What effects are generally used on basic vocals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robertt8
  • Start date Start date
Robertt8

Robertt8

Well-known member
What effects are generally used on basic vocals?

I used to just reverb the hell out of everything, but have recently noticed the most vocals are pretty flat (I'm listening to Ben Harper, Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, Elliott Smith) What do they typically do to the vocals? They seem to have a little something to them, but I can't figure out what.

Thanks!
 
I don't know about the artist's vocals you speak of but I do know that there are so many specific vocal effects out there used by proffesional engineers that I can't name them all. My suggestion is try a different mode of effects processing.
 
The mic and pre quality are #1.
A good reverb used sparingly will make a big differance.
As will a good compressor.

There are a lot of tricks with vocals.

Doubling,harmonizing,slipping,processing,and numerous other things you can do.
Check through past posts in this forum,I'm sure you'll find many.

But the recordings you referd to probably used 10k worth of mics and pre's to get their sound!
(But we know how to do it cheaper!)

Best to you,
Pete
 
My Roland VM3100Pro has a 'Room Ambience' patch that I've tweaked up to work pretty well.

The in your face dry sound requires a really nice signal path and a lot of compression.
 
I've got the compression thing. It's just that the voice seems to be lacking just enough to notice something. It's like I do something to it that it's not noticable at all, or it sounds like i'm in a freakin' cave...I'll mess around with it a bit with your suggestions.

Keep em coming if you've got em!

Thanks by the way for the suggestions!
 
YO Robert of "8":]

I have, at times, run seven or eight or ten mixes of a finished song/vocal using various types of reverb/delay....etc.

A good mic and preamp are essentials, as mentioned by Muze. I recently did a comparison between my Yorkville mic and my AKG 3000 -- the 3000 won by a mudslide. I seem to notice that many lower priced mics have the same casing, shell or body. I've heard many of these are made in China. The Yorkville mic is all right but not near as good as the Yorkville monitors I use.

So, you need the voice signal strong. Maybe you might try putting the vocal on two tracks? More power means you need less reverb.

Then, if you buy a high end reverb you will get better results than the low end reverbs.

It amounts to hours of practice mixing and what goes in here and out there. Just keep plugging away and you will find that solid vocal sound you're looking for.


Green Hornet
:D :p :p :cool:
 
Alright . . . I'm in a good mood today, so I'll share a secret . . .

And it's not really a secret either, because people have been doing it for quite some time now.

Get yourself a Joemeek preamp, crank up the input untill the red light starts flashing frequently, crank the compression up, add a little high and mid eq, and cut a touch of bass.

It's really a classic vocal sound that's good even when run completely dry. I can't explain it -- it's just a sound - one that's familiar and pleasing. But it definitely an "effect."
 
Back
Top