Hey guys! Please help me out.

[1245]

I have learned a bunch from this site, thanks to people who took the time and sent me great feedback. This might also help other beginners like myself.

I have been using general settings FOR VOCALS O.G. KILLA typed in almost every song I record. It worked great.
Big difference. But, I am not going further with sound. I would appreciate if you can add some more advice to even make it better. I am happy with my sound but not where I want it to be yet.

THIS IS WHAT HE TOLD ME TO DO:


this isn't an end all be all...but this is what I find myself doing 60 to 70% of the time to start with...then I tweak...and change stuff around...

For pop ballad lead vocal....

1) Insert HighPass filter if needed. A lot of recordings at home will have a lot of low freq. rumble from Air Conditioning, people walking, etc... Open an EQ, WAVES RenEQ 2 Band will do. Set the low freq to roll off, and place it at around 100Hz~150Hz.

2) Insert compressor (if you have Waves RenComp, use Vocal Preset. Adjust threshold so at the loudest points in the track the vocal is only being compressed by 3dB AT THE MOST!!!!)

3)Insert DeEsser if needed. (Waves DeEsser, split band, move freq between 6000Hz and 12,000Hz until you find the offensive freq., adjust threshold until it sounds natural. You don't want to completely remove the esses, just turn them down a little bit.)

3) Insert EQ (I'm loving the Oxford EQ-Type 3, but you can use a Q4 or RenComp4...usually I boost somewhere around 6KHz~8KHz a few dB on male voices, maybe cut around 800~1000 by a dB or two if the singer has a nasal sound, and if the singer has a high voice I'll boost around 200~400 a little to beef 'em up a little.)

4) Insert Limiter/compressor (I usually use a BF LA-2A, switched to limit...adjust peak reduction and gain to taste. Usually I'll have it compressing about 2dB to 5dB at the loudest points. So long as it sounds transparent. If you can here it pumping then it's too much).

Next I create two aux tracks...

On Aux1 I setup a Reverb (Waves RenReverb is good) and on aux 2 I setup a Delay (usually the Waves supertap 2 tap or a BlueTubes Oilcan delay).

On the Reverb get a nice hall sound...adjust the damping and EQ inside the reverb plugin...roll off the low end below 200~400 a little more than the defaut and usually bring the high end up a little bit from where it is by default. keep the high end crossover point around 4KHz or so. Set the Reverb time to be around 3 seconds, and adjust the diffusion to taste.

On the delay I usually start with either quarter notes or eight notes. If using the waves delay I set both 1st and 2nd delay the same (quarter note or either), pan one hard left the other hard right, then I switch to Free and turn snap off...turn the grid view of the delay to MS...now move the first delay a hair forward and the second a hair back....then turn on the EQ for each one...play around with these...I usually put them anywhere between 1KHz and 5KHz with the Narrow Bell Curve. Feedback I usually put at 10%-30%, set to either an eigth note or quarter note...with it's low pass off.

Now here's the trick...DON'T USE TOO MUCH OF EITHER VERB OR DELAY!!! Setup sends off your lead vocal for both the reverb and delay...I usually like to use a little more reverb than delay but it really depends on the song... The delay should not be blatantly noticeable while the track is playing...it should almost kind of wash into the background of the reverb (which it will if done right). Reverb should be just loud enough to notice it a little but shouldn't be overbearing at all...you don't want your vocal swimming in verb. You want it so you can ALMOST not hear it in the track...but when you it stop in the middle of a vocal line you hear the reverb trail and the faint hint of a delay.

Then after you have that and you feel the whole mix is sitting prety good... go through the whole song listening to everyhthing, not just focusing on one specific instrument...when you feel you can't understand the vocal or can't hear the vocal, stop and automate a volume ride on that line or phrase...if a vocal jumps out at you, stop and automate a volume ride...

Do that with all your vocals (Lead, doubles, ad libs, backgrounds, etc.). And Tada, you're done! take a break...go get something to eat...let your ears rest for about 30 minutes or so...come back and listen again...fix what you think needs to be fixes and bounce it.

AGAIN...THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ALL THE TIME!! But you can try starting with it and mess with it from there. Sometimes you don't need the verb, sometimes you don't need the delay...sometimes you don't need anything...let your ears be the judge.

good luck and have fun with it.

[soundsurfr]

All of that is valid, and I use those techniques all the time. Here's some more:

Double the vocal. A good singer can re-take a phrase or even a stanza at a time and match every inflection - if your vocalist has this talent, take advantage of it. Doubling will add depth to the vocal sound and smooth out pitch wavering, resulting in a fat, more powerful vocal sound. One drawback is you may lose some expressional nuance, so you might only want to bring this in at the chorus and leave the doubled vocal out of the verse, for example. Also, if your vocalist can't match up his/her consonants it's going to sound messy, so either take the time to get it spot on, or forget it.

You can pan the double hard left and right or, for a different effect, center both tracks. Some vocalists I work with on pop tracks will quadruple the vocal. I almost always use this technique to fatten background vocal tracks also. Sometimes I'll use up to 12 tracks for a three-part harmony.

On lead and backing vocals, you can change the reverb depth, or eliminate reverb altogether to bring the background vocals forward or vice versa.

Try an aural exciter or a sonic maximizer. Every once in a while it adds that little bit of sparkle or breathy hid mid that was missing.

The last 2 cost money. 1. Get a great mic preamp, like a Manley or an Avalon. This will set you back a couple thousand, but the payback in terms of vocal quality is huge. 2. Try sending the vocal tracks out to a quality analog tape machine, then flying them back into digital. The tape compression sometimes works to "warm them up". You can do this with your full mix also.

Enjoy.

[1245]

Try an aural exciter or a sonic maximizer. Every once in a while it adds that little bit of sparkle or breathy hid mid that was missing.

The last 2 cost money. 1. Get a great mic preamp, like a Manley or an Avalon. This will set you back a couple thousand, but the payback in terms of vocal quality is huge. 2. Try sending the vocal tracks out to a quality analog tape machine, then flying them back into digital. The tape compression sometimes works to "warm them up". You can do this with your full mix also.

Enjoy.

Thanks for the reply , I tried like you say, it works great I just have to perfect it.

I do have Sonic Maximazer but it would not work with protools as a real Real Time
I bought few months ago.

I also have the 6176 channel strip mic-pre but I just got three weeks ago. I am stil learning how to make the best of it.
Thanks again.