Masking a really sheddy vocal

[Line666]

Ok, so I've got this song here to mix and master and the vocalist is really really sheddy, it's not so much that he's missing notes its just that his actual modulation once he's found the note is all over the place - the overtone is also really grating.

So has anyone got any tips on how to patch up this sort of stuff without getting my vocoder on and making him sound like something out of Cynic or just autotuning the fuck out of it to the point where he sounds like Cher?

Cheers!

 

[Skinny Viking]

what kind of vocals are they?

sounds like you're gonna be honing your autotune skills. What program are you using for tuning?

 

[Line666]

They're grating emocore style vocals. (you know the type - whiny tenor)

I'm using reatune at the moment, I tried melodyne at the college - they can afford it, I can't but it wasn't helping much either.

If I'm just going to have to stick with it, any tips?

 

[Skinny Viking]

cut the shit out of his vox with EQ ... all those annoying overtones and anything else if you can. I mean really slice the fucker up. Throw some distortion on his voice, not to make it fuzzy but to give it a lot more edge, that might help mask some of his warbling (think distorted guitars, they hide mistakes you'd hear on a clean channel). Try using a doubler or harmonizer to fatten everything up but keep it subtle (and do it before any distortion). After that, some verb and delay. I mean send to verb 1st and then send verb to a delay, just EQ your verb 1st before it hits delay.

Of course you'll want to tune what you can where you can before any of that, if your tuner doesn't catch it or help, just slice up the most offensive sections and use a pitch shifter VERY SPARINGLY and only in spots that can be masked by the full mix. For example, if he hits a note and is holding it but goes all over the place while holding it, try to find a spot where he might start adding vibrato, at that point make a cut and pitch shift if your tuner can't help. Cuts and shifts between full syllables and such are almost always hidden once you have the vox in the middle of the mix

if you can, post a clip of what you're dealing with now before you try anything. Perhaps myself or someone else here might be able to help further

 

[Skinny Viking]

Ok I realize just how disjointed my post is in the 1st paragraph. Basically here is what my workflow would be:

1. Tune/pitch shift what can be worked
2. EQ to hell
3. Doubler/Harmonizer (if it works)
4. Some type of distortion
5. Verb
6. EQ verb
7. Delay

 

[SocialNumb]

8. A swift kick in da nuts.

 

[Skinny Viking]

8. A swift kick in da nuts.

emocore = no nuts to kick

 

[Line666]

Cool, thanks so far, here's a clip (no tuning applied - bit of reverb got through but thats because I forgot to mute the aux bus before rendering):

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=18184

And aye, I'm not into this sort of thing either , but there's a real derth of decent engineers over here so if I can get something really bad to sound reasonably good then I'll be doing better than most.

 

[Skinny Viking]

Cool, thanks so far, here's a clip (no tuning applied - bit of reverb got through but thats because I forgot to mute the aux bus before rendering):

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=18184

And aye, I'm not into this sort of thing either , but there's a real derth of decent engineers over here so if I can get something really bad to sound reasonably good then I'll be doing better than most.

YIKES!!!!

That is bad

best of luck man. If you get stuck, I might be able to help you. I have a 5 song project I'll be starting in a few weeks (I think) .. full editing & mix but I have some free time until then ... could help with the tuning issues at least.

Just throwing it out there

 

[-Loco-]

where about in scotland you located mate? I had a really bad experience with this SHITE singer i recorded last year, tried to train him on a few notes to fix the problems, still didnt work and had to melodyne to hell and back. My advice would be, try and train him into singing the note correctly or at least trying cause it sounds like he has an okay voice he's just making up the vocal melody as he goes along. Get him to get it tight - re-take a few times and then melodyne to fuck with the results if its not getting any better

 

[Line666]

YIKES!!!!

That is bad

best of luck man. If you get stuck, I might be able to help you. I have a 5 song project I'll be starting in a few weeks (I think) .. full editing & mix but I have some free time until then ... could help with the tuning issues at least.

Just throwing it out there

Thanks man, I did warn yah , have you got msn? I'll save you the hassle of helping to tune it because this is a free job anyway, but I'm probably going to have a few more questions along the way if thats alright.

where about in scotland you located mate? I had a really bad experience with this SHITE singer i recorded last year, tried to train him on a few notes to fix the problems, still didnt work and had to melodyne to hell and back. My advice would be, try and train him into singing the note correctly or at least trying cause it sounds like he has an okay voice he's just making up the vocal melody as he goes along. Get him to get it tight - re-take a few times and then melodyne to fuck with the results if its not getting any better

Fife and I would try that but I'm no vocal coach

 

[Skinny Viking]

Thanks man, I did warn yah , have you got msn? I'll save you the hassle of helping to tune it because this is a free job anyway, but I'm probably going to have a few more questions along the way if thats alright.



Fife and I would try that but I'm no vocal coach

no I don't use msn but you can always just hit me up through here or on my myspace if you're on there

www.myspace.com/dirty_viking

happy to help if I can

 

[Line666]

Nah man. Fraid I don't have a myspaz at the moment. My last one got delled cos I couldnt be arsed with it.

Got any quick advice on vocal distortion vsts? What would you recommend?

 

[Skinny Viking]

Nah man. Fraid I don't have a myspaz at the moment. My last one got delled cos I couldnt be arsed with it.

Got any quick advice on vocal distortion vsts? What would you recommend?

I don't really know of any good free ones, but the $200 I spent on Izotope Trash was a great investment that I don't regret. I've used it on almost every project I've worked on since I got it. There might be better ones out there but I kinda stopped at Trash cause it does what I need it to and always comes out cool sounding. Don't know if you're looking to spend money so hopefully some others here can chime in and make some good suggestions to other plugs

 

[GarethSE]

Some nice deep lyrics going there too..
HA.

Pretty fucking bad.
If this was me, I'd probably melodyne it to fuckery, cover it in effects, lots of reverb and stereo delay.

 

[DanLights]

that "let you baaaack" or something like that is totally horrible, needs some deadly autotuning (or overdubbing for the love of god hahaha) the rest isn't all that terrible IMO, I mean yeah it needs some work, but I've heard some ""singers"" do a lot worst. I'm kind of a fan of emocore stuff so kinda get it. Still, singer could use some training though

 

[Line666]

I definately think the guy could have a nice voice, but he does have a really limited range - he barely uses an octave here and never goes below G3 or beyond E4 (when you can hear him straining) - most tenors should go down to C3 and up to C5 fairly easily, I think with some training he could do a lot better. He was having trouble with his breathing when we tracked it, he didn't seem to have enough control over it, and you can hear the strain on the screams he did as well (pushing far too hard to get that sound), loads of tension, needed to ease off a bit (fortunately that was easier to fix because they were distorted anyway and I was actually using screams to mask the singing near the end).

 

[LeviathanMetal]

emocore = no nuts to kick

So true...

 

[DanLights]

I definately think the guy could have a nice voice, but he does have a really limited range - he barely uses an octave here and never goes below G3 or beyond E4 (when you can hear him straining) - most tenors should go down to C3 and up to C5 fairly easily, I think with some training he could do a lot better. He was having trouble with his breathing when we tracked it, he didn't seem to have enough control over it, and you can hear the strain on the screams he did as well (pushing far too hard to get that sound), loads of tension, needed to ease off a bit (fortunately that was easier to fix because they were distorted anyway and I was actually using screams to mask the singing near the end).

yeah the breathing thing is noticable, but that shouldn't be too hard to hide in the mix.

 

[greyskull]

melodyne