Laura's Song

[Teresa Eden]

This is one of my originals. I'm still trying to find the right sound for my vocals

[Stan_Halen]

A really good song and excellent vocal performance! There is some frequency in the vocal mids that needs some cutting IMO (maybe 600Hz) as it's poking out too much. Vocals are really nice until about 2:00, then your confidence or attitude changes and the lead vocal doesn't have as much impact. Also about then the harmony vocals change character, pulled in toward center more I think, and getting as loud as your lead (compensating for the lead vocal?). The song loses energy at that point.

Listening a second time, the harmony vocals early in the song, and after 3:00 seem higher pitched and that may be what needs some EQ treatment. In between, the harmony vocals are a bit lower and fit better. Generally I'd say pull the harmony vocals back a bit just to supplement your lead vocal and not compete with it.

The drums in the intro are just a little heavy on the low end. I think that could be pulled back a little. Otherwise, the instrumentation works well.

[garageband]

I can't remember who around here was big on saying, "Hey, have a look at so-and-so for some clues on how to handle this", but this time it's going to be be me. Listen to Annie Lennox's records (Medusa, of course, but others too). Copy the engineering/mixing on them as close as you can. For one, notice how hot the vocal is. People want to hear your beautiful voice and don't care tremendously about the rest of the window dressing. Here's one (probably a hotter vocal than you'll be comfortable with but it does show how far you can go):



Didn't not like the bass fill at 1:15. Caught my attention as being awkward. The rest of the arrangement is terrifically good, though. I didn't listen back to your and your dad's other things but my sense is that this tremendously improved.

[Emma]

Hi Teresa - wow, you've been busy
Really like the way you're treating the vocal now, in particular, the way you are using the reverb, but I'd like to hear more... The example GB gave with Annie L is a cool comparison, I'd like to hear more vocal and a little less 'other'.. having said that, the instrumentation is very skilful. I found it a bit loud at the beginning. Great singing!

[kakeux]

Hi,

Nice song and I really like how you let some effects out of the way to let your voice be the important thing. I will follow Garageband on the way you could go further on the treatment. I would go for a smoother and fatter vocal sound if possible.

Emma is also right when she speaks about the instruments that are too loud. I think mostly the percussions are too loud. Your voice is the important point here and you need to make us feel it is. The performance is really good so don't be shy to put it upfront.

Kuddos to both of you!

[Teresa Eden]

thank you very much sir stan halen, i will try and take all your advice one by one and try to focus on each step that you've given me, once again wow, you guys really know your stuff! well, i'll take it back to the drawing board and see what i can come up with, thank you so much for your advice and teaching it is greatly appreciated! thanks

[Teresa Eden]

sir garageband, this is the coolest thing, this is one of my favorite artist and album! when i was in my twenties, i wore this album out! yes sir i will definitely try and come as close as i can to this, of course it would help if i knew what i was doing to achieve this, but as i told sir stan halen, i will go back to the drawing board and try to do the best i can to apply what you guys are graciously offering! so i will keep trying! thank's so much again, your advice is so valuable!

[Teresa Eden]

thank you so much emma, yes i agree annie lennox is a great comparison! with just touching the surface of this modern technology, i'm like a kid in a candy store, all the effects and oohs and aahs, are so much fun, (and very tempting!) but i will definitely take your advice and try and cool it on the effects, whatever i hear, i say i want that!, what i really would like to achieve in this song mainly is a nice orchestration, so with your advice and these lovely gentlemen, i will start again and hopefully come up with something a lot better, all we can do is try right! so i will try, thank you again emma

[Teresa Eden]

thank you kakeux, like i told emma and the guys, i will start again and with all your excellent advice we shall see what i can achieve! i'm going to try and break it down and take the advice you guys have given one at a time and see what i can come up with! so once again thank you so much for your valuable advice, and we shall see! until next time, thanks guys!

[garageband]

of course it would help if i knew what i was doing to achieve this,

Try everything, one instrument at a time, with the vocals last. I know this is an incredibly high bar but I can hear that you guys are up to it. Put that song in your project and try to mach it one-for-one as you A/B both.

[Teresa Eden]

I am honored sir, that you would take the time and the patience to give me this advice, i will. i will take one instrument at a time with vocals last, and i will try with my limited means to put all advice given to each individual tracks and see what i can come up with, thank you again sir for caring, your a good man, Teresa Eden

[garageband]

You're very kind. Hey, this fun thing came up on my itunes that I think you'll enjoy. A little present for you:

[Teresa Eden]

that was very cute and it is cool to think of the work that went in to writing that! what originality! i guess that's why those type of songs will always and forever be "classic". i liked it very much! thank you for your present, it was very enjoyable! do you happen to know who the artists are and who wrote it?

[garageband]

That's Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Not sure who wrote it.

[Teresa Eden]

thank you, i looked them up and i would assume they were the authors of that song too, they are really cool! look at this video, Keely Smith and Louis Prima - YouTube thank you again for that!

[Ken J]

This is one of my originals. I'm still trying to find the right sound for my vocals

First off Teresa, What kind of sound are you looking for in the vocal? A slight rasp? Thick and clean? The mic and preamp along with what treatments going in such as compression and or EQ dictates the sound of the track other then your natural voice. How are you recording your vocal now in your posted track? (preamp, mic, etc)

[Teresa Eden]

Thank you ken, well to tell you the truth, i'm using a program called sonar and using the vocal strip that comes with it a vst plugin. and my vocals tend to sound tinny or like i'm in a tunnel, basically because i don't know what i'm doing, and i'm not ashamed to tell you, (well, mayble a little) ha ha. anyway what i'm looking for is basically thick and clean, your description sounds great! like garageband mentioned he gave me an a/b comparison to one of my favorite artist annie lennox, i would really like to come as close to her mix as i can. once again ken, thank you for taking the time to respond and trying to help me, i'm very appreciative, thank you, Teresa Eden

[Ken J]

Thank you ken, well to tell you the truth, i'm using a program called sonar and using the vocal strip that comes with it a vst plugin. and my vocals tend to sound tinny or like i'm in a tunnel, basically because i don't know what i'm doing, and i'm not ashamed to tell you, (well, mayble a little) ha ha. anyway what i'm looking for is basically thick and clean, your description sounds great! like garageband mentioned he gave me an a/b comparison to one of my favorite artist annie lennox, i would really like to come as close to her mix as i can. once again ken, thank you for taking the time to respond and trying to help me, i'm very appreciative, thank you, Teresa Eden

First off, forget about sounding like Annie Lennox. You are not her. You are Teresa Eden so let's get use to that and make the best recordings you can. We don't have thousands to spend on preamps and mics let alone a million dollar studio so we gotta go with what we can afford. However lesser quality gear usually means you gotta tweak it a bit more to get what you want. We can achieve good vocal recordings with a few small steps. First off select a quality preamp and mic that you can afford. One of my favorite combos for female vocals is a Grace m101 preamp and a Shure SM7b mic. Plan on spending $1000 for the combo if you can afford it. If you can't then we gotta look at what you have in mics and preamps. Most lower end preamps are about the same. Most will not give you the gain you actually need before the S/N (signal to noise) ratio exceeds the limits of the preamp and creates a hiss that is not wanted in the recording. So what we do is bring up the gain on the preamp until the noise starts, then back it down a slight bit. The noise level will be different depending on the mic selected so there is no magic number on the dial. Room characteristics also play a part in the noise levels. Trust me on that one because it is too long to explain how that happens so as soon as you get hiss with any mic, back the preamp down a slight bit.

When tracking when you first start off recording, never use any EQ or compression or any effects on the recorded track. This way you record the true sound that is natural. Effects and compression can be added later so no worries. Besides if you make a mistake in the effects while recording, it is embedded in the track and can not be removed unless you dump the track and rerecord it. Using several recorded tracks thickens the vocal. You must record each track separately. Duplicating the original track does not thicken the vocal. It only makes it louder. (summing) Usually two or three recorded tracks of the vocal does the trick. This is where you as a vocalist must know your material inside and out. If not, disaster will strike every time.

Once several tracks are recorded then it's time to mix them together but do not combine them into one track. A rookie mistake that many seem to make. They get the vocal just right and then lock them into one. Just sum them as separate tracks because each track will not sound exactly same. Hence the multi tracked vocal. Works for any instrument too. If adding compression to the multi tracked vocal, use the exact same plug at the same settings on each vocal track. Easy does it on any other effect. About the only thing you can do at this point that is different to each vocal track is tweak in the EQ. Many times tweaking in different EQs on each track will help the vocal highlighting and shaping different frequencies bringing out various special qualities in that track. Play with the EQ and learn how to highlight that special sound. Remember that subtractive EQ is better then adding EQ in this case. Recording level should be around -17 to -14dBFS of the digital meter for vocals. In fact no track should be recorded above -14dBFS. The mix may sound a little quiet but summing will bring up the loudness to a point. Let the mastering engineer bring up the levels to production standards. Too many times a mix is too hot to actually work with as a mastering engineer. The mix doesn't need to hit 0dB, nor should it ever. Never add anything to the master buss as well. No compression and no limiting. Another rookie mistake that always messes up a mix. Always mix at the track level and don't use the master buss for anything. Why do you think they call it the master buss? That section is for the mastering engineer!

Ken

That's how we thicken the vocal and add a richness that no plug can give you.

[Teresa Eden]

Dear ken, thank you so so so very much for that advice! i will read and reread everything and go back and reference until i get it right! this is what i was saying to everyone as being invaluable! i am so honored that you took the time to teach me this! my father got me a shure super55 mic and i'll be going through a little mixer to start with, this is what i already have, so like i said i will reference all your advice and take it one step and a time and see what happens, i really look forward to this project and hope that you will be there to critic and help me, which means so much to me, and i humbly thank you! god bless you and i know i don't have much to trade in this business but you won't be forgotten, i thank you, Teresa Eden

[Ken J]

Dear ken, thank you so so so very much for that advice! i will read and reread everything and go back and reference until i get it right! this is what i was saying to everyone as being invaluable! i am so honored that you took the time to teach me this! my father got me a shure super55 mic and i'll be going through a little mixer to start with, this is what i already have, so like i said i will reference all your advice and take it one step and a time and see what happens, i really look forward to this project and hope that you will be there to critic and help me, which means so much to me, and i humbly thank you! god bless you and i know i don't have much to trade in this business but you won't be forgotten, i thank you, Teresa Eden

An SM55 is a good place to start. However with most Shure mics, they are power hungry little bugs. They operate best at higher gain settings on the preamp. You may want to start thinking about a stand alone preamp with clean gain above 50dB such as the Grace unit. Something to look forward to and save for. The least expensive preamp I would ever consider is the Golden Age 73 preamp. It has a lot of guts for its price. On board mixer preamps are really not suited well for recording because of the electronic structures of the mixer but can do you well in a pinch. Let's hope you can get enough clean gain out of that mixer preamp to do the job well.

[Teresa Eden]

Ken, I am in the process of purchasing the items you recommended could you tell me what amplification you use for your voice and for your vocal effects, reverb etc.. i appreciate this greatly, thanks teresa eden

[Ken J]

Ken, I am in the process of purchasing the items you recommended could you tell me what amplification you use for your voice and for your vocal effects, reverb etc.. i appreciate this greatly, thanks teresa eden

My studio is hardware based so the goodies may be very far out of reach for the average home studio. However I will tell you what is in my personal home studio for every day use. Reverbs are a personal choice and my choice for home is a Lexicon PCM. Compressor used in vocal treatments is the Chameleon Labs 7720. Preamps range from A Grace Designs m801 which is actually 8 m101 preamps in a single unit up to several Universal Audio LA-610 units. For plugs, I use the SSL bundle but not very often. I usually track flat and dry adding compression and effects at mix. I never liked the idea of adding anything to the raw track during recording. Remember if you add on the way into the track, you can't take it out unless you re record.

I have 2 audio interfaces I work with from home. First is the Motu 24i/o that I use for remote live recording directly off a board for live venues and an Apogee Symphony system that sits in the studio.

[Teresa Eden]

excellent sir! you don't know how much help you've truly been to me, all i can afford at this time however is the Grace m101 preamp and the Shure SM7b mic. i'll have to run it through a yamaha receiver out through the speakers. we'll see how this sounds, then like i said i'll reread your technical advice and go from there! thank you ken so much for all your help, i'm not sure i'll be able to return the advise and help but if you need anything you definitely have a friend, Teresa Eden

[Ken J]

excellent sir! you don't know how much help you've truly been to me, all i can afford at this time however is the Grace m101 preamp and the Shure SM7b mic. i'll have to run it through a yamaha receiver out through the speakers. we'll see how this sounds, then like i said i'll reread your technical advice and go from there! thank you ken so much for all your help, i'm not sure i'll be able to return the advise and help but if you need anything you definitely have a friend, Teresa Eden

At least you tackled the most important parts of the recording chain, preamp and mic. So now we will have a cleaner and more useable signal going in. Most home recording engineers skimp on the preamp thinking an all in one audio interface and preamp combo is the way to go for space saving. However with that space saving, you usually get a loss in quality in a combo unit. Most of the time that loss is in the quality of the preamp. Even if you stop there at the mic and preamp and buy no other gear, you're miles ahead.

BTW: What audio interface or A/D- D/A converter are you using? If the unit has a built in preamp, use the "line in" jack off the Grace unit.

Ken

[bowtie]

I hope you guys don't mind me 'butting' in here...but, Ken your help is what Teresa's needed. I've helped her set up her computer and showed her a few basics. She has taken the ball and ran!!.....Oh, by the way, she's my daughter..☺ She has always had a lovely voice and writes well. We live about 15 miles apart...we have breakfast now and then and jam all day. She's determined to learn to produce herself, and I love her for it!

...anyway, I'm sure she's saying 'I don't remember all that stuff'..... her source right now is the Shure 55 into a Behringer Xenyx 1202 mixer through an M-audio Delta 1010LT sound card....AMD 4 core cpu 3.2 ghz 1tb hd. Sonar X1 producer, and Samplitude Pro Suite.