Of course, everyone with experience will tell you, how much you spend on a mic will never do much compared to the results, which you can get using a really good singer. When you're recording a song, never forget that the lead vocal should be the center of attention. Everything else in the arrangement should complement it and not the other way around.
Generally, any condenser will tend to pick up any little stray noise in a room. Although you don't get the nuisances of a singer's voice with a dynamic mic, when it comes to dealing with ambient noise in a home environment, a dynamic mic is often way more forgiving. Although an SM58 might not be the best mic for vocals, I've gotten great results with one. Some singers sound better with certain mics. Although they're not expensive, an SM58 is often a mic of choice for some producers on some vocalists.
Besides rolling off some low end, I'm not one to EQ vocals. Logic has a lot of good compressor presets, which you can use as a starting point and tweak to even out your vocals. A trick, which I've learned is when I start mixing, as soon as I get a fairly basic balance on the basic tracks is to put the lead vocal in and find the spot where it needs to be in the mix as soon as possible. After I get the basic tracks and lead vocal where they need to be, I'll take all of the stuff, which is pretty much just the icing on the cake, and put it in around the vocal. A lot of people like to mix everything and put the vocals in, which never really works for me. Another thing, which I'll pass on here is, it's easy to get carried away using too much reverb or delay on a vocal. Generally, when I can really hear the effect on a vocal without having to concentrate to listen for it is when I've found that I'm using way too much.
--- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, Steve Coates <sbcoates@...> 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]
>Message
Re: Tips for improving vocals?
2010-11-06 by Brian