vocals

[Ashwell]

I was listening back to a few of your tracks today and the sound quality of the vocals really jumps out.

What are your favorite tools to use when it comes to treating vocals and do you have any tricks you can share when it comes to giving them clarity & presence?

If the question is too general maybe you could just walk through what went into getting the vocal sound for a song like 'Hey Hey'.

Thanks! - Brad

[dennis f]

1. distance of the vocalist to the mic. minimum 6"...if they're a plosive singer then pop filter.
A steadman works great. Put tape on the floor to mark their distance so they don't forget where they are when they get amped up.

2. Quality mic. Quality doesn't always equate to more money. Seriously. Do a bit of due diligence and you'll find that out quickly. SM7B is a wonderful first mike choice.

3. Quality mic pre. Again same thing applies as #2. A john hardy m1 is fairly affordable and is dead clean.

4. record with plenty of headroom. peaks should not hit 0dbfs!!!! your loudest peaks should be max -18dbfs to -16dbfs. In fact playback of all your tracks should not be above this. You can make up the gain on the master buss later.

5. EQ - less is more here. You just want to reduce the offending frequencies. If she sounds nasally well you know you'll want to dump off from 1 - 4khz ..high Q it...slam the gain on that freq(lower your monitors or you'll be buying new drivers and a hearing aid!!)...and sweep the freq's until the annoying one jumps out. Stop, broaden the q to around a 1 to 1.5 and then drop the gain accordingly. Viola done!. Now filter out 80hz on down to taste. If he/she's a bit dull then add a bit at 10-12khz stepped.

6. volume wise. Same principle as mixing the kick and hi hat example i gave sal. Put your monitor off and then one click above until you barely hear the music. Now bring the vox volume all the way off and slowly bring it up until it sits JUST BARELY above the music. The biggest and most common mistake is for a producer to think that the record is about their music. It ain't!. It's about the vocalist and you have to make sure that he/she sits above your musical bead.

This can get very specific with regards to eq types...compression types and techniques.. and fx. You'd have to be a bit more specific with that in mind if you want more in depth answers.

hope this helps

[Ashwell]

It definitely does - thank you!