clean up distorted vocal

[kyleknapp]

I have a spoken vocal track I'd like to use in one of my songs, but it has some distortion. I could just re-record it (and probably will) but the girl who originally read it is not available, and there's a "vibe" in the way she spoke it that I really like. Soooo, I'm wondering if any of you audio whizzes knows of a trick that might make this track usable.

There is quite a bit of sibillance, but that can be dealt with using a de-esser and/or some strategic gain reductions. The bigger problem is something that sounds like a bad echo, or feedback, or some kind of harmonic distortion. I know there are plugins that can produce harmonics, is there one that does the opposite, reducing harmonics? Any other suggestions?

If I put it a little deeper in the mix I could mask the distortion, but that would make the words harder to understand; and they're obviously intended to be heard.

I'm not really expecting miracles here, and am already looking around for a replacement reader, but if anyone on the forum could say "hey, I can fix that!" it would make my day.

This is the raw wav file: www.kyleknapp.com/audio/heather.wav
(it's 16-bit wav, about 4MB in size, about 45 seconds long)

For context, this is a rough mix of the song it goes in (the spoken part starts at about 3:05) www.kyleknapp.com/audio/houseofsod.mp3
(Note, in this mix I have compressed, de-essed, EQed, selective-gain-reduced and even "****ed" it (sorry Brandon), so it sounds much better here than in the unprocessed WAV file - in fact, when I listen on my cheap headphones I barely hear the distortion, but it's quite noticable, and rather distracting, through my studio monitors. Is this as good as I'm gonna get it?)

Thanks,

[DT Chris]

I notice when you're singing, you're having the same problems on your vocals. the 'esses' are standing out quite a bit as well.

Perhaps fixing the problem at the sample source in the future will ensure that you won't have to keep fixing it in the mix later.

Just a comment, I'm interested in what others have to say as to a temporary solution...

[kyleknapp]

Mom! Chris is yelling at me again!

Perhaps fixing the problem at the sample source in the future will ensure that you won't have to keep fixing it in the mix later.

I recorded this almost a year ago at Barnstormers - the engineer was out on an errand, and Heather (my wife's cousin's daughter) just happened to be in the neighborhood, so "I" was in charge. The gear was good I think, but I didn't have a clue what I was doing...
Hopefully I've learned enough since then to avoid this problem in the future.

[brandondrury]

For what it's worth, I'm not aware of any way (even a crappy way) of removing distortion.

Having said that, I'm not hearing any distortion on my computer speakers.

The sibilance is pretty strong because of the bright reverb used on Kyle's voice. There are ways around it. Angling the mic 5 degrees is a good start. Using a mic that doesn't put a huge spotlight on the sibilance is another tactic. When all that fails, going in and manually knocking 3dB off all the esses is a great way to control them. On top of that, you could do some de-essing, but I'd recommend being very careful with it. Sometimes I'll use a little too much on purpose and then add a high shelf. This trick knocks down the excessive ess a tad but adds a little sparkle to the entire track.

It's normal for people going for the kind of "scary sounding pretty song" sometimes EQ their voices a little thing. (I'm not sure why we do this). I wouldn't.

I'm not sure exactly what you are hearing with the voiceover thing. It seams okay in the mix to me, but my computer speakers are horrendous these days. I'm not exactly in love with the tone, but I'm sure you can work around it.

Brandon

[tonewheels]

You guys are not hearing it, it sounds like there is an empty beer can vibrating on top of my speakers, kinda like a high end vibration that is distorted. My old computer made everthing I recorded sound like this, it had a shitty soundcard.
As for fixing it, good luck, I have found it can be reduced a bit with eq, but not really.
Cheers,
Ronnie

[brandondrury]

Okay, I hear it now. I had to work to hear it on my computer speakers, but I could see this thing being very clear on my monitors.

I think you've got two options:
1) Live with it
2) Replace it

I still don't think it's that big of deal. In fact, some people may consider it to be pleasant. My MXL V69 tube mic adds a touch of distortion in the top end just like this. I think they call this "tube ****th" (Take that Kyle!!!).

You can hear this kind of sound in a different, more natural way in my Soundelux U99.

Were you using a tube mic by chance?
Now that I look at the picture, it's extremely common to use a tube mic upside down. They do this so the heat from the body of the mic goes up and doesn't effect the diaphram. I've never heard of anyone bothering to do this with a solid state microphone because temperature isn't really an issue on any solid state mic I've ever seen.

Brandon

[kyleknapp]

Yes, I'm pretty sure it was a tube mic, but I don't remember the make or model. I got similar distortion on some of my vocals, though it wasn't as pronounced.

As for how big a deal it is, Bruce (the engineer who was absent when I recorded it) said "you can't use that!" An engineer here in Omaha (whose opinion I respect) shrugged his shoulders and said "well, it's not quite as clean as I'd like...". My wife says "sounds fine to me". Me, sometimes I hear it and think, "yeah it's okay the way it is" and other times "no, its just too noisy". Maybe I have too much emotionally invested in the song to be objective. I dunno.

Ronnie's "beer can" description is very apt - if that's what "****th" sounds like, well, I'm not impressed.

So, I guess I just have to make a decision to use or replace it.

Thanks for the input, guys.

[brandondrury]

It's not exactly mission critical either way. I thinkt hat dumb, but smart, saying "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff" comes to mind.

There is nothing objectively wrong with the tone. The character of the mic probably wasn't ideal for her voice, but it's a voiceover. On the right voice, that extra stuff can be pretty awesome. On the wrong voice, it's not so great.

I don't think the voiceover sounds like a Lord of the Rings voiceover, but I'm not sure that this is ideal for everything anyway.

Brandon

[kyleknapp]

y'know, sometimes I can get totally anal about little details. Thanks for showing me some perspective.

[DT Chris]

I have a question about the 'esses'. Kyle provided a photo of Heather recording the vocal passage, and the mic does have a foam barrier on it. I thought a 'spit screen' would help eliminate the 'esses' from showing up in the recording. Also, in the recording Kyle provided of his song that uses this passage, the s's are quite noticeable.

Nobody addressed my statement, so I will ask, how does one prevent the 'esses' from standing out so much (at the source) so that it minimizes trying to correct them later 'in the mix'?