soften vocals

[joebritz]

I could use some help on vocal's. I would like to soften-up vocal's. alittle more "airy".I have a stand-alone fostex 16 track, I am using a At4040 with a Art's Pre-amp. I like the vocal's I would like to keep them up front and present ,as they are but softer and little more breathy or airy.I have used doubling and reverb,I have used a little bump on eq at 3m and 5m, they all sould good,heck they sound good flat...I just would like to hear them with alitte more ...I looking for the word...space...air...breath..I know you know what I looking for ...Help

[andystone]

I'm not sure if this will work for you but you could try it ... You said you double-tracked the vocals. Keep one center and pan the other left or right, about 70-75. Nudge that track so you get a little delay. Just a few ms -- nothing too dramatic. Then, play with the EQ on that track -- maybe use a low pass filter or so you get a lot of high end. Also, try some reverb on that track, but the more verb you use, the less presence it will have. Play with the mix of those two tracks and EQ the other track to taste... Hope that helps.

[ryanoliver]

Here are some tricks.

Hi shelf EQ around 5K followed by a de-esser. This process is made super easy with plugins, i'm not sure what you've got to work with but the concept is the same with outboard gear.

You could also approach this from a parralell compression aspect. Send your vocal off to a bus then heavily compress and EQ'd that bus with a ton of high end sheen. Now mix that in with your original vocal! This will give it energy and make it sound "exciting". I love this technique and use it on drums all the time.

It sounds like you're goin for width as well. We we're just discussing the "stereoizer" trick in an earlier post. This trick is achieved by sending your dry signal to a stereo delay, the left side of the delay should be set somewhere around 13ms and the right around 26ms. This creates an L C R image that jumps right out of your speakers. Again, super easy to do with the right plugin.

[joebritz]

using a Fostex 16 track stand alone unit,everything i have is built in , Thanks guys you have given me something to work with,well with-in my limited know-how.bounch a dry track,compress,a bunch of hi-end Eq and play around with some reverb and or delay and mix with my dry vocal,dry vocal center,delay 13ms left and 26 ms right...appx setting's. Shoot let me at it...thanks again Joe

[anthonypayton]

I don't know if this is along the same lines, but,... I sing R&B, and I noticed with reference tracks the vocals are clear and up front.. But with my tracks they are poppy sounding ... almost like it has too much attack. if you drop the db's the vocal gets over powered by the mix. but when you raise the db, the vocal is to up from. The pro stuff sounds much smoother.
So... would i used the same techniques as you all mention previously

[Danny Danzi]

Hi Joe,

Not that my opinion matters any more than the advice you have received thus far, but in my professional opinion, the above methods will NOT provide you with the "air" you are looking for in your vocals. Vocals are a very imtimate animal and the advice you have received in my opinion will make them sound synthetic, effected and less intimate and the furthest from getting "air" into the equation.

The first thing you can probably try since you like the actual vocal takes themselves as they are, would be a slight verb using a small room setting. No long decays or you'll kill it. The key here is to get the perfect mixture of wet/dry effect levels here or you'll totally lose the intimacy. However you decide to pursue this, start with the verb all the way off and bring in the level of it a little at a time just until you start to hear the "air" come into play. You can also experiment with pre-delay settings within the verb to make it seem to hit slightly earlier than the voice actually comes in. You just have to be careful and keep telling yourself "I want air, not an effected vocal" and you'll be ok. Don't let the great sound of reverb win you over to where you over-use it. Remember, you asked for air.

The other things you've been advised on are all good recommendations, however, the delay trick (called the HAAS effect) will give you more of a stereo spread effect, not air. It simulates multiple takes all in one shot.

The parallel compression trick would do a decent job, but there is more to it than what was explained in my opinion and I never use a de-esser unless I NEED a de-esser. Using parallel compression on vocals methodically speaking, is not the same as using it on drums like was stated. It can make a difference, but "Air" is not what you will get in my opinion unless you really tweak the eq curve on the hyper compressed vocal buss to compliment the original vocal...and it's not easy to just "get it". If you added a slight room verb on that hyper compressed vocal buss, (I'm talking slight) the air would come into play there and be a bit more intimate instead of just compressed frequencies while mixing them in.

But in my honest opinion, I'd just go with a good reverb and use it in moderation and experiment with pre-delay settings inside the verb. The doubling trick you've been told about....will not give you air. It will make you sound like Ozzy and if you don't hit the notes exactly right, you're gonna sound dissonant and out of key. Stay away from that doubling stuff unless you need it for effect purposes because it's NOT going to give you air.

Again, I'm not trying to argue or sound confrontational with the posters that have given you information, but I feel it should be made clear that if air is what you want, you will have a much more difficult time achieving it using the methods that were shared with you by others. They ALL gave you great information that you can use that I use also, just not what "I" would recommend to help create "air". But hey, try everything and see what works best for you. The greatest part of this field is trial and error as well as loads of experimentation without having any rules to deter your progress. So try it all, try hybrids of all the above and have a good time.

Also, if you don't mind resinging your vocals, you could record further away from the mic. This will allow your room to be a bit more present in your recording. The closer you get to the mic when you record, the more up front it will sound...and the less "airy" so to speak. Back off a little more....try going a foot away or further. You'll probably have to increase your signal a bit because you'll be further out now. But like I say, try it all and see what works for you. Best of luck!

[Vulconizer]

Do you mean "a bit more breath-y sounding" when you say "air"?

If that happens to be what you're going for, a slight boost around 9kz, 12khz, or, 15khz can help sometimes.

If that isn't what you mean, well, maybe a bit more clarification of exactly what it is you are looking for and possibly some examples would help us to help you.

[fHumble fHingaz]

Hi everyone... this thread caught my eye because I've been mixing a tune where an "airy" vocal seemed to suit. While I'm certainly claiming to be an expert or anything & I was quite pleased with the result I got. Quite a few people (non-audio-engineer types) commented on the difference of the mixed vocal from what I started with, so I thought you might be interested in how I got it. I've posted the original raw vocal track followed by the processed one. My signal chain was: (I'm using Sonar, so most of the plugins are native to Sonar) Sonitus compressor set to "LA2A" emulation, followed by VC64 Vintage Channel Compression & EQ, & finally into (free) Digitalfishphones de-esser. I have 2 send effects - Voxengo's Perfect Space Convolution Reverb set to a "Dark Plate" & Sonitus Delay. I've attached screen shots of the plug in parameters to give you an idea of the settings. I hope this is helpful.

[shackman]

Originally Posted by Danny Danzi

Not that my opinion matters

Ah c'mon Danny. I gravitate to your contributioons because they give depth. And, to date, there hasn't been a bum steer. You opinion matters.

SHoot: that sounded like hero worship.

I would like to make clear to all readers that I do not "kow" Danny Danzi, have no hero worship thing going on and that the preceding comments were my honestly held opinions . There that's the legals covered

[Danny Danzi]

Originally Posted by shackman

Ah c'mon Danny. I gravitate to your contributioons because they give depth. And, to date, there hasn't been a bum steer. You opinion matters.

SHoot: that sounded like hero worship.

I would like to make clear to all readers that I do not "kow" Danny Danzi, have no hero worship thing going on and that the preceding comments were my honestly held opinions . There that's the legals covered

LMAO!!! I soo needed this...thanks shack...oops..almost said "John" but I can't let people think I know you on a first name basis. LOL!! Man, I've been stressing out over here working on like 5 projects at once...and this was just what I needed to make me laugh! I owe ya one and I'm glad someone digs where I'm coming from.

Nah, you're safe...no hero worship taken on this end. If what I say helps you or sends you in the right direction while saving you some grief, I've done my job here. Thanks again for the kind words.