Vocal Production

[jesus69lol]

Ok so i've been reading this board for a while and in that time I've learned just a ton about drums and bass and guitars. One thing I have noticed a distinct lack of here is tips on vocal production. I am interested in any kind of knowledge there is to be had about vocal production.

How do you process your vocal signals? What sort of eq, if any, do you apply? Do you layer voices? I just want to know anything and everything that the briliant minds here know about vocals.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

After listening to the stems in the producers pack for lamb of god. I have been doing the muti delay thing alot (take the dry voice send it to a few delay plugs set to delay in time with the track then send that to a reverb buss).

Any "backing" vocal tracks get done at least 3 times.

That's all I got.

Voices get EQ'ed to taste and need. No specific suggestions except I roll off all of the low end (80hz and below).

 

[ExecutiveRob]

all good suggestions above.

The only thing that I've found that really makes a vocal sit properly in metal, is manually riding the fader or automating the level after light compression.

Seems like it'll be a hassle but doesn't take too long to do. The more work you can be bothered to put into it, the better it sounds.


oh, and make sure you've done as much at the tracking stage as possible!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Personally I like using a split harmonizer (Waves Doubler in my case) to spice up the vocals in parts like big choruses and such. It really opens up the vocals and - when properly used - can make them pretty massive.

 

[jesus69lol]

After listening to the stems in the producers pack for lamb of god. I have been doing the muti delay thing alot (take the dry voice send it to a few delay plugs set to delay in time with the track then send that to a reverb buss).

Any "backing" vocal tracks get done at least 3 times.

That's all I got.

Voices get EQ'ed to taste and need. No specific suggestions except I roll off all of the low end (80hz and below).

I usually roll of to 100 and then boost maybe 5k and above. That will vary from mix to mix but its a definitely what I usually come out of the gate with.

One thing I've been trying lately when I have multiple layers of vocals is eq'ing out everything but where the voice is strongest. Like on a harmonized line I'll take the lowest part and cut out all of it but the low mids/lows or just cut the mids substantially.

I've noticed on a lot of records that I listen to that aren't metal that multitracking is very common, but the supporting tracks are mixed veeery low in comparision to the original.

 

[[UEAK]Clowd]

After listening to the stems in the producers pack for lamb of god. I have been doing the muti delay thing alot (take the dry voice send it to a few delay plugs set to delay in time with the track then send that to a reverb buss).

Any "backing" vocal tracks get done at least 3 times.

That's all I got.

Voices get EQ'ed to taste and need. No specific suggestions except I roll off all of the low end (80hz and below).

I don't know what I'm doing wrong really, I've been messing around with my delay and reverb settings for a while now, and everything I do just ends up having that amateur shitty room reverb sound. I can't get that pleasing, huge, roomy sound. Maybe my source just sucks, and I'm exentuating some bad room noise?

any advice?

 

[GarethSE]

Yeah, the key is not really using inserts.
I don't really know the science behind what makes inserts and sends different, but I'm pretty confident with this explanation.
Inserts apply said affect like onto the audio itself. Like the plug directly affects the audio. So delays and reverbs soften everything up, loose its edge and give it that "amateur shitty room reverb sound."
Using sends its more like you've doubled the audio, and applied all those plugs to it with 100% wetness. Then you mix it in underneath the original to taste. That way, even when you've got shit loads of audible delay and reverb, it keeps its edge, sounds more professional, and you have more control over it.
Use sends dude.

And like GuitarGod, I found the Sacrament Producer Edition pretty damn helpful. Helped me realise where I was going wrong with stuff. If you haven't got it, get it, and have a listen to all the vocal stuff.

 

[[UEAK]Clowd]

Yeah I started using sends a while ago and it definitely helped but still sounds wicked noob-like.

That producer edition thing sounds pretty sweet, I'm gonna have to look into that.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Make the reverb huge. Add some RT60 for realness. And if there is a mix knob set that around 40%.

Then only send as much to the reverb buss as you need to add some space. I don't care for wicked noticeable reverb on the vocal buss.

It does help to have a nicer than stock reverb to work with (I use wavarts reverb 5)

 

[colonel kurtz]

dude, the wavearts stuff rules...masterverb and trackplug are definitely some ridiculously underrated VST's. their finalplug limiter is pretty sweet, too...

anyhoo, i was sitting around tonight working on some vocals on a song of mine...i'm way out of practice so i generally sounded like shit, but i've gotta say that it's very important to GO THROUGH ALL OF YOUR MIC/PREAMP COMBOS TO FIND THE ONE THAT WORKS THE BEST!!!!

i started running my AT 4033 straight into onyx 1640, but the mic was too sibilant, and the overall sound way too harsh/present...then i switched the mic to an NT-2A, and the thing sounded better, but still too..i dunno...clinical i guess. then i plugged the mic into my MPA gold and shit started sounding better, but there was still something i didn't like. then i said fuck it and threw up a 57 into the MPA gold, and it sounded better anything else i'd tried.

now i'm gonna finish this beer, and give an i5 and maybe even a D4 a shot and see if they can beat out the 57 for my voice

 

[[UEAK]Clowd]

Make the reverb huge. Add some RT60 for realness. And if there is a mix knob set that around 40%.

Then only send as much to the reverb buss as you need to add some space. I don't care for wicked noticeable reverb on the vocal buss.

It does help to have a nicer than stock reverb to work with (I use wavarts reverb 5)

Cool, actually that helped a lot, thanks man!

 

[ahjteam]

I was recording vocals at Finnvox Studios (Children of Bodom, Norther, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica; just to mention a few) the last week and I really have to say that all it takes to sound good are not effects; Just a really good sounding mic, good sounding preamp and helluva good take. And you can even skip the first two. You can use effects as an artistic effects, but don't use them to fix what you could've fixed in the recording stage. We tested several mics and preamps from API to something I forgot, but we ended up using an old Telefunken mic and some custom built preamp and compressor.

 

[gorath23]

I was recording vocals at Finnvox Studios.

Ahhh Finnvox, I fucking love the stuff they put out.

Anyhow, the -/+9 cents pitchshift trick is pretty good, especially if you don't have melodyne. I'm not sure I'm the best person to explain it, but basically set up a -9 cents pitchshifted track and a +9 cents shifted track and sit them behind the main track. It'll help mask any bum notes.

 

[Sloan]

I find that the presence of a firearm ensures a higher ratio of "good" vocal takes. It also seems to add clarity and tighten up low end in mixes.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=170084

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

distortion plugins

 

[jesus69lol]

ok heres another question: what exactly is a de-esser for? Like how would you know when a track needs to be de-essed could someone provide an a/b or a gooood explanation?

 

[Metaltastic]

Getting rid of sibilance, as far as I know...

 

[Potshot]

For removing harsh sibilance, literally the sound of ESSSSS, normally has crossover frequency adjustment so you can isolate the offending range and it will duck that frequency out when it occurs. Best to try and record with as little sibilance as possible to begin with of course

 

[GarethSE]

dude, the wavearts stuff rules...masterverb and trackplug are definitely some ridiculously underrated VST's. their finalplug limiter is pretty sweet, too...

anyhoo, i was sitting around tonight working on some vocals on a song of mine...i'm way out of practice so i generally sounded like shit, but i've gotta say that it's very important to GO THROUGH ALL OF YOUR MIC/PREAMP COMBOS TO FIND THE ONE THAT WORKS THE BEST!!!!

i started running my AT 4033 straight into onyx 1640, but the mic was too sibilant, and the overall sound way too harsh/present...then i switched the mic to an NT-2A, and the thing sounded better, but still too..i dunno...clinical i guess. then i plugged the mic into my MPA gold and shit started sounding better, but there was still something i didn't like. then i said fuck it and threw up a 57 into the MPA gold, and it sounded better anything else i'd tried.

now i'm gonna finish this beer, and give an i5 and maybe even a D4 a shot and see if they can beat out the 57 for my voice

There isn't a single recording that I've done since I got Trackplug that it hasn't been used on.
It gets used on Guitars for EQ every recording, vocals for compression every recording, bass for EQ and Comp every time, and a bit of work on drums here and there aswell.

Not much of a fan of masterverb, it just doesn't do much for me. I use it here and there with a custom preset I did with like STUPID amounts of reverberation on it for drum fills in silly Nile-esqe epic intros, and that's about it.

Finalplug is a miracle plugin aswell
I use it for mastering with pretty much every track I record.
Works a treat. Just gets louder and thicker and louder and thicker and no distortion in sight. Or within earshot maybe?