Not Sure What's Happening, Here..

[kickingtone]

http://soundcloud.com/kickingtone/iltgaw002lv

 

I'm singing, "a-wandering along the riverside", and I can hear a distinct separate note on the "ring" of wandering, as if somebody dropped a metal spoon on a hard floor.

 

As far as I know, it's not feedback, 'cos I'm not singing into amps, just singing into my computer's sound card to record. It is also reproducible, doing the same thing on the same syllable each time.

 

Is it a vocal register thing?

 

Is it intrusive, or should I just ignore it?

[kbeaumont]

That is your ear reacting to the spike at that frequency. Human ears are very sensitive to certain frequencies centered around 1khz, That's why you see many people have their graphic eq settings in a 'V' shape. To get rid of this you can use a parametric EQ to notch it down. It also wouldn't hurt to use slight compression. We naturally accent certain syllables more than others. In most cases its natural and would sound quite right if you didn't. But when your voice is as certain registers, your ears register its displeasure. Its easily remedied in a recording.

[kickingtone]

^

Thanks. I've had a good long think about this. Learning to even out accent has been on my to do list for a while, but I am going to up the priority. That will minimize any engineering that has to be done.

 

I am currently exploring vowels. I might as well include accent/emphasis in that, particularly as it is the -i- vowel that I seem to be overemphasizing in the clip. What I noticed is that it is not only the -i- of "wandering", that has the problem. I can hear the -i- of "river" beginning to have the problem, but at a higher frequency. I swapped in a different mic, and it was the other way round. The new mic created a whistle sound on the -i- of "river", and reduced the problem of the -i- in "wandering".