Vocal Editing Techniques

[dcb]

i thought i'd start a thread where everyone shares some vocal editing /production techniques.

i'll throw in :

1. with backing vocals and doubles or harmonies - always edit out the breaths/breathing.

2. LEAVE the breaths to the lead singer. ive heard productions where
every breath is taken out... sounds very sterile and unnatural to me...

3. If you multi track your vocals, always edit out the sss and "harsh" consonants on the backing tracks (watch out for "p" and "b" especially with speech level screamers.. the tend to overemphasize)

4. always check your edited vocals in mono. if you have
lead vocals in center and 1 double left 1 double right it might sound
amazing. but all summed together, it can really destroy intellegibillity sometimes. so its always a good idea to edit the vocals on top of each other (in mono) and then spread them in stereo -> after editing

5. if you use pitch correction (this example is for vari audio) cut the transient of the note and only pitch adjust the tail... pitching the transient always ends up sounding unnatural. it might work in some cases, but
if you want to avoid unnatural sound vocals, don't...

6. adjusting the length of words : if you time stretch, also
make sure to cut after the initial transient of the words -> stretch after that,
this will make your stretches sound more natural than stretching the whole word.

to me, vocal production is the most important part of making a record (that involves the tracking, too) great vocals will get you attention by the listener.
so, now im waiting for your tricks and ideas! ;-)

 

[greyskull]

cool.
Here's some things i'll add.
With vocals is so up to the singers mood to how well they'll perform, and much as they may sometimes be whiney little douchebags; you have to pander to this to get the best results.
Reccomend no Dairy Products,caffeine,fizzy drinks, alchohol, smoking etc on the day of performance
Most singers perform better in the afternoon, so it can work well to record in the afternoon and edit the next morning.

Headphone mix is very important, as is the level of the headphones; this can effect their pitching!! (i said they were whiney douchebags didnt I??!)

In terms of editing, i find its best to put as much effort possible into making the comp as good as possible as opposed to simply getting something half decent and saying; oh yeah we'll melodyne/autotune that. The less of that the better as far as im concerned.

Breaths are a tricky one. sometimes they really need to be there, and sometimes they don't; judgement call, you can always take em out later.

 

[dcb]

nice ! maybe we should rename the thread into : Vocal Production Techniques -> and Sticky that one...
maybe lasse can help out ;-) ! AND contribute!

so, keep em ideas coming!

 

[amarshism]

This might sound simple but I've seen people do it differently and never understood why. When I know I'm going to get someone to double up on vocals we go word for word or phrase for phrase. Once we nail the take I'll play it through back to them and then get a good double. Makes the peformamce tighter IMO and usually allows me to group the tracks and edit words/phrases for both at once. Never understood people going through the whole song then coming back around to double up.

 

[dcb]

Never understood people going through the whole song then coming back around to double up.

true, i let the singer do a couple of takes, then make a comp we're both happy with. But only for a small part of the song, most of the times 1 line or so...
then let him double the comp. 8 out of 10 times they are spot on, and only little adjustments have to be made.

in my experience singers are more spot on the lead take for doubles if they do the doubles directly after singing the lead line or hearing the comp (as mentioned).

 

[amarshism]

Same with gtr takes. Something about the muscle memory.

 

[BLUElightCory]

cool.
Here's some things i'll add.
With vocals is so up to the singers mood to how well they'll perform, and much as they may sometimes be whiney little douchebags; you have to pander to this to get the best results.
Reccomend no Dairy Products,caffeine,fizzy drinks, alchohol, smoking etc on the day of performance
Most singers perform better in the afternoon, so it can work well to record in the afternoon and edit the next morning.

+1 on no dairy/alcohol/sugary foods and drinks! Modest amounts of caffeine might be necessary if the singer is used to it to prevent headaches.

If the singer smokes, DON'T make him stop during the recording. Not only will it increase the chance of anxiety/irritability (which can kill the mood and the vocal performance), but the body will create excess mucus in an attempt to get rid of some of the toxins/tar that have built up from smoking. This will coat the vocal cords and make it that much harder to get a good performance.

If you book the session far out in advance (at least 2-4 months depending on how much/how long the singer has smoked) and your singer can commit to quitting (i.e. NO cigs and NO marijuana) than quitting will definitely help.

 

[El_Gato]

great post, thanx!

I'll only add automation of sends and FX's, also panning will make the track more "alive" and not so static

but I still have to learn/experiment a lot with them

 

[Skinny Viking]

actually room temperature water is the absolute best thing for a vocalist to drink before and during a session. A small amount of caffeine is ok during the session but the singer should have hydrated with room temp water for a couple hours before to negate the drying effect caffeine has.

 

[dcb]

ok, i will expand this thread further about vocal production :

always make sure the singer feels comfortable and has no problem trying things out in front of you (for example singing falsetto backings)
what i do is :

as im a singer myself, i do warmups together with them. i prefer melissa cross scream warmup and powervoice (for singing)
believe me, this connects you (the producer) with the singer, especially when you do the meee gee hihihi together
and its even more fun if you are no singer ;-) this will make the singer feel superior and give him self confidence!

 

[dcb]

my next tipp would be :

ride the lead vocals, after you have set your static levels and eqs.
i use a frontier alphatrack for that, ill make sure, that every syllable, every consonant cuts through the mix.
here is how you ride the vocals :
- play the track and set your daw automation to write mode
- whenever a word ends, move the fader up. its like a counter movement to the actual waveform you see.
- do that line by line -> i stop after every line and adjust the moves manually with the mouse, so i can get every single detail to cut through

 

[dcb]

+ push + lets collect more ideas...

 

[Freak Of Metal]

Lots of mic's have a low cut filter like my Behringer C-3. Do you guys enable that from the start or filter out lows later on?

 

[amarshism]

Eq later

 

[amarshism]

cool.
Here's some things i'll add.
With vocals is so up to the singers mood to how well they'll perform, and much as they may sometimes be whiney little douchebags; you have to pander to this to get the best results.
Reccomend no Dairy Products,caffeine,fizzy drinks, alchohol, smoking etc on the day of performance
Most singers perform better in the afternoon, so it can work well to record in the afternoon and edit the next morning.

I've had good results with vocalists drinking these things.

Chris the vocalist for my band (www.myspace.com/crossthelipsofgrace) would sip on ice coffee and have shots of jäger and sips of bourbon between takes. He thought it helped attain the more raspy and gutteral sounds that you hear on the recording.

It's worked for a few other people however I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

 

[Morgan C]

When a vocalist has a cool vibrato.. I like to bring it out by using Melodyne.. cutting a long note into three parts. The first part is the transient, left untouched, second part is completely static pitch, just a straight line, and then the 3rd part is the vibrato which you can use Melodyne to exaggerate slightly. They have to sing it like this first, then you just use Melodyne to exaggerate it a bit.

You can hear that here: pain and "feeeeeeaaaar" right at the start.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/324723/01 PaleBlueEyes.mp3

 

[Notuern]

Sorry there Morgan, but i think that one was a bit too much.. might be a cool thing to use if you dont exaggerate it as much, but i didnt think that particular clip sounded that good IMHO.

 

[MetalSound]

i let them drink alcohol. espcially the singers. some need it to be relaxed/feel comfortable. and i don´t mean the alcoholics.......

 

[Metaltastic]

I gotta admit, when I was tracking my vocalist for my EP, beer really helped!

 

[Freak Of Metal]

In the morning I'll drink camomile tea with honey to protect my vocal chords. Then, after a thourough warm up and during the recording, I'll sip on hot water or camomile tea. Any black tea doesnt work because like coffee, it dehydrates your vocal chords.