Vocal mastering

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hdem90

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ok when you listen to any god song right when the chorus comes along the vocals sou nd like the person's voice is turned into a choir, i really don't know how to describe it but i'm sure you guys know what i'm taking about. i've been fooling around trying anything that comes to mind to get my vocal tracks to sound that sexy but its just a little off. I have no mastering or audio engineering education. Anything and everything i learn was through experience. If anyone out there can please help me get my vocals sounding like professional songs that would be IMMENSELY appreciated!

Thanks in Advance
 
Maybe you can dub the vocal tracks and use some volume automation (including some reverb) and some left-right panning so they sound like they appear from far away. All this alongside your basic vocal track. I hope this is sort of what you mean. Otherwise, maybe you can give an example.
 
hdem90 said:
ok when you listen to any god song right when the chorus comes along the vocals sou nd like the person's voice is turned into a choir
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We obviously have quite different definitions of "good (god?) songs", because the vast majority of the songs I prefer do not use such an effect.

However - now that our personal editorializing is even - you could simply use a stereo or quad chorus on the vocal.

For more of a contemporary sound, instead of using a pre-made chorus, make two copies of the track, pitch shift one track up 10-15 cents (to taste), and then pitch shift the second one down by the same amount.

This is kind of like a "poor man's chorus", the difference being that most real choruses add a low frequency oscillator (i.e. "warble") to the shifted versions. But LFO'd choruses tend to have a more "80s sound" to them in some people's minds, where as the simple shift is more contemporary - or so the theory goes.

BTW, none of this thread has anything whatsoever to do with mastering. Not only is the effect added early in the mixing stage, long before it's sent to be mastered, but it has nothing to do with actually prepping the mix for printing, copying or distribution.

G.
 
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tlennon1 said:
This is one of the best articles describing exactly what it is you are looking to accomplish. Just try out some of the techniques tweaking it to taste and you will get the desired effect. Good luck!
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Unfortunately that article is what is wrong with the whole recording industry. In the old days, musicians and vocalists recorded actual performances. Cutting and pasting a 3 second performance is not music to me at all.

The "chorus" effect is usually double and triple tracked vocal tracks.
 
Anything and everything i learn was through experience. If anyone out there can please help me get my vocals sounding like professional songs that would be IMMENSELY appreciated!

Thanks in Advance[/QUOTE]
what gear are u using for your recordings apart from what you mentioned?
 
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It depends on the vocal really. What kind of sound are you going for?

Carrie Underwood or Kurt Cobain?
 
MCI2424 said:
Unfortunately that article is what is wrong with the whole recording industry. In the old days, musicians and vocalists recorded actual performances. Cutting and pasting a 3 second performance is not music to me at all.
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I agree with you that technology has pretty much allowed us to get lazy from a performance and talent standpoint. "These kids today" (note the quotes: that was said entirely tongue-in-cheek ;) ) have absolutely no concept of what it was like to have to record 32 musicians and singers performing showcase arrangements direct-to-disk.

That said, though, if you're referring to comping, I think it's a matter of degree and intent. If one has a vocal performance (or any other instrument) that is just fine except for 3 seconds here or one measure there, I see nothing wrong with punching in a correction. Even if it's a performance mistake - which it isn't necessarily; maybe someone bumped a microphone or a temporary mistake was made behind the glass - it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to force then to re-take the whole performance, especially if there's already a few takes under the bridge.

If, however, it's an assembled performance because the artist cannot go more than a measure at a stretch without a mistake, then they have no reason to be in front of the microphone...or at least the engineer should get credit as the vocalist and not the person in front of the mic.

Where do you draw the line? Somewhere around the point where you know that you're comping to make up for a non-artist instead of providing just a little slack for a real artist. If you know the artist is capable of a one-take keeper, helping out a little is fine. If you know the performer couldn't carry the tune all the way through with a forklift, then it's an inexcusable session.

G.
 
But IMO, there's another type of comping.
Yeah, it can be about fixing *bad* parts...but it can also be about improving already good parts.

IOW...you have 3-4 takes that are all real good, but then you take a closer listen and "zoom in" a bit and notice that the first word on the second take has just a little more desirable inflection than the other two takes, so you cut that into your comp track...and so on.

Yeah it can get crazy doing slice-n-dice down to the single vowel/beat...but it's really up to the artists and engineers how far they want to take that process. Some don't want to spend the time on that kind of stuff, and some don't want to spend the money on the time it takes...and all that's fine too...but for those that like/want to edit a bit deeper in, I don't see that approach as any kind of "cheating", rather it's more about fine-tuning a single performance out of several good ones, and that's not in anny way faking it, since the artist actually performed all of them.

It's really about the intent....
 
Well, there are many great examples of "first take" vocal performances that aren't perfect, but were so good that they were used on the final production. Celine Dion's "My Hear Will Go On" is a great example. First take on vocals. Some of her pronunciations are weird or off (probably her French accent kicking in) but it was used anyway.
 
Seafroggys said:
Well, there are many great examples of "first take" vocal performances that aren't perfect, but were so good that they were used on the final production. Celine Dion's "My Hear Will Go On" is a great example.
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Epic. That was awesome.
 
Yeah...there's a lot that can be said for a "raw" but dynamic single take vocal VS a *perfect* comped vocal track.

But of course...first you gotta have the voice. ;)
 
Example

here's the effect i was talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBhx_HbvYUc

specifically the bridge and the chorus. i've tried layering the vocals, recording mutliple takes and stacking it on top of the original track while shifting the pitch +4 nd -4 on the other, i've tried having the original track stay centered while having the other two shift left and right respectively while droping the volume by 20%. It comes close to it but its still not exactly the way Tedder has it in his demo song!

BTW. thnx for all the advice!
 
hdem90 said:
ok when you listen to any god song
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What the hell is a "god song?"


hdem90 said:
i really don't know how to describe it
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You're not alone. People have been trying to describe god and god songs for thousands of years... and failing miserably.

hdem90 said:
i've been fooling around trying anything that comes to mind to get my vocal tracks to sound that sexy but its just a little off.
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Kinda hard to compete with god, especially when she's someone like Alanis Morissette :p
 
To be honest dude, I don't think from what you're saying is anything more than a bunch of vocal 'ahh' harmonies following the route notes.

If you want to do this yourself, sing the route notes and work out the fifth, octave etc and once they're all put together, slap a load of delay on them and really make them settle in the mix then they'll pad everything out and make things more full as-it-were.

This works along with pads and strings but using your own or your singer's voice to do it can make it sound really nice. Check out my friends in With One Last Breath - I think their self titled song does this really well :)

Hope this helps!
 
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