Recently made quite an upgrade to my home studio. Opinions?

[newlyformedmind]

I have been familar with Protools softare for a few years. I own the original MBOX, POD XT Pro, Vox Valvetronix, Schecter semi-hollow body diamond series. through M-audio BX8a's. For vocals I have a Rode NTK which has got me drooling over the Oktava mod some were mentioning. Well my recent uprgrade was a super fast PC, Ethan from Real Trap's Portable Vocal Booth, and the original Apogee Mini-Me. I'm expecting a much better, clearer sound over all from the clean sounding pre's to the award winning A/D. It costed me around $2100 for the uprgade. I sure hope it's worth it. My main question is about vocals. When I hear big artists (many of which couldn't sing their way out of a box)- with that larger than life vocal sound that lays so nicely in the mix. If I have all the time to make the vocals sound as pro as possible (I know performance is #1). You can hear songs I've done with prior to the upgrade. What kind of effects are used on songs like this: Cold by Crossfade (myspace.com/crossfade)? Or the impeccable vocal sound of the new hit "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles. (myspace.com/sarabareilles) Is it me or does she come in with some vocal layering in the chorus? Thanks in advance everyone.

[Dean Roddey]

Personally, I think that A/D converters are pretty seriously over-hyped. Not that you can't get 'better' with more bucks, I'm sure. But if you have a good sound card, it's not like A/D is rocket science in this day and age. I doubt very seriously hardly anyone (if anyone) could consistently pick out the difference in a signal where the only difference was between a good quality sound card (RME or Lynx, for instance) and something twice or three times the cost. I think that almost everything else in the chain from the room to your hands/vocal chords to the mic/instrument used to the pre-amp (and any other analog gear in the chain) probably has orders of magnitude more influence on the sound.

 

Of course, having said that, not NEEDING nice new studio toys is never an excuse not to have them. I'm of the firm opinion that it's not how good your music is, but how many cool toys you have to play with that counts. Though I guess if you had some really good music then maybe you could buy a lot more really cool toys for the studio, so indirectly I guess it matters.

[UstadKhanAli]

I use Digi001. When I upgraded to Apogee converters, the difference was not subtle. Literally everyone who came in my studio - regardless of whether I told them about the converters or not - instantly heard the difference.

 

I realize that Dean said "good quality soundcard"...and Digi001's converters are NOT good quality. It's sorta like comparing a '72 Nova to a Ferrari, but still...there can be a HUUUUUUGE difference sometimes.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Your point would have been more dramatic if you had said "'72 Vega".

 

Oktava mod for a Rode NTK? I have not heard about that.

 

As far as your upgrades, it sounds like you picked good things. Better converters and preamps can definitely help in getting better vocal recordings, as can better acoustics for the tracking area. I don't have time to check out your YouTube examples at the moment, and I'm not familiar with those artists, but the basics are the same across the board: Great singer in a good room + good recording chain (mic, preamp, maybe compressor and EQ, converters) = good vocal recording. Once you have that tracked, you can process it in PT, double it (or triple track it), etc. etc.

[newlyformedmind]

 

I use Digi001. When I upgraded to Apogee converters, the difference was not subtle. Literally everyone who came in my studio - regardless of whether I told them about the converters or not - instantly heard the difference. I realize that Dean said "good quality soundcard"...and Digi001's converters are NOT good quality. It's sorta like comparing a '72 Nova to a Ferrari, but still...there can be a HUUUUUUGE difference sometimes.

 

 

I do have a sound card specifically for audio. It's on it's way and was customized for recording audio/mixing/etc. And I've heard some of your stuff Ustad and I think it sounds amazing. The vocal I hear on your Blueberry Buddha page sounds very nice,- but I just wonder how they make silly nut jobs with no talent like Brittany Spears or the singer of Papa Roach sound so huge and in your face. The only reason I provided the myspace (not You Tube lol) was to show the sound I'm looking for. What do these big cats do as far as multi-tracking vocals? What do you use Ustad, Phil?

 

And Phil. Sorry I didn't clarify well enough in this post a few things and that's why I wrote up another post and tried to delete this one. I know Ustad recommended the Mini-Me to me months ago and Fletcher had nothing but great things to say about the 2 pre's that came with it as well as the converters and soft limit function. For $800 and seeing is it's discontinued, I sure hope I'm happy. I just want to bypass everything that has to do with my actual Mbox unit. My question was do you think I would get a better vocal sound if I purchased the Oktava 319 with the mod and sold my Rode NTK for that. I'm just very interested in getting the best vocal sound possible. I can get the takes, just want that sound. I see some don't believe the Mini-Me was a good purchase. I think for the money, getting all that beats getting an RNP cause I'll still be using the {censored}ty clock in the MBOX.

If you want to hear what I've done prior to the investment I made, if you get time- my music is on myspace.com/newlyformedmindset

Everything you hear was done by me with some average at best gear.

[I was The Funk]

 

I do have a sound card specifically for audio. It's on it's way and was customized for recording audio/mixing/etc. And I've heard some of your stuff Ustad and I think it sounds amazing. The vocal I hear on your Blueberry Buddha page sounds very nice,- but I just wonder how they make silly nut jobs with no talent like Brittany Spears or the singer of Papa Roach sound so huge and in your face. The only reason I provided the myspace (not You Tube lol) was to show the sound I'm looking for. What do these big cats do as far as multi-tracking vocals? What do you use Ustad, Phil? And Phil. Sorry I didn't clarify well enough in this post a few things and that's why I wrote up another post and tried to delete this one. I know Ustad recommended the Mini-Me to me months ago and Fletcher had nothing but great things to say about the 2 pre's that came with it as well as the converters and soft limit function. For $800 and seeing is it's discontinued, I sure hope I'm happy. I just want to bypass everything that has to do with my actual Mbox unit. My question was do you think I would get a better vocal sound if I purchased the Oktava 319 with the mod and sold my Rode NTK for that. I'm just very interested in getting the best vocal sound possible. I can get the takes, just want that sound. I see some don't believe the Mini-Me was a good purchase. I think for the money, getting all that beats getting an RNP cause I'll still be using the {censored}ty clock in the MBOX. If you want to hear what I've done prior to the investment I made, if you get time- my music is on myspace.com/newlyformedmindset Everything you hear was done by me with some average at best gear.

 

 

 

As far as the Oktava mod vs. the NTK, I prefer the Oktavamod MOST of the time, but not all the time. They are very different mics, and by selling the NTK (which actually may be more versatile) you are sort of painting yourself into a corner. Both are worth having, and between the two you can cover a lot of ground. But that ground rarely overlaps.

[newlyformedmind]

 

As far as the Oktava mod vs. the NTK, I prefer the Oktavamod MOST of the time, but not all the time. They are very different mics, and by selling the NTK (which actually may be more versatile) you are sort of painting yourself into a corner. Both are worth having, and between the two you can cover a lot of ground. But that ground rarely overlaps.

 

 

Good point. I just heard that the Oktava mod had a much more colored type sound which I think would mesh greatly with the clean apogee preamps. I want to do my vocals the justice they deserve for once. Never sang through a great pre, converter, acoustically treated area, and have no idea how to properly eq vocals. Anyhow, myspace.com/newlyformedmindset

Someone who has time, please critique the vocal sound. I am going for a much larger sound. I usually do several vocal takes and if I have to edit and piece the doubles/triples/harmonies rhythmically in time with eachother. I so want to know what are these cool fx some of the rock producers and even pop producers are doing or using to make the {censored} sound so incredible

[I was The Funk]

 

Good point. I just heard that the Oktava mod had a much more colored type sound which I think would mesh greatly with the clean apogee preamps. I want to do my vocals the justice they deserve for once. Never sang through a great pre, converter, acoustically treated area, and have no idea how to properly eq vocals. Anyhow, myspace.com/newlyformedmindset Someone who has time, please critique the vocal sound. I am going for a much larger sound. I usually do several vocal takes and if I have to edit and piece the doubles/triples/harmonies rhythmically in time with eachother. I so want to know what are these cool fx some of the rock producers and even pop producers are doing or using to make the {censored} sound so incredible

 

 

 

The oktavamod 319 definitely has a larger then life sound. You'll have to see if it matches your voice, but at the price they are offered at, its worth the risk.

 

I usually do vocals with compression, eq, and delay or reverb (or both). Sometimes I double track, pitch correct, etc, but it depends on the sound I'm going for and the performance. But EVERYTHING gets compressed, EQed as needed (oktavamod usually doesn't need much) and sent to a reverb bus.

 

One cool trick I use is to copy a track and then nudge is until its a distinct echo. Then I use tape emulation, eq and overdrive and mix it lower then the original and send it to the same reverb bus. This creates a very realistic tape echo effect that you can work with independently from the main vocal.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

I do have a sound card specifically for audio. It's on it's way and was customized for recording audio/mixing/etc. And I've heard some of your stuff Ustad and I think it sounds amazing. The vocal I hear on your Blueberry Buddha page sounds very nice,- but I just wonder how they make silly nut jobs with no talent like Brittany Spears or the singer of Papa Roach sound so huge and in your face. The only reason I provided the myspace (not You Tube lol) was to show the sound I'm looking for. What do these big cats do as far as multi-tracking vocals? What do you use Ustad, Phil?

 

 

Well, they're probably using a fairly similar signal chain to what Phil or I use...a C12 or Telefunken ELAM 251-type mic or something similar through a high-quality mic preamp (I'm using a Neve Portico). I'm using a Lawson L251, while Phil is using the Soundelux 251, I think it is. I'm sure you can check on his webpage if you want to know 100% for sure.

 

They also squash the crap out of the vocals...and if you want an even bigger sound, some of them are running the vocals through something like an Eventide harmonizer, processing the vocal several cents sharp and flat and panning those around. That's what Peter Gabriel has been doing for years, both live and in the studio, and he has a super fat sound.

 

Just the same, though, if you've heard Phil's vocal sound on his Julie O'Day recordings, you'll see that he's getting a very *natural* but very full vocal sound...and personally, this is more the ideal that I'd shoot for than a hyper-processed, Auto-Tuned Britney Spears sound. YMMV.

 

 

And Phil. Sorry I didn't clarify well enough in this post a few things and that's why I wrote up another post and tried to delete this one. I know Ustad recommended the Mini-Me to me months ago and Fletcher had nothing but great things to say about the 2 pre's that came with it as well as the converters and soft limit function. For $800 and seeing is it's discontinued, I sure hope I'm happy.

 

 

I have Apogee Rosetta 800s, and I think they sound awesome. Thanks for the compliments on the sound I'm getting at Blueberry Buddha Recording Studios.

[bighud]

Oktava mod is great! Comping is what makes most singers recorded work sound amazing. The "layering" effect on "love song" is a combination of doubling the lead vocal and a high harmony on top. However, with her I think her vocals have had the life processed out of them. Listen to the live video on her myspace. The vocals are amazing, not perfectly in tune, but were better than the cd version IMO. More life, more inflection.

I say all this to say, one must have a great voice to sound like her, but hard work and good technique can improve any voice. Be careful though not to kill the sound with processing.

[UstadKhanAli]

Yeah, comping is obviously a really big deal. That's what gets the performances really great. I have the singer do a bunch of whole takes, and then I'll take the best performance, and start plugging in phrases from other performances that sound really good and sound cohesive with the best performance.

 

As far as Britney Spears' vocal sound, I actually don't care for it, but you can chalk that up to different aesthetics.

[Dean Roddey]

If you read some of the posts out there from higher end mixers who have worked with some of these artists, there's a LOT o' work that gets done on those vocals. They are lovingly hand tweaked in so many ways, so that every phrase is exactly in time tuned to the exact pitch, compressed, harmonized, etc... It's pretty amazing how much work can go into it.

 

The split harmonizer thing is easy and I use that on LOTS of stuff. Just a little bit of a send to a harmonizer buss can fatten and widen any track out. Generally not good for lower frequency stuff, but most of the plugs you'd use for it probably have an EQ as part of the plug so you can keep the lower frequences from coming through.

 

I use the Waves doubler, but any doubler generally will do. Just put it on a buss, set it to 100% wet, pan the two sides hard left and right, set them to around +6 and -6 cents detuing and set the delay on each side to slightly different values, like maybe 10ms/20ms or 20/30ms or something like that. Turn off or all the way down any modulation effect. If it has an EQ, then high pass it up like to maybe 120Hz or higher and may roll off the highest highs perhaps. Else put an EQ before it on the buss to achieve the same thing.

 

It works great. You can send vocals, drums, guitars, etc... to it in small bits and it really thickens them up. You can also do faux doubling effects for guitars or vocals by just routing a track directly to this buss, i.e. don't use a send just route it straight there. This way, there's no direct signal at all, just the two detuned and panned signals. It creates quit a nice faux doubling effect, though it'll be delayed a bit because you are only hearing the delayed doubled parts. You can also crank the send up pretty high to get a kind of chorusy effect as well as the doubled parts to start compete in volume with the direct signal.

 

Any, on the vocals, definitely one thing to get comfortable with is comping the edits and cutting and pasting the wave forms. You can do an awful lot that way to get things into time, and to select (and possibly pitch correct) individual words or even syllables. And, if you a number of takes were done, even after you've picked out the best phrases from each, you can still have enough of them left over to put together a doubled part that's really tight as well.

 

Definitely one of the best reasons to record dry signals and appy things like reverb in the DAW is that you can comp so easily. Anywhere there's even a ms break in the part, you can cut it there and move the bits around and adjust timing. When you have reverb in the tracked signal, then it becomes really difficult to do that, because the wash of the previous note overlaps the next note. This is also a big benefit of using amp sims, because then you aren't recording to disc a huge, uber-gain, highly sustained signal, that's being applied after the fact, so it's easier to cut up the parts and adjust timing that way.

 

You can also create various 'exciter' effects. You can take the finished polished vocal track, duplicate it, put a high pass filter up on it up quite high, compress it very heavily. Maybe you might send this to a harmonizer type buss or possibly delay it in time by 10ms or something, you have to play with it and see what works best. It creates a kind of high end gloss that is not obvious because it's so heavily compressed that it never stands out or peaks, and it doesn't require super-compressing the overall vocal performance.

 

And of course there's generally heavy volume envelope automation, so that the vocal rides exactly at the right spot above the music at all times. And this can also allow you to have less compression, since you aren't trying to even the volume out via compression just the dynamics, and handing any obvious low/high volume issues with automation.

 

There are lots of tricks of that sort, most of which I'm sure I've never even heard of yet.

[newlyformedmind]

Oktava mod is great! Comping is what makes most singers recorded work sound amazing. The "layering" effect on "love song" is a combination of doubling the lead vocal and a high harmony on top. However, with her I think her vocals have had the life processed out of them. Listen to the live video on her myspace. The vocals are amazing, not perfectly in tune, but were better than the cd version IMO. More life, more inflection. I say all this to say, one must have a great voice to sound like her, but hard work and good technique can improve any voice. Be careful though not to kill the sound with processing.

 

 

I hear ya on the over-processed Brittany {censored}. That wasn't the right comparison. I do use a lil Melodyne here and there as needed, usually use RVox for compression and a lil gate. As far as reverb, I'm not a huge fan of any plugins I have. Without spending the money to get the TC Electronic or Eventide Harmonizer, what options do I have as far as good quality reverb. What exactly does comping mean? Compressing? And do they use a short delay? The song Cold by Crossfade (which was a huge hit) has a distinct effect on his voice and I'm dying to figure out what he does. It takes 30 seconds to listen and you veteran's got it licked. www.myspace.com/crossfade

And my (IMO) vocals prior to my new investment.

 

And thanks to whoever answered and I'm glad to know I was partially correct about the hit track "Love Song". I love her voice. And to me that doesn't sound too processed.

[newlyformedmind]

Wow. That was a lot of information! lol. I will have to dig through my brain to understand a quarter of it cause the whole send it to a buss thing makes no sense to me. I am still a NewB as far as actual recording. I know more about the gear from guys like you who know much more and come to a conclusion. Where can I learn more about this stuff so I am not so confused when asking how the pro's get huge vocal sounds.

1. Who thinks the Apogee Mini-Me (2 pre's, 2 converters, push it limiter for $800) was a smart choice given my budget with the ultimate goal of getting a huge pro sounding vocal take. I know I can sing it. I just gotta do my best with the signal chain, plugins, and who know's- a plugin/vocal kit? I'm running Protools 7.4 now. I took care of the acoustics in the vocal area thanks to Ethan, Jim, and whoever else works at Real Traps. And now my computer will run any kind of audio program it's so fast. So the computer was $1200, PVB from Real Traps- $320, Apogee Mini Me- $800. So if you guys had that much $$$ to upgrade equiptment from the crap I had of a signal chain and clock- what would you have done differently? Thanks again to everyone that's responding. I personally think the subject could lead to lots of unanswered questions some other newbies concerns of getting the best vocal sound possible without having to spend $10,000

[Dean Roddey]

The terminology depends on the software you use, but all recording software (mimicing original hardware mixers) provide some kind of 'buss' scheme. Basically, you have two fundamental concepts. You have tracks to which sound is recorded and then played back (or in the case of a soft synth the track spits out audio live but it's the same conceptually), so these are sources of audio. And you have to have somewhere for the audio to go to, 'sinks' of audio.

 

These sinks are generally called busses. At the least, you will have a buss that represents your sound card, and every track will be routed to it. But you can also create other busses and router the tracks to them, and those busses are then in turn routed to other busses (often the sound card but it could be another buss you create), but everything eventually makes it to the sound card buss.

 

There are two primary reasons for busses. One is to have control over multiple tracks as a group. So you can route all the guitars to a 'Guitars' buss and then you can control the volume of them all at once, and you can apply EQ, compression, etc... to them all as a group together.

 

The other is for applying effects. You can put, for instance, a reverb on a single track and that's fine. But if you are going to have reverb on multiple tracks, and that's almost always the case, it's better to put it on a buss and share it amoung tracks. To support this, in addittion to the main routing setting of a track (which controls where the output goes), the tracks will also have Sends, which allow you to syphon off some of the sound of the track to go to other busses in addition to the main track routing.

 

So you can set up a buss, put a reverb on it, set it's output to the main audio card buss, and then you can put a Send on a track, and set it ot send to the reverb buss. So you get both the main guitar sound, via the main track routing, but you get some amount of the guitar through the reverb, based on how high you crank up the Send level on that guitar track.

 

This is extremely commonly done. It has the benefits of both sharing processing between multiple tracks instead of putting separate plugs on each track, and it provides a type of coherence to the sound because all the tracks are sharing a single reverb sound, or chorus sound or double sound and so forth.

 

So, re the above scenario I described, a doubler is put on a buss and set up as indicated, and then you can put a send on various tracks and send a little of that track out put to the doubler and you get the main track output sound, but then mixed in you will get the output from the doubler. If you want more, crank up the send level, for less, lower the send level.

[UstadKhanAli]

NewlyFormedMind:

 

Comping is cutting and pasting the best bits of a vocal performance into one track, what Bighud, Dean and I were referring to. Although this was done on tape machines in the past, it's really easy to do in a DAW, and one can be precise down to the millisecond and perform crossfades.

 

For reverb, I'm using a TCM300 via S/PDIF for my DAW. It's a hardware unit, but by using S/PDIF, I can use the reverb in the DAW without taxing the CPU. And the reverb quality is quite good, especially for the money (often under $200). If you get the more expensive TC Electronic units, I hear the reverb's even nicer. And this cheap-o unit already sounds really really really good. I get compliments on how good the reverb sounds constantly.

 

Apogee Mini-Me: for $800, I think it sounds like a great bargain. If you have a good quality mic, that's a very good signal chain, good enough that you know longer have any excuses for having anything less than a really good sounding vocal.

 

As far as effects on people's voice, a common effect is AutoTune. I don't mean just for correcting pitch, either. It adds an odd quality to the vocals which is becoming a very standard sound in pop and rock music. I personally don't care for the sound, but it's so prevalent now that I think a lot of people are starting to think that it's the pop sound to get.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

I do have a sound card specifically for audio. It's on it's way and was customized for recording audio/mixing/etc. And I've heard some of your stuff Ustad and I think it sounds amazing. The vocal I hear on your Blueberry Buddha page sounds very nice,-

 

 

Oh, one more thing, if this gives you any insight...or inspiration, especially...I appreciate you saying that my music sounds "amazing"...but y'know, I record all this stuff in a tiny house. Drums, vocals, guitars, everything...all done in the living room, and all the equipment is stuffed into my second bedroom.

 

Obviously, it's important to have good equipment and all that, but it really doesn't take a truckload of money to get a good sound. What it does take is this near-obsessive need to make stuff sound as good as possible. I used FMR RNPs and my Lawson L251 (the latter of which I won at the AES Convention in a drawing). That's a nice signal chain, but it's hardly super ultra expensive.

[newlyformedmind]

Oh, one more thing, if this gives you any insight...or inspiration, especially...I appreciate you saying that my music sounds "amazing"...but y'know, I record all this stuff in a tiny house. Drums, vocals, guitars, everything...all done in the living room, and all the equipment is stuffed into my second bedroom.

 

Obviously, it's important to have good equipment and all that, but it really doesn't take a truckload of money to get a good sound. What it does take is this near-obsessive need to make stuff sound as good as possible. I used FMR RNPs and my Lawson L251 (the latter of which I won at the AES Convention in a drawing). That's a nice signal chain, but it's hardly super ultra expensive.[/quote

 

Ustad and my main man with all the info- thank you both for your insight. Did I mess up by getting the two pre's instead of a bomb one like John Hardy (as I know is for rock type music like mine), or a Great River single channel. I already have a great sound card but I figured it wouldn't compare to using the Apogee for it's clean pre's (2) two outputs of A/D and the huge benefit of the Push It Apogee trademark. As I've stated. My microphone is for vocals primarily and acoustics which I'm not as concerned about. I want the best performance #1, the best atmosphere and gear that will help me show the world my best. I already use Melodyne for tuning in certain areas but I do some screaming here and there and the program reads it not polyphonically like vocals or single bass notes. THat's not is what is on Crossfade's hit track=Cold. Who can figure that out for me? So what if he's singing through a Brauner? Can I not get that large of a sound and chorus like thickening effect through Digi LE 7.4 type plugins? I know I need a VST rapper and need RTAS, but I know most of the pro's have Protools HD and access to so many more plugins. Are the old school analog guys the only ones who have great outboard effects anymore? A question to ponder. Has anyone listened to my {censored}? Ustad- please do cause I truly am interested in getting either or both you and maybe even Fletcher having a mixing/mastering roll in my solo E.P. I am releasing. I plan on using the drum website that does a song for $99 and money back if you aren't happy. I can't get it that cheap to save my life in Detroit. Setup time alone would be atleast $200. Anymore wisdom on obtaining larger than life brilliant sounding vocals given the artists talent which you can hear right now all my {censored}= myspace.com/newlyformedmindset

I really want to hear what the veterans and NewBies to have to say. I have been recording music over half my life and I'm 26. I need all your help guys. And Phil, and Ken (I believe, sorry if I'm wrong Ustad)- I might just want you two to mix my songs. I will send them done in ghetto fashion with minimal gear. But I know you two know your {censored} like Fletcher. And I can't afford to pay some ego driven music business asshole to try and capture all my abilities. So PM/IM whatever it is please. Or if ya got AIM or Yahoo Messenger. whatever. I got a job for hire. This is not just for fun, nor do I take any aspect of my music career any less than dead serious. I love it to death but I mean business. Thanks to all for the info. I'm anxiously awaiting another veteran's opinion. Thanks again Ustad/Ken and the other guy I can't remember who gave all the great info. It still doesn't make sense but I will learn it and bookmark this. You guys are helping me make my dream come true. I live and die for music. It's all I know, and the only thing that has stuck by me. Ever. Bless ya'll:thu:

[newlyformedmind]

Oktava mod is great! Comping is what makes most singers recorded work sound amazing. The "layering" effect on "love song" is a combination of doubling the lead vocal and a high harmony on top. However, with her I think her vocals have had the life processed out of them. Listen to the live video on her myspace. The vocals are amazing, not perfectly in tune, but were better than the cd version IMO. More life, more inflection. I say all this to say, one must have a great voice to sound like her, but hard work and good technique can improve any voice. Be careful though not to kill the sound with processing.

I'm believing the Oktava 319 Mod is great for the money. But if you listened real quickly to my current vocal sound (as well as other instruments in the mix), that's prior to Ethan's PVB and an Apogee Mini-Me. Which was highly recommended by Fletcher which I trust like no other. So I learned comping is just piecing great parts together to make a great take. Then double/triple and or harmonize once atleast. Believe I multitrack vocals. I just don't own a Manley Stereo Gold with a Pendullum Audio Pre or nothing like that. What I just purchased was the world of money for me. So all the advice outside of the obvious great performance that is essential- anyone? Ken and Phil send me a message please. I was dead set on mixing my {censored} and mastering and I changed my mind. So who wants some work.

[newlyformedmind]

Phil? Anything? I'd trust you with my kid. You and Ustad. Help me out please. I offered you both a mixing mastering job and if you can do the drums around $99 I'm in. I'm trying to get signed to Tooth and Nail Records which is an independant label out of Seattle. Signed MXPX, Anberlin, IvoryLine which I love the sound of the record (Aaron Sparkle) . What should I do guys? Many people think I have all that it takes. Yet I'm primarily a drummer. Now a good singer. Help please ya'll.

[UstadKhanAli]

I've been mixing for a songwriter all evening. PM me and we'll sort out the details. I'm not sure what you mean by "if you can do the drums".

 

Also, I don't think I'm in the same league as Phil or Fletcher. Those guys know their {censored}, and I've learned a lot from both of them over the years. This ain't false modesty. I'm good, but those guys are *really* good.

[veracohr]

 

You can also create various 'exciter' effects. You can take the finished polished vocal track, duplicate it, put a high pass filter up on it up quite high, compress it very heavily. Maybe you might send this to a harmonizer type buss or possibly delay it in time by 10ms or something, you have to play with it and see what works best. It creates a kind of high end gloss that is not obvious because it's so heavily compressed that it never stands out or peaks, and it doesn't require super-compressing the overall vocal performance.

 

 

Hmmm...interesting. I don't record vocals often, but I might give that a try on a vocal I'm recording this weekend to see how it sounds. Thanks.

[UstadKhanAli]

Variations of this technique work on other instruments. I just did a mix where I did this with the bass (not the harmonizer part, but HP filtering it, EQing it, and heavily compressing it) to give it more definition.

[Dean Roddey]

For bass, you can also add distortion to that mix, which can give it a nice cutting quality and smooths out the highs that you are mixing back in.

[UstadKhanAli]

Yeah, some people will use some sort of amp simulator or some other thing for distortion, patch a SansAmp through it (they do this for drums also), etc. I'll sometimes screw it up with Frohmage in the way that we're discussing.