Anyone got any tips to get a fairly professional sounding vocal?
Mine always sounds too quiet or not really part of the music. If I turn it up it obviously gets into the red zone. Any specifics regarding inserts/effects would b appreciated.
I do use reverb and compressors and a couple of other things but I doubt I’m using them in the right way to get best results.
I don’t necessarily mix the way these guys do, but it’s just to get you in the area for looking at more.
But Strophoid’s suggestion is best - for you to post an example of the vocal that is challenging you, then you can maybe get some advice specifically for your stuff.
I think by the sounds I need to learn to use the compressors, EQ etc better than I do now. Maybe just a case of sitting there an playin with it til it’s right. So dull though. Guess there’s no quick fix ay
Are there key things that u always use ? Eg compressor, gate etc ?
I never use EQ in the recording stage for vocals, but try to pick the best ‘fitting’ mic. For mixing EQ is almost always necessary. I always use some or more analog compression during recording, depending on the material and ability of the singer, mostly to keep levels tamed, but also sometimes to add tube saturation. During mixing vocal compression almost always comes into play. Gate is useless IMO for vocal recording.
Just trying things is more likely to result in frustration rather than pleasing results. There are so many interacting variables that it can easily become a jumble. If I were you I’d get a book or two on recording techniques so you can get a good understanding of the underlying principles. Tools like compression and EQ are not always intuitive on how to best use them. For example to pull a vocal out in a mix it is often better to cut frequencies in other instruments rather than boost frequencies in the vocal.
I can’t recommend any specific books, since the ones I have are from pre-DAW times.
But there are a ton of books out there. From the descriptions and user reviews you should be able to find some that are a good fit for you. Perhaps others on this forum have suggestions.
Indeed. A good guy/gal behind a microphone is worth more than 2 dozens of compressors, limiters and EQs.
Have to disagree a bit: Couple of times I have succeeded on making my own singing to sound fairly góod with extensive use of EQ/compression/Melodyne/etc … but was it worth of all that trouble? HELL NO! I just should have hired a professional vocalist.
Of course. It’s a chain: voice → room → microphone → preamp → a/d → fx gadgets … and the recording/mixing engineer all around in and between these steps. If any of the links of the chain is broken, the whole chain is … unless you are prepared to spend hours and hours to use your digital magic tools and your skills to ‘polish the turd’ … which may be or may not be possible depending of the case.
As our good and well educated friend ‘Strophoid’ wrote in reply #1 in this tread:
It’d be easier to help with a specific example
It would give us a hint about where The Chain Of Good Vocals Sound was broken.
Well ive definitely got some things to go on.
The various links that hav been posted should b useful.
Maybe i’ll post my results at some point in the future
Thanks for the advice people !