Augmenting Weak Vocal Screams... help?

[ryanojohn]

So I've had great screamers come in and rip it up, all it took was some compression, and a touch of EQ to overcome the sm58-ness and the cupping of the mic, and bam a killer vocal...

This last project though, the band is KILLER, great musicians, but the vocals are ruining the record. The screamer is kinda just doing a throaty growl that has no body or balls to it. I've tried an amp sim, to add some distortion, and it's a BIT better, but it's still just a bad vocal with distortion.

I would LOVE some suggestions... I don't have the option to replace the singer... It's not my band, I'm just doing the album...

I posted this once in mix suggestions, this IS scratch vocals, but the retracked vocals sound exactly the same... I thought it was just him going easy during scratch tracks but this is what it sounds like...

Vocal Chain: MD421II -> UA610M -> API2500

Audio Sample:
http://dtoc.battleofthebands.com/INxHONORxOF

 

[AStacy2]

I'm not listening on my monitors, but it dosen't sound that bad to me really, other than them being really low in the mix. I think you could get more "attitude" out of your compresser though if you hit it harder and that would help. Remember also, every vocalist dosen't sound the same, maybe you're hearing something totally different from his vision.

 

[Ihsahn1981]

Did you try different mics?
Not everybody sounds good on a 421.
Ive heard good things about the Shure SM7b for screamo vocals.


Im guessing that you have tried different mics though.
Maybe try doubletracking the vocals? Or fake it with a delay?


Also, if you compress really hard you might wanna ease it up a bit. More dynamics in the vocals might bring it more to life..

 

[Machinated]

If its not too late, maybe like get him to double track the vocals in another tone of voice and blend the two together. Using a Slate tip that he posted here, sending the vocals to a delay bus with the left at 15ms and the right at 30ms for example can really thicken the vocals up too.

I think vocals are a really hard thing to fix in the mix, especially when the vocalist doesn't sound great right off. Good luck with it, and post your final results!

BTW really love your mix of it, just sounds a bit too squished right now. Really great drum sound in particular.

 

[ATLA]

imo thats just how most metalcore vocalist sound, not thats its bad but alot of them just choose for that throaty growl rather because it has that raw quality to it. kinda like Extols undeceived album(not saying that its metalcore) but the vocals have a really raw quality.

they sound normal too me, and if thats the style hes going for i dont really think you should worry about it too much..

i also enjoyed your mix as well.

 

[Aaron Smith]

I had this problem once, and a free VST limiter/light tube distortion plug called Ruby Tube helped thicken the vocals up without adding a real sense that much had been done to them...so you might try that! I think if you try to use some kind of guitar plug-in lightly it could help, but in my experience, the speaker simulations change the vocal sound too drastically and make it sound over EQed.

Here's a link with the Windows and OSX downloads for Ruby Tube:

http://www.macmusic.org/software/view.php/lang/en/id/339/

 

[ElektricEyez]

I kinda hear what your talking about. It sounds as if the singer screams with a slight whisper, or he is too "breathy" with his vocals. I would personally suggest experimenting with compressing the crap out of them, give it all the sqaush you can, and then set your attack to slow, so it doesn't bring up the inhales every time he breaths before the vocals come in. He also has a deep voice so it sounds like they are blending in with the guitars, and the guitars and vocals are sort of fighting each other for space, maybe try boosting the EQ at around 3-4k. I would also suggest cloning the track and on the cloned track, slam the vocals, and try a different distortion. I have had a similar vocalist and used a Revolver distortion with a very mild distortion on the cloned track, and mixed the real vocals a little louder than the vocals with a distortion on it, then sent the 2 tracks to a bus and stick a compressor or a limiter on it to blend them together nicely.

 

[ryanojohn]

Ruby tube looks like a pretty useful tool, unfortunately I'm using RTAS, and I don't have any VST hosts on here. I'll certainly try turning off the speaker sim on the amp sim I was using, that might clear it up a bit. It is pretty heavily compressed, but trying a parallel compression might make that work better too. Plus I think taking the speaker sim off the amp sim will clear it up a bit, it did make it muddy sounding, plus it def did some interesting things with the phase relationship of the amp sim versus the clean vox...

 

[migreeni]

It wasn't as bad as I thought.. Try parallel compression on the vox.

 

[ffaudio]

The vocals really need to come up in that mix. Too buried.

 

[nwright]

I've duplicated weak vocal tracks and pitch shifted the duped track down a bit before and had success. Then kind bury it a bit under the original, maybe not as much compression on the shifted track and slam the original.

 

[evolutions_end]

so hows it sounding? does the client hear the hollowness of the track or is it something thats just bugging us engineers?

thats a really mean sounding mix BTW

 

[ffaudio]

I found parallel compression with Camel Crusher with the tube blend on worked pretty amazingly.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I wish I could listen but I can't. Anyhow when I had a singer who was weak I just went with it, slamed the hell out of it with compression and some slight "tube" distortion plug in (cubase VST plug) and it spanked it up a notch.

 

[broken81]

Smash it with compression like -40 threshold and 20/1 ratio and mess with attack and release i would say about 50. I use waves rcomp and love just clamping down on screaming vox like this. Really puts them in your face.

 

[CJWall]

1176 is great for this (whether it be URS' variation in the URS CS Pro or UAD, or even a real one! imagine that, lol). fast attack, mess with release and 20:1.

ahhhh heaven

 

[smy1]

Uhm, I don't hear any problems with the screaming at all!!!? It's the singing that needs lots of beefing up, hahaha

 

[utak666]

If its not too late, maybe like get him to double track the vocals in another tone of voice and blend the two together.

Actually that method works great sometimes. As long as the tone is only slightly different. Sometimes it doesn`t sound that good without music, but when you play everything together(music and both vocaltracks). Makes the vocals sound thicker and wider. Also the amount of raw distortion increases.

 

[Zack Uidl]

I have done this in past:

-Double vox tracks
-Slight distortion (very little, just to add a little more)
-Lots of compression

I have also added delay that is hardly noticeable. Fills things out a little more. If you do try this, set the gain levels for the delay is much lower.

 

[Doomith]

I had the same problem once and applying a doubler very slightly out of time and very slightly detuning it.
Also try double the vox track and compress the fuck out of it and mix it in with the original vocals.