Vocal processing

[Jason Poulin]

Does anyone like to do any processing on the lead vocals after they've recorded them?

such as a fast delay to really thickin up the track?

I hear a lot of mixes out there with a really fat up front vocal that blends in nicely.

Where's the beef at?

Thanks

Jason

[Jason Poulin]

oh, and my pres and mics are high end gear using a vocal booth.

Jason

[Teacher]

not all high end gear gives you a beefy fat sound....

[Jason Poulin]

true, very true...

But that's what I'm looking for... the beef!

I already get a thick sound out of them but I'm looking for something more. You know, when you listen to your new Chris Cornell Cd... I hear fatness.

Jason

[Jason Poulin]

And this is not what I'm talking about!! eh

Jason

[AudioGaff]

In addition to any standard effects I use, I almost always add and dedicate an Eventide. An LA2A and Massive Passive seem to bump it up a few notches as well.

[imacgreg]

When mixing in Bro Tools, I usually set an aux up with a pitch plugin that is set to +4 cents on one side a -4 on the other. Sometimes the pitch shift is more, sometimes less. Then I bring up the fader till I can hear it, then back off a bit. It does a good job of fattening stuff up. Also, when tracking vocals I like to hit my pre (usually Neve 1084) pretty hard, almost to the point of audible distortion. Then compress with Manley Vari-mu, 1176, and distressor, each taking off at least a couple db. Seems to work pretty good!

By the way, that picture is just disturbing. grudge

[airmate]

Originally posted by Jason Poulin
Does anyone like to do any processing on the lead vocals after they've recorded them?

such as a fast delay to really thickin up the track?

I hear a lot of mixes out there with a really fat up front vocal that blends in nicely.

Where's the beef at?

well - it depends.

usually, i record vocal track with a brauner phantom mic through the siemens v276 pre.

after recording, during mixdown, there surely will be some processiing. first of all, i send the vox through my urei 546 parametric eq. he's not really hi-end, but you can work with it and he has a nice "special" sound.
after that the vocals run through the urei 1178 for "general" compression, mostly with a ratio of 4:1, then i'll put them through my dbx 160sl doing some peak limiting. from time to time, i additionally use a de-esser.

i don't use reverb very often on vocals - i prefer delays. the small boss se-70 has a nice modulation delay, but the logic audio tape delay is useful, too.

[Jason Poulin]

Thanks everyone,

sorry for the picture... bad visual.

As for using the pitch shift, I was curious to try that out although when you shift -4 and +4 cents, do you mean 4 semitones?

one cent equals what on an octave scale?

And for all of the other replies, I'm going to them as well.

Jason

[imacgreg]

I'm pretty sure its cents. Isn't semitones similar?Usually its the finest adjustment of pitch the box/plug has got. Go with what works!

Ian

[ojay]

With the split pitch shift thing, it is cents.
100 cents = 1 semitone
12 semitones = 1 octave
I have used this method with an RMS DMX on other sources aswell.

[Jason Poulin]

ah great!

thanks for clearing that up for me. Had I not known, I would have put the 4 semitones in and have my vocals in a perfect 4th DO and FA harmony! haha

not good ; )

Jason

[amanitas]

Not to be a jackass, but actually you'd have 6 semitones if you went from Do to Fa (ie C to F). I'm not so up on my solfeg, but I think it'd be Do to Ma? maybe - whatever C to Eb would be, that'd be 4 semitones.

[ojay]

C to Eb = 3 semitones
C to E = 4 semitones
C to F = 5 semitones

You don't count the C when counting up or down.
C to Db = 1 semitone

Anyway back to the vocal thing. My chain fo the vocal on mixdown almost always was Focusrite EQ>Summit TLA100>one side of an Urei 1178. I would then find i could add just a bit of reverb for space and possibly some Dimension D Chorus.

[Jason Poulin]

woops,

Do to Fa is 6 semitones so i

I was thinking something else,

4 semitones makes a major 3rd

shows that I majored in classical music in college! Man, too many nights ignoring the books! haha

anyhow, thanks for the replies

Jason

[jbuntz]

Originally posted by Jason Poulin
woops,

Do to Fa is 6 semitones so i

I was thinking something else,

4 semitones makes a major 3rd

shows that I majored in classical music in college! Man, too many nights ignoring the books! haha

anyhow, thanks for the replies

Jason

6 Semitones is a tritone (flat fifth).

Fa is the IV of the scale, 5 semitones difference from the I.