How can I get my Voice to sound alive and like other people songs (my*song included*)

[El_Tigre]

Hi everyone, i've taken a class on protools and im up to the point where i can use many tracks and record songs. My guitar sounds great in protools, but my vocals sound not so good.

My Song Sample of my voice is here Right one this time

My System



32 inch monitor
Core 2 duo 2.4ghz
003 Rack
Neumman TLM 49 mic
Mogani 50 ft xlr cable
Plugins that come with Protools



What I don't like about my voice

• 1. Sounds flat and not alive
  2. The volume doesnt make it sound lively
  3. I really dont sound anywere close to what is on the vocals
  4. Sounds like a piece of paper no distinction that its a voice and its more like music
  5. The tone of the voice doesnt sound like it does when I sing it live with one headphone

When it sounds good, how I would like it to sound




Something I've noticed about recording live with one headphone on and singing. I am able to hear myself through the headphone while singing and it sounds good but when it goes into protools it sounds flat. When I check it in protools.




If you could please answer my Question below thanks in advance

1. How can I get my voice to sound seperate from the music to have it sound alive?
2. How can I get it to sound like when im singing live and hearing what I sing through the headphone live?
3. What plugins might help in doing what I would like to be done
4. Are their any guides that you could help me?

I'd really like to get started recording with the vocals, I sang for about two hours trying to get my voice to sound in tune with the song. I spent the whole week trying to figure it out.


Could you please in detail show me some cool steps I can do to make an improvement in my sound.

At this point im willing to donate money to someone who can take me step by step.

1. If I do have to edit the voice, do i do that after I recorded the audio or before while im singing with the plugin turned on?

Thank you , I know its long and if you took the time to look through I appreciate it and thank you so much.

[wolfskin]

For starters, what microphone and preamp are you using to record your vocals? A good microphone, and one properly suited to your voice can make all the difference.

[El_Tigre]

Im using a Neumman Tlm 49 microphone
and i don't have a preamp, can you get good the lively song without a preamp, I really thought it would be ok with the 003 rack and the Neumman microphone

[solidwalnut]

I would say that recording vocals is both an art and a science. It takes both. You have an excellent mic to begin with, and you can use the preamp in the 003 just fine. There are better preamps out there to use, for sure, but the pre's in the 003 will work just fine.

Much of recording vocals is how you take care in the process. Check out this link:

How to record vocals

There are many more like this when you google 'how to record vocals'.

The bottom line is that one very important step is the room in which you record. Maybe you're already past this, but read on this and about compression (you don't necessarily need compression when you record, but you might. And it's good info to know.)

A good recording of your voice should sound 'flat' as far as liveliness. As long as what you've captured represents how you think your voice sounds, frequency-wise, then you can sweeten it later.

Sometimes you might need to add a little reverb to your headphones while you record. You can insert a reverb plug on the audio channel and this will help. The 'verb won't go down on 'tape'. That's another story if you want to do that.

You can edit your audio file any time while you're listening back to it.

As long as you have a good representation of your voice recorded, you can sweeten it with 'verb and eq plugs when you're mixing.

I hope this gets you started. Here's another interesting link: The Art of Recording Vocals.

Steve

[albee1952]

Solidwalnut said it very well but I will expound a bit. The sound of your room can absolutely affect your vocal recording(I also use a TLM49). In my old room, if I placed the mic at a spot in the room without acoustic treatment, the sound was adversly affected. My new room has a dedicated vocal booth with acoustic treatment on all walls and some on the ceiling and the audio is much improved and more consistant. I touch of verb and/or delay can help, as can a little EQ(I especially love the Pultec EQ plugin for sparkle as it sounds better than any other EQ I have ever heard). Also, sometimes, you need to "carve out" space for the vocal by using EQ on the other tracks that are competing for the same frequency spectrum(like guitars and keys). Don't forget the age-old technique of double-tracking(i.e. sing the same part twice on 2 separate tracks).

[wolfskin]

Very good advice by solidwalnut & albee. You can also put a touch of compression on the track to help 'level out' the peaks and lows, making it easier to place in the mix... Be careful not to over-compress, as compression should usually be subtle...

[albee1952]

Regarding compression, you can also duplicate the track and use light compression on one but crush the other and bring it up "behind" the first track.

[El_Tigre]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Regarding compression, you can also duplicate the track and use light compression on one but crush the other and bring it up "behind" the first track.

I've been thinking of doing this too, what do you mean by crush compression. Would any compression plugin work or what are some good ones that are inexpensive or one i should get.

What kind of effect of effect will this make thanks

Ill update my song as i add some plugins and eq it so you can see how it sounds maybe even vocal it better

[netnoggin]

I clicked on the link you provided. One thing I noticed was in the recording you are often singing flat. This may not be your fault, depending on your setup. The question is how loud do you have the headphones when you record your vocals? This can cause a perception issue with your ears and brain that makes you think the music is lower in pitch than what it actually is, which in turn makes you sing lower (flatter) to 'match' the music. It's a well-known phenomena. A quick google turned up this thread that speaks to it a little more:

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=37402

In your original post under "what I don't like about my voice", points 1, 2, 3, and 5 seem to be symptoms of that effect. I had a trained opera singer in the studio not long ago. Wonderful voice. But when we started, he sounded terribly flat - to the point of being funny (his wife was in the control room with me, rolling on the floor ). But then I found he had the headphones really cranked up, because he thought it would help. We turned it down, and got him to pull them slightly off his head and he was fine.

Your vocal also sounds very distant, like you are not at the proper distance from the mic. Try experimenting with a more close-up approach and see how it sounds. Just a couple of ideas.

N

[solidwalnut]

Originally Posted by netnoggin

...Your vocal also sounds very distant, like you are not at the proper distance from the mic. Try experimenting with a more close-up approach and see how it sounds...

Excellent, yes. "Chase the flame" as Mike Stavrou says in his book, Mixing With Your Mind. IOW, target the mic at the tip of your vocal output. Imagine your vocal output (and this is really the same for recording any sound) as a flame and strive to capture the tip area of the flame.