UNusual Suspects

[Angelo M]

I am working with a singer who wants more effects on her voice in the mix. She feels as if it needs to be "disguised" somewhat to cover her occasional shakiness and I tend to agree.

Reverb often sounds corny or is not really appropriate, and chorus and echos are getting old. I have reamped the vox thru some small amps and gotten some interesting stuff but I don't want that on every song. I am scratching my head trying to think of ways to smudge the vox that don't fall into one of the predictable categories

I am looking for some other ideas - stuff that has worked for you on (female) vox that's not reverb, chorus or echo. It can be subtle or it can be crazy- it can be a plug-in or a low tech analog garage band technique - whatever you got- I want to hear about it.

[cdog]

http://www.antarestech.com/products/auto-tune4.html

[Bob Olhsson]

This is the classic reason for double-tracking a vocal! It's a bunch of work to really get it right so it isn't obvious. The closest effect I've encountered has been Waves's doubler from their TransX or Musician bundles.

[Mystr Tiger]

I agree with Bob's doubling suggestion. Might wanna look into Synchro Arts VocAlign for this. I used it on a lead vocal (male, not female) once and I felt it was more natural sounding, and it was less work for the singer since he did not have to nail his performance (and in fact he and I did not know I was gonna do the doubling until later - I just happened to have him give me several takes and then I decided to try the doubling after he had gone). I actually did Autotune first, and then the VocAlign. I will say that VocAlign worked better when I did small phrases at a time rather than trying to do the entire performance. After getting the double track, I blended it in under the main track (probably 3 to 6 db down) with some very short delays to fatten it. Hope this helps.

[natpub]

Roland Dimension D, button 3 :-)

or, how bout a tremelo or leslie effect, ala robert plant

[JB3]

Waves - Enigma - gently...

ymmv

...J

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by Angelo M
I am working with a singer who wants more effects on her voice in the mix. She feels as if it needs to be "disguised" somewhat to cover her occasional shakiness and I tend to agree.

Reverb often sounds corny or is not really appropriate, and chorus and echos are getting old. I have reamped the vox thru some small amps and gotten some interesting stuff but I don't want that on every song. I am scratching my head trying to think of ways to smudge the vox that don't fall into one of the predictable categories

I am looking for some other ideas - stuff that has worked for you on (female) vox that's not reverb, chorus or echo. It can be subtle or it can be crazy- it can be a plug-in or a low tech analog garage band technique - whatever you got- I want to hear about it.

How about a clip of some of the stuff?

To suggest something blind is kinda useless if it doesn't fit the genre.

[Angelo M]

thanks to all for your ideas!

Not sure when I can get around to posting a clip, but in general I would call the stuff Rock, a little jazzy, a little Jammy- (but without the flabby rhythm of the classic Jam band!) and a little singer/songwritery.

The vocals fall into the latter category. We have done careful doublings on all the choruses and a lot of the verses as well.

The auto tune suggestion is interesting (as an effect?) The vocals were carefully recorded and comped so its not so much the Pitch that is shaky as it is the other elements of the vocal presentation. For example, the artist complains about sounding "young" or "plain"

She's not That young, but I think she means it in the sense of jejune, amateurish. The players are all pros and this is her first serious musical endeavor.

So in a nutshell what I am looking for is FX that would serve as "makeup" or "costume" or even "disguise" for the vocal.

As producer, I feel the need to get away from "traditional" vocal FX like reverb and chorus. The music itself is kind of Traditional already- Rock with live musicians- how 20th Century-, so I feel I can be somewhat adventurous in treatments and mixing which is why I am asking for the UNusual.

[Mystr Tiger]

Originally posted by Angelo M

...So in a nutshell what I am looking for is FX that would serve as "makeup" or "costume" or even "disguise" for the vocal.

As producer, I feel the need to get away from "traditional" vocal FX like reverb and chorus. The music itself is kind of Traditional already- Rock with live musicians- how 20th Century-, so I feel I can be somewhat adventurous in treatments and mixing which is why I am asking for the UNusual.

Might want to consider TC Helicon VoiceOne. It can do some pretty radical, unusual, non-traditional, and adventurous stuff.

[mikebuzz]

Run um thu a Marshall at 11

Later
Buzz

[waxnsteel]

If she sounds "young" or "plain" it's probably because she is, and for the sake of talented folks who are not, I hope there's nothing you can do.

[Caldo71]

Angelo, I don't know how much experience you have at tracking vocals so I'm about to make a big leap of assumption about your signal chain and what you are and are not doing, but...

before you go all effect-ey, have you thoroughly examined subtle/not-so-subtle/double compression to help smooth out the shaky spots in her performance?

Apologies if I'm off-base here...just seems like that's your first line of defense against a weak diaphragm (insert joke here), and it's not so much of an obvious "effect".