Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

its like everything. Great recordings are made with cheap mics, cheap 
guitars, cheap strings, cheap preamps, cheap software. But not many. 
And when people have a choice they often use better quality stuff - 
which does not guarantee greater results - but if it was all a fraud 
then these things would not continue. It also depends on your voice, 
your style of music, the mix of your voice and the musical components, 
the degree of processing, etc. Also how picky you are. I have 
personally tried a number of mics, and preamps and made a bunch of test 
CD's and I found myself gravitating toward the better stuff. Just like 
a $4000 Les Paul will only sound 2% better than a $2000 one, sometimes 
the differences may not be worth it.

there are no short answers. and the tough thing - unlike test driving 
cars - is that is quite hard to test a bunch of different mics and 
preamps.

thats why I like Mercenary Audio in Boston. They allow you to try out 
mics and preamps and return them or exchange them if they don't work 
out.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Currington <composer@...>
To: Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 2:02 pm
Subject: Re: [Logic_Cafe] Tips for improving vocals?

I agree get the mic that works is as good or better than spending 
thousands on a "Named brand".

A Shure SM7b is low cost and works week or an Avantone CV12 Tube mic  
(C12 clone) is fabulous on female voices etc   But you have to test 
them to find out and that is not always easy.
And as Gary says  You have to also  factor in the preamp quality 
comrpessor, EQ etc quality .. And room acoustics.   They all make a 
difference.

S.

On 15/09/2010, at 7:00 AM, Steve Coates wrote:

> Perhaps more important than spending thousands on a name microphone 
is finding a mic that suits the singers voice and style. I have used an 
EV RE20 to great effect, and even an SM58 if suits the voice and track. 
A cheap mic and a good match can produce results as good as a 
mismatched Neumann!
>
> Best Wishes
> Steve Coates
>
> On 14 Sep 2010, at 18:06, GAmoore@... wrote:
>
> > The sound depends on the microphone too. thats why people spend 
$10,000
> > on an old U47 or C12.
> >
> > Re autotune - try to use different amounts on different parts of 
the
> > track - not just one setting for the whole thing. you can bring the
> > audio up and put it on several parallel tracks, and then put a
> > different setting on each.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Gregory Anderson <glists@...>
> > To: Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 9:29 am
> > Subject: Re: [Logic_Cafe] Tips for improving vocals?
> >
> >
> > I did not get very far on capturing that sound. I know that reverb
> > does not play much of a role in it. It's striking when I listen to
> > CD's from the 70's and 80's and hear how much reverb was on the 
vocals
> > back then. You don't hear any of that on today's pop.
> >
> > What I'm wrestling with right now is pitch-correction. The 
"auto-tune"
> > effect is very prominent in all the vocals I hear, but I'm having
> > trouble getting the same sound. I think it's because I'm using 
Logic's
> > own Pitch Correction tool, which is only automatic, vs. AT, which 
has a
> > graphical mode where the target pitch is assigned, rather than
> > determined algorithmically. When I set it for a slow response time
> > (100ms), I can't hear any difference in the vocals at all. I think 
you
> > need a really fast response time to generate the noticeable 
artifacts
> > that are the new "normal" in contemporary recordings. However, when 
I
> > set it fast enough to hear the effect, it then catches my vibrato 
and
> > turns it into a trill!
> >
> > I don't know if I heard it on this list or elsewhere, but singing
> > really close into a dynamic mic for the proximity effect was a good 
tip
> > and has resulted in something a little closer to what I am looking 
for.
> > But I have a long way to go!
> >
> > Gregory
> >
> > On Aug 18, 2010, at 3:09 PM, Andy Brook wrote:
> >
> > > This was a message from Greg on a similar topic to the current 
one
> > on
> > > delay and reverb in vocals, and I was wondering if you ever found
> > out
> > > how to produce the sound that is made in Glee? (By the way, I had
> > no
> > > idea what Glee was when you posted. Since then its been a big hit
> > in
> > > the UK)
> > >
> > > Andy Brook
> > >
> > > On 18 Dec 2009, at 23:09, Gregory Anderson wrote:
> > >
> > >>
> > >> On Dec 18, 2009, at 6:15 AM, HKC wrote:
> > >>> so you'd be hard pressed to find a more
> > >>> difficult task if that's your goal.
> > >>
> > >> Well thank you, Debbie Downer!
> > >>
> > >>> I doubt that EQ will do it if you don't like the actual
> > sound of
> > >>> your voice
> > >>
> > >> But seriously, I am curious that the only response that
> > mentioned EQ
> > >> was this one. I am in a similar situation to Andy's and have
> > been
> > >> focusing mainly on EQ to get that contemporary pop vocals
> > sound.
> > >> Maybe Andy and I have very different goals for our voices, as
> > I have
> > >> a very big voice that does well in barbershop and broadway
> > style
> > >> music, but doesn't play well in pop (forget rock!). But
> > >> descriptively, I would use similar terminology ("thin") to
> > contrast
> > >> my voice with what I want.
> > >>
> > >> Pardon my geekdom here, but an example would be the singing in
> > the TV
> > >> show Glee. It's really striking how much processing is
> > involved in
> > >> the singing voices, and it sounds very jarring when they go
> > from
> > >> speaking right into singing, because the speaking sounds fairly
> > >> natural and the singing sounds WAYYYYYYY Y processed. But I
> > don't
> > >> know what processing is involved. While the girls mostly have
> > >> exceptional voices, the guys seem to have fairly mediocre
> > singing
> > >> voices, but the processing makes them sound very fat,
> > compressed and
> > >> "in your face". So my thinking is - Hey! I have a mediocre
> > singing
> > >> voice! Maybe I could sound like that too!
> > >>
> > >> Here's a cut up 24-second audio example of the transition from
> > >> speaking to singing that I find so jarring in the show.
> > >>
> > >> http://brokenpick.net/myfiles_files/Mattress.mp3
> > >>
> > >> What is it that is being done to the singing that is so
> > noticeable?
> > >> The closest I've come to involves two layers of compression and
> > >> channel EQ with Low cut at 240 and High shelf at 2800, and
> > pitch
> > >> correction. When I run a match EQ on my voice using boyband
> > vocals
> > >> as a source, it sounds horrid and is just a massive high
> > frequency
> > >> gain and low frequency dropoff. Duane mentioned utilizing the
> > >> proximity effect, which sounds on the money, and I have not
> > tried
> > >> that yet.
> > >>
> > >> Sorry if I'm hijacking this thread, but I find it very
> > interesting,
> > >> and have been meaning to seek advice for some time now, so any
> > >> discussion would be greatly appreciated.
> > >>
> > >> Gregory
> > >>
> > >> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>



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