WTHeck - I heard breaths on a major production

[YYR123]

Well i heard a song on the radio the other day and i liked it....So i went to itunes and bought the album = which i like also.....anyway.after some detailed listening (which I do all the time for everything) i actually heard the lead vocals breath in b/t phrases.......WTHeck i thought this was taboo?????? On a major label??? SONY???

I thought people have been scratching breaths from the vocals from the wee-old days of yore when digi designer first came out (I do)....Dude I couldn't believe it.......Is this just a by chance thing or does everybody hear breaths in Major Productions?????

[SOUNDDECISION]

Originally Posted by YYR123

....Dude I couldn't believe it.......Is this just a by chance thing or does everybody hear breaths in Major Productions?????

I dont understand this statement...singers DO breath and is often an important part of the emotion of a vocal. If you are talking about really LOUD breaths due to tons of compression , that's a different issue.

If you removed all the breaths tho, it would not sound natural.

[DetroitT]

Commercials do this (have done) to offset high compression.
A little expansion and many other techniques can give natural balance.

[Carl Kolchak]

I thought the whole point of record production since the late 90's was to make it sound like musical telepathy...

Nobody wants to hear an instrument actually interacting with an acoustic space. They want to be inside the guitar, or drum kit - and have that sound piped directly in to their brain, without the inconvenience of having to place loudspeakers in an actual room.

Hearing a human being actually breathing implies that air must have been involved (perhaps as a medium for the sound to travel in, and be picked up by a microphone???).

That wont do...

We want telepathy!

[zedhed]

Originally Posted by YYR123

.......Is this just a by chance thing or does everybody hear breaths in Major Productions?????

In most instances I don't hear many breaths but that's because I mainly listen to heavy metal where there is almost always a lot happening behind the vocals. This doesn't mean the recorded breaths don't exist, they just can't be heard within the context of the whole sound.

I would find it surprising (and somewhat emotionless) if I didn't hear breaths in songs where the voice is occupying most space in the mix. I have yet to meet a singer who doesn't breath when they sing, though some have a better technique than others when doing so.

[bacchus40]

its the britney spears effect that we all know as breath deletion... hahahha... some say its because they
had to punch in every damn sentence, and replace specific words which the engineer found a dislike for...
and yes it has been done in a few different styles of music...

i tend to just ride the faders as its a bit un-natural for humans to just stop breathing... :)

now that we've got CLIP GAIN.. its easy!


for the most part i do not like full transparency... as the music ends up sounding re-sampled... i like to toss in
fret sounds here n' there where i fits the track as well... personally, I wanna be in the room.. not hopping from amp to amp.. if that makes sense... lol

if you've got too much breath sounds... probably over-compressing to a certain extend... ride the meters as you compress is my motto...

[YYR123]

Yeah I'm talking about the breaths b/t vocal phrases or verse/corus type of thing!!! And I didn't say I didn't like it - clearly I liked the album b/c I bought it - but it was weird to hear the breaths b/t vocals b/c like someone said most people lower (I do) the breaths or edit them altogether should the breath be too overwhelming !!!

It sounded good but it just surprised me - I don't recall hearing breaths on any recent (years) songs in the radio or any CD's - it sounded good just different -

[flommer]

Just tell us what it is.. I'd like to see if it sticks out in an unpleasant way..

[BobbyDazzler]

Breaths on this album are some of the worst I've heard.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XQNAjD70ME

[weezul]

not a Muse fan then?