocal effects. Thank you.
 
i think with vocals two effects (if you actually CAN call them effects) which are almost always used are compression (i use waves. think it's brilliant) and eq (several plug-ins).
with these it's possible to make the vocals sit properly in the mix.
then there's reverb of course (freeverb is ok, i use waves). not only to make the vocals bigger (I never achieve that) but to give them the bit of stereo back that you lost in the tracking stage. also it sounds strange to have a considerably different amount of reverb on the instruments than on the vocals (if not wanted as an obvious effect).
closely related to reverb is delay. almost any plugin will do as long as you can roll off the highs. sometimes you can get nice results using only delay instead of a reverb. sometimes a combination is what you need.
a slap-echo (short but still noticeable as delay, mostly mono and centered), a wide spread stereo-delay (perhaps 30ms, spread almost fully left and right) or a single 8th- or 4th-note delay (almost inaudible) is what I use most. depending on the song.
sometimes distortion can add a certain something. i once mixed vocals using only compression, eq, distortion (mda plug ins, free) and a delay. they sat perfectly in their distorted guitar environment - i was amazed. but with a cleaner background the distortion on the vocals was kind of bothering, but turning it of made the vocals sit less well. strange things happen. :o

exciters can be a nice thing too. but one tends to overuse them. compared to a vocal track using an exciter, the "clean" track always sounds - well - less exciting, but nevertheless I think excited tracks sound a bit artificial.

chorus and flanger (i like blueline here) are also handy to polish up your vocals. normally I only use them as an obvious effect for "psychedelic" stuff (like hendrix covers or whatever). using only a bit can make the vocals sound more professional... or just overprocessed :D .

the thing is, putting these effects on a vocal track will always make them sound "better" compared to the original track. it will also make them sound more unnatural though.
i always go for "less is more". you don't have to use fancy effects if it already sounds good.
 
Good information , I enjoyed reading that entire post. It was good to hear what you like to use , what you dont really use , what you think it tasteful, what you think isnt , what you think is overused,etc. I feel like after reading this I feel that many vocal effects , have two sides , usually a pro and a con. Ex. an effect may sound good but lose integrity for reality within a mix.

Thank you six
 
wow, there's a brilliant idea - Vocal effects plug-ins, why didn't I think of that! What's next - A device that can take your vocals and record them on the PC???? Wow, people are really stupid these days...
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I just got negative rep and received this comment. Though I am not complaining about the negative reputation , I believe that you misunderstood my request. I wanted to see if maybe there was a plug in for vocal reverb or a vocal chorus etc. I find my vocal tracks to be rather dull. I know alot relys on performance , thats perfectly understandable but I was just curious what other people do to their vocal tracks as I'm fairly new to all of this.

I thought posting this elementary topic on the newbie forum would be a good idea to avoid problems like these. Though it may not have been the best question ever , it was something I was curious about. Sorry if i flustered you , those were not my intentions.
 
I usually use a timed delay on the vocal track & pan the delay to maybe the right, and the same with reverb. Also you can try EQ'ing at a certain frequency (maybe around 1K-3kHz, and adding 3dB to it.... , and then going to the rest of the tracks (usually instruments), and at that same frequency, drop it the same the same 3dB, that'll help the vocal sit better in the tracks. Also I disagree with lessing effects if it sounds "good". You want the vocals to sound great, along with the rest of the tracks. When in the studio, after I mix it down & add effects here and there, and it sounds good already; my teacher usually comes in and add's even more and changes a little things here and there, and the "already sounds good" becomes "now sounds great", and that's the difference in the quality of the records sounding like how they do in the "studio" and one that's not as good.
 
I like the idea of Eq'ing the other instruments down a little to let the vocal frequencies stick out a little better than they would regularly. I'm actually thinking about trying that now but I'll assume that I have to take it easy with lowering the other tracks other than vocals at the risk of losing the integrity of those frequencies. I never thought about that though, thank you.
 
your welcome. just a little tip I picked up from the studio
 
mindset: hmmm... sounds interesting. by saying "good" i didn't mean "quite acceptable" :) .
so what is it your teacher tweaks? MORE effects or just different settings & eq? that's quite a difference.
 
six said:
mindset: hmmm... sounds interesting. by saying "good" i didn't mean "quite acceptable" :) .
so what is it your teacher tweaks? MORE effects or just different settings & eq? that's quite a difference.
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He does it SO FAST it's hard to tell lol. I'll say it's mostly EQing stuff of that nature, and then after that, he usually starts tweaking the settings on the compressor, gate, reverb, delays, choruses if theres any, the way things pan & sit in the stereo field, and the list goes on. That's because he's been in the industry for decades though, with top names.

I should say any mixing tips done should be used wisely. Some tracks need special care, while others were tracked pretty good. But there's a reason my teacher charges $200/hr for mastering and people like Elton John pay it. Yesterday I met the president of AKG & VP of OpenLabs. They brought a custom "extreme" machine in for the teacher (one of the designers). It's krazie. Not released yet, but I do know it has dual quad core processors, and 2 terabyte of HD space... it's a monster machine.....

But anyways, your previous post was accurate. I was just stating an opinion on the word "good" lol :D
 
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