Vocals treatment

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Shack

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Anyone give me pointers on how to achieve that smooth vocal treatment you hear on R&B tracks? Basically, I mean what effects do they use, what dynamics, etc?
 
Shack said:
Anyone give me pointers on how to achieve that smooth vocal treatment you hear on R&B tracks? Basically, I mean what effects do they use, what dynamics, etc?


Give a song example and I will try to help TTBOMK.

Malcolm
 
Say a typical R Kelly song. Are you familar with his stuff? If not, any of these R&B tracks you hear on radio these days. I'm basically trying to find out how I make my songs sound more professional as the vocals sound too 'honest' at the moment. I know that is a good thing but i'm looking for it to sound professionally done. All I use at the moment is compression, plate reverb and very little eq.
 
The best thing for smooth "R&B type" vocal mixes is a smooth "R&B type" vocalist. A lot of people forget that part...

Assuming you haven't, it really does depend on what kind of sound you're shooting for - Some R&B vocals are limited to death. Others are overly dynamic.

Try some extremes - Multi-band compression (if you have it) on certain vocals can be a miracle. Of course, it can be a curse on others... If you lack the MBC, try duplicating your original vocal track - Take the duplicate and compress the snot out of it. I mean really kick it in like you're pissed at it. Suck out all the mids between 200 & 3000Hz so you're just left with a squashed "shell" of a vocal, then blend it in with the original. You can put a warm plate across this (squashed) track for a neat, airy verb wash that holds its' own for the "full" parts, and STILL has depth and dimension during quiet parts (remember how compressed we are here) where the verb would normally give up from lack of signal.

It takes a bit of experimentation, but give it a whirl if you get the chance.

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
Thanks for the reply and advice, i'll give it a go. So basically from what I gather, you're also advising compression and reverb treatments and not really much else. I thought probably some other gizmos were used. The vocalist I have is actually quite good, it's just I was wondering how I could get some spark into the vocals.
 
its all in the EQ man. I like results adding a little at 120Hz for more body, roll off a bit at 200 if boomy, up a hair at 2500 for siblance like the essssss sound in a word. 5000 for more presence bump up. Try adding 1db at 120Hz with q1.4. for smooth jazz body. And 5000 or 7000 ranges for spark.
 
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