Hi Paul, After a very quick listen I think your wife has a very nice voice. Is she ready to leaving you? Because I am available. Ron --- Paul Winkler <pw_lists@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 08:55:20AM -0500, Brett > McCoy wrote: > > I'm of the opinion that you should work on getting > the vocals to sound > > good dry -- before adding any effects. What are > you using to record the > > vocals? I recommend a good condensor mike and a > pre-amp, > > +1000. The best investment is a good mic. > It doesn't have to be all that expensive if you do > your research. > I bought an MXL V67G on ebay for under $100 with > shock mount > and I've been pretty happy with the results. Google > for that > and "Harvey Gerst" and you'll know why I got it. > Gerst's online > writings are priceless for people doing recording on > the cheap. > Sure, I'd rather have a Neumann, but who has the > money for that? > Another important point about mics is that some mics > are better > suited to different voices or even different songs. > Try what > you have, there's no such thing as the one true mic. > > My preamps aren't anything special - I have a Mackie > 1202 VLZ - it's > fine for now, but a little harsh in the treble. I'll > probably upgrade > that before getting any more expensive mics. > > I often compress on the way in, using an FMR RNC. > (But not always; > sometimes I leave it until later and use SC4 mono). > Vocals are pretty > tolerant of large amounts of compression, and I find > that having good > solid levels in my headphones helps me get better > pitch. So does having > some reverb in the phones. I do in-computer reverb > with hardware > monitoring by setting up a bus for the reverb and > setting its input to > the hardware input, so it doesn't go to "tape". > Then I listen to the > results without reverb and sometimes decide it > doesn't need any! But > anything that helps an unconfident singer (i.e. me) > get a better > performance is worthwhile. > > I've tried all the reverbs... freeverb, gverb, TAP > reverb, > versatile plate... I don't have a favorite yet, > they're all useful for > vocals. > > A tip for using Freeverb: It may seem a bit plain > and sometimes harsh > for vocals by itself, but you can get very good > sounds out of it with > some tricks: > > First, set the "damping" really high, that makes it > smoother. > > Now try adding some predelay - a simple delay plugin > in front of the reverb, > at 100% wet; try around 50 ms delay to start with - > that makes the > "room" a little bigger and more interesting. Lower > the delay time to make it more subtle; bump it up to > 100 ms to make it a more obvious effect. > > Finally, try post-filtering; follow the delay/reverb > combo with a low > pass filter (the simple one-pole filter from CMT > will do fine); set the > cutoff around 5000 Hz to start with and adjust to > taste. Smooooth. > > Here's an example using the above freeverb recipe > (please don't anybody > make permanent links to this one as it's a rough mix > of stuff that we're > probably going to re-record due to some performance > flubs and some > too-hot levels you can hear a bit): > > http://slinkp.com/~paul/dont_get_sad_mix_20051206.mp3 > > > I played guitar and sang backups (badly), my wife > sang lead > (beautifully). > > And no, we didn't write that, it's a cover of an Ida > song. > I wish I wrote that. > > > Other technical notes: > Lots of compression (SC1) on each vocal track. > Maybe 6:1 ratio, attack around 30 ms, release around > 120 ms. No EQ on > Abby's voice. I forget if that was the MXL V67G or > the MXL V57 (which I > sometimes like better on female voices, it has less > of an upper-mid > presence peak). > > Some 10-band EQ on my voice due to poor mic choice > during tracking > (Sennheiser 421 which is a GREAT all-purpose mic but > for this song I > found it too present and sibilant in the upper mids > for backing vocals). > > Which brings up another idea ... if you want a > brighter > reverb sound than I was going for in that track, > like super-in-your- > face radio pop, one problem is that voices can get > really sibilant. > TAP De-Esser can be really handy here. Put it on the > vocals > after compression, before EQ and before reverb. > Then you can > make really obnoxiously bright vocals without the > ssssssibilancccccce > tearing your head off. I don't have any recorded > examples of > this to share - yet :-) > > > and use > > balanced XLR for the entire signal path, at least > until where the signal > > is going into your audio interface, where you > probably just have RCA or > > 1/8" inputs. > > That's nice if the rest of your gear is already > pretty good, but > personally I don't worry about balancing line levels > at this point. > In my view it's a lot less important than having a > good mic, good > soundcard, and good preamp. > > -- > > Paul Winkler > http://www.slinkp.com > __________________________________________ Yahoo! DSL ? Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less. dsl.yahoo.com
