Tips for vocals anyone?

[jakespies]

Alright so I've finished the music part of my project with all the guitars re-amp'd. Now on to vocals. Anyone got some tips on a good program/plugin for vocals? I have my own DIY area setup with good acoustics and I'm ready for vocals I just need a good plugin if anyone has any recommendations. I currently use Ableton live 8 with podfarm2 plugin.

EDIT: Oh and I will be using a tascam tm-78 mic, I am borrowing it from a friend so idk if its any good. Any thoughts on the tascam?

 

[AntonioPetrole]

Alright so I've finished the music part of my project with all the guitars re-amp'd. Now on to vocals. Anyone got some tips on a good program/plugin for vocals? I have my own DIY area setup with good acoustics and I'm ready for vocals I just need a good plugin if anyone has any recommendations. I currently use Ableton live 8 with podfarm2 plugin.

EDIT: Oh and I will be using a tascam tm-78 mic, I am borrowing it from a friend so idk if its any good. Any thoughts on the tascam?

The only thing you need to know about vocals is that if you cant make a plugin make you scream or anything. A basic vocal chain can be EQ, a compressor, reverb, a de-esser, and maybe a bit of echo or delay. Not in that particular order of course. Good vocal takes come from a good vocalist, so start practicing!

 

[Cryo114]

A basic vocal chain can be EQ, a compressor, reverb, a de-esser, and maybe a bit of echo or delay.

This.

Your going to (generally) need more than one plug to do different things depending on how the vox are. Like in any craft you have tools, but you don't always need to use them all, you just need to know what they do and when they're needed.

To the list above I'd add some kind of drive plugin, that can make a very cool difference.

 

[Trevoire520]

Anyone got some tips on a good program/plugin for vocals?

I just need a good plugin if anyone has any recommendations.

No. You need a good vocalist. Everything else is secondary. Mic's, plugins etc don't matter if the vocalist is good.

If you've used the right mic for the vocalist you can just go for compression, de-essing and some verb/delay and call it a day. Sometimes a touch of eq to get it to sit in the mix.

 

[paladin shredder]

sometimes some saturation/distortion effects are good in moderation

 

[jakespies]

hmm alright. How about as far as getting just the raw recordings done? I know how important a good vocalist is I am just concerned about getting him the best chance recording it raw correctly before I do anything to his actual recordings. Is ableton live 8 any good, or does it really not matter what I use to record his tracks?

 

[AntonioPetrole]

hmm alright. How about as far as getting just the raw recordings done? I know how important a good vocalist is I am just concerned about getting him the best chance recording it raw correctly before I do anything to his actual recordings. Is ableton live 8 any good, or does it really not matter what I use to record his tracks?

your DAW (in this case ableton live) wont have an effect on the sound quality. Its about your room position (doesnt matter to much with say an SM58 for example) your mic, your cable, your preamp, and your interface. Im still learning on room positions and stuff too, but that matters alot on your mic. What kind of mic do you have? For instance if you are using a condensor mic, it will pick up alot of unwanted noise and sound reflections and create mud and unwanted reverb. On the other hand, if you are using an SM7b than you can have your monitors blaring and it wont matter too much

Edit: I didnt read that you are using a tascam tm-78 mic. TBH its prob not gonna sound to great but def try it. i havent used it, im kinda just judging by the price of it =/

 

[Morgan C]

EQing vocals is the hardest part, imo. It's a lot harder to hear what you're doing, and if you do too much it starts sounding really unnatural. Lasse says he doesn't even EQ vocals anymore, but Jens Bogren posted on here about how it takes him hours to get just the vocal EQ right. Once it is right, however, you're pretty much gold. Compress it to fuck, saturate and add some delay/verb.

 

[Ermz]

I find vocals one of the easiest things to process. I spend much MUCH longer getting the bass/guitar relationship right.

If you have a good chain, a good vocalist, a good performance and a good monitoring system then the EQ will basically do itself. One thing that really helps on vocals is outboard. I've tried a variety of plug-ins over the years, but recently switched to using my Millennia Origin and 1176 A because they work really well in conjunction with certain plug-ins. Plug-ins are still useful for de-Ess, multiband, limiting and more stacked compression.

Stacked compression is probably a key word with vocals. I tend to use maybe 4 or 5 dynamics controlling tools by the time the vocal chain is done. It's ok to be very aggressive here. After you're done slamming them you'll find all the nuance and character is right in your face, so all you need to do is saturate lightly (or heavily, depending on the mix and your desires) and it'll be both crunchy and in-your-face.

One thing I'd recommend, if you're stuck ITB, is using Nebula for high-end boosts. It does that better than any plug-ins. I've done a variety of shoot-outs, and nothing has touched some of the analoginthebox and Alex B EQ programs (apart from the Millennia hardware of course). I only realized too late that the Waves EQs suck, especially the SSL series. Really easy way to see why is to get any of the Waves SSL EQs and dime the high end and listen to what happens. Then get the Nebula Massive Passive or API master EQ programs, dime the high-end on those and listen to what happens again. You start to see after this why too much high boosting on ITB EQs will make your high mids brittle and harsh. It's quite an enlightening experience.

But no, I don't think I would ever not EQ vocals. It's like those people that say they don't EQ their rhythm guitars at all in their mix and then you listen to it and it just sounds like horseshit. There is natural junk in almost every signal we record. Not saying I advocate drastically changing the spectrum, but changes in the realm of a dB or a few are perfectly normal. Having a 'perfect' vocal sound on the way in would be like having all the planets align then give birth to a shotgun out my peehole.