Need a new vocal type plug-in

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:12 pm

Does anyone know of a good stand alone program or plug in that would enhance a vocal input....
or beef up my singing voice...
yeah yeah..i know "Dont sing at all, if i cant sing" right?? lol
anyway a little help would be appreciated...
Thanks
Gunner

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:38 pm

try processing them with combining multiple effects such as eq's, compressors, harmonic enhancers, pitch shifters, deessers, noise gates etc etc..

ubw newbie Joined: Oct 05, 2005 Posts: 23

What are you expecting your voice to sound like?

I hear this "beef up" my vocals all the time and I have absolutely no clue what people are talking about.

If you need private help, feel free to instant message or email me.

Brandon

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:38 am

well im sure its in the mixing............i guess i should have been more specific.
what im really asking is...what type of plug ins are good for vocals....
alot of plug ins i have are generally for guitar and or track enhancing etc...
ive tried various plug ins, such as, delay,reverb,etc....but vocals still sound dry....
so, i guess to re-ask the question.....are there any plug ins specifically designed for vocals.
Thanks,
Gunner

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 12:33 pm

gunner,

none of the effects are instrument specific (be it vocal, guitar, drums whatever) and they can be applied on anything. there are still vocal specific plugz, for example Yamaha Vocal Rack but there just all-in-one-package's, and maybe designed to give better results on vocals. if you plan to buy something like that, research well first

and, dry= unprocessed. that means, if your adding delays, reverbs etc, it wont sound dry but wet. so thats not helping to explain your problem either

lemme give you some basic info, and then you can decide which tool(s) you may need. i'll use the vocal as the example, but as i said this info goes for everything. if the vocals have too much dynamic range (like, it gets too silent at some parts and loud at others) some compression will tighten them up. proper compression would be the first tool i'd use, if i want to "beef up" some vocals. equalizers should help as well, for boosting/cutting some unwanted freqs and getting the vocals sit nicely into your mix, so there the 2nd tools coming to my mind. 3rd, i'd try to add some stereo widening either with a stereo enhancer or using some old school techniques - stereo image is really important to get a fuller sound and shouldnt be overlooked.

well, no solid rules in these kinda stuff but that would be the basic approach i'd try. rest is more specific stuff depending on the material. for example, if your vocals are out of tune at some parts, you should use a pitch shifter (melodyne is da bomb) to fix that. reverb adds some depth into the sound, but it also pulls the instrument back in the mix, so one should avoid overusing it - esp for vocals. you can add some subtle (unless your making industrial music) distortion if the vocals lack harmonical content. depending on the distortion type and settings, it will add some "warmth" to the vocals. delays prolly wont help to improve the vocal quality much so you wont be needing them a lot unless your after a specific effect.. chorus/flanger/phaser type effects arent really crucial, but it also depends on situation, and chorus sometimes adds some flavor to the vocals.. deessers help reducing the peaks on some letters like "s", "p" etc.. there are noise/crack etc removal tools which will sometimes improve a bad quality recording

so thats all i can think of at the moment, english isnt the best but i guess it will paint a rough picture. and a final note, there are NO effects in the world that will make a bad vocalist sound good. they can make bad -> poor, poor -> ok, ok -> good(ish), good -> great, great -> badass etc etc, but as they say, you cant eq a turd..

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:19 pm

Thanks,,,,,,i have always just played the guitar and never recorded my singing voice,,that was why i had all the confusion...but you pretty much cleared it up for me and im going to try the things you advised...i dont think i have a bad voice,,,we will see....if i put something together ill put up the song and let people hear it.......
kinda like...making my own noose for the hangman...lol
anyway,,thanks again for your time!!
Gunner

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:46 pm

Fruity Loops has some great modulation effects built into its program and is relatively easy to use.

~AK

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:52 pm

most important do u have a preamp for your mic to get it into the pc,this makes alot of difference in quality,anyway if u have the waves plugins they have rchannel which is a channel strip with some good vocal presets to get a starting point,it also has loads of other nutty processing with vox presets

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:46 pm

I'll throw out something else. It's not an effect, but can make a big difference. Try doubling your vocal just like you'd double a guitar part. Try them mixed at similar volume levels or with one out in front and the other many db lower. It can make a big difference if you're oK with the sound of multed vocals.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:27 am

Yeah Smili I totally agree! Ive only just started experimenting with panning vocals a lot more and trying out different harmonies L/R speakers. It can add tons of dynamic too your music.

~AK

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:15 am

Cool,,thanks for all the help guys,,,
i have been experimenting these ideas you guys are giving me and things are coming out ok......i just got fruityloops and have tried a few things in there also.......
man, i didnt know that vocals could be so difficult in recording..at least trying to make them sound good...lol
But, i appreciate all the help!!
Gunner

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:55 am

Hey gunner, I think everyones input is right on, one quick important factor
is a real good microphone, they make a huge difference . . .of course they
cost an arm and leg, but make for an unbelievable recording. I wish I could afford one . . . Shocked

Good luck bro!

Peace,
Erick

ps: always use a mic screen, you can also use a stocking pulled over a wire hanger and sing through that, it gets rid of the lpssspss . . Smile

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:10 pm

On vox. Get great sound at the source. Don't expect fx to be able to fix it. I honestly think folks can do pretty good with something like an SM57. Like Erick mentioned a pop screen helps. Good mic technique helps too. But get the sound at the source.

Check out some vocals Martin Gordon gets with pretty basic equipment - see his discussiono of recording technique in the interview.
http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/interviews.html

When singing running pretty heavy reverb into the headphones helps folks hear themselves - kindof like singingin the shower.- good feedback. Don't record the vox with the heavy reverb though. Probably leave it dry and add in fx to taste when done.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:17 pm

I also meant to add that singing a little off axis (not straight into the mic) can help if you have problems with "splosives" when recording. Some very light compression while tracking can help help keep you from clipping too - while not changing the overall charactistic except when you approach 0db.

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:31 am

great...thanks guys

Need a new vocal type plug-in

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