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

[grooveboxmusicTony]

Instead of reverb, try a slapback (really quick) delay. In the mix, this will still help them sit back a little and seem wider. It may be the 'air' you are looking for.

Tony Laughlin
Audio Engineer/Promoter
Learn Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Auto-Tune & other Popular Music Software - Training & Tutorial Videos

Originally Posted by 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

[captainL]

caution, beginners opinion:

I am not a pro but here is what I think when I hear soft. I had some vocals I tried to "soften" so I boosted 250hz about 3db and did a little wide cut around 1000 maybe 1.5. That seamed to "soften" them for me. When you say airy, space, breathy I think boosting 10,000 hz. As far as fx, I don't know. Just my thoughts....

[takka360]

play with eq and reverb

[garageband]

Get it compressed some. That'll soften it up. Careful with the "air". Good air occurs in the context of the mix. Bad air comes from overprocessed vocals and is devilishly hard to fix later after realizing that you've overdone it.

[takka360]

Thats why i said play with eq and reverb
You dont need to comp the shit out of a vocal to make it soft.
it often kills it dead.

[garageband]

"compressed some" is not "comp the s--t out of". Don't be rude.

[garageband]

Back being helpful, something that also works is to set up an Aux track for some parallel processing, and throw the bulk of aggressive effects (flavored compression, more reverb than usual, EQ correction, stereo delay - in that order) on the Aux track. It can be kind of a pain to write automation for sometimes, but this may be the effect you are looking for.

[joebritz]

First let me say thank you for all in input,I have them doubled very tight with alittle reverb.What i have not done is boost or cut the Eq. They sounded very good untouched. I guess what I am looking for is a very costly mike and pre amp.NOT...As I finish up the CD I will keep looking for better Mike placement and different Eq amd effects setting. I havae 5 more songs to record,maybe I will stumble my way into what I am looking for or at least get alittle closer. Thanks again for all your input....Joe... "MoreThan4"...Big Pine Key Florida

[joebritz]

Hey Garageband, I think I will try the Aux track, that sounds alittle more like what I am looking for . I can over do it alittle and mix the 2, using the 2nd aux track as the "effect". Well worth a try ...Thank you all again.