Tips for enhancing vocals

[mronline]

Hi everyone. Genuine plea for help here.

I would like some help editing vocals please. I don't use instruments in any of my clips - it's all about the vocals. At present all i'm doing is:

1) Recording the vocals
2) Normalize
3) Compression
4) EQ 3 7 band
5) Normalise

and the Aux 1 file includes reverb (d verb)

Here is an example of the type of work im involved in and have carried out so far. Any suggestions/tips on how to improve it would be highly appreciated.

pre-editing:
https://clyp.it/bg0a3ro5

post-editing:
https://clyp.it/3gy0uesx

Regards,

MrO

[JFreak]

Hi, welcome to the community.

Drop normalize and do it right

[sw rec]

Agreed. Too many people use normalize as a band aid. Get your levels right to begin with, you don't need to normalize. Especially not twice.

[albee1952]

Indeed, I never use Normalize. I do use Clip Gain(assuming you are on PT10 or higher) to adjust levels of the vocal track to even things out so that compression is hit a bit more consistently. On an older version, I would use the Audiosuite GAIN plugin for this. My plugin chain is usually:
EQ III 1 band EQ(set to high-pass between 100-150Hz to suit the voice)
BF76 (set for very gentle compression of peaks)
SMACK! (for more compression and a bit of "character"
EQ III 7-band(only if I need EQ, and I always dip around 350Hz on BGV's)
Pultec EQ1-A (to add a bit of sparkle, usually Waves Puigtech but the lowly Bomb Factory will do the job on a budget)

I also leave insert slot A open(all the above starts at slot B) so that I can insert Melodyne if required(I want Melodyne to work on the original and unprocessed audio).

[mronline]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

I hope this doesn't sound too cheeky but if someone can give me a step by step guide of how to "properly" edit vocals then I would be very grateful.

I will admit I have limited experience (and therefore am no Pro Tools expert) in editing but I am very keen to learn new ways.

Cheers guys.

Also what's the best way to add a really nice, subtle echo?

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by mronline

what's the best way to add a really nice, subtle echo?

Don't overdo it :)

Oh but seriously, pick an echo/delay plugin and pit it on aux track. Then send your vox to that aux and lift the fader until it isn't so subtle anymore, then back off a little.

Massey TD5 is my favourite free delay. It doesn't cost much to open all features so please support the developer if you can. It is a one-man business.