[mac freak]

Hey, audio people.
I've been part of a casual band with a few friends of mine for a while now, and we'd like to put out a CD. Everything sounds great, but I've found it's particularly hard to get professional-sounding vocals, and I imagine it's because I just don't know how to properly filter them. I bought a fairly nice condenser mic recently, and it sounds great -- it just sounds different from what we'd like. What do you guys do?

[Jim Paradise]

I'm sorry, I don't have an answer for you, but I hope someone does as this is an excellent question. I'm sure many people could benefit from the answer(s).

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by mac freak

Hey, audio people.
I've been part of a casual band with a few friends of mine for a while now, and we'd like to put out a CD. Everything sounds great, but I've found it's particularly hard to get professional-sounding vocals, and I imagine it's because I just don't know how to properly filter them. I bought a fairly nice condenser mic recently, and it sounds great -- it just sounds different from what we'd like. What do you guys do?

I'm faaaaar from a knowledgeable source as I'm still larnin bout this here stuff mahself...but why not tell us what equipment you have and what methods you've tried so far?

For example, do you have a mixer?

[analogika]

What are you using

[jeronimo]

I think pro sounding vocals are a couple of things together:
- skills (from both musician and engineer)
- top gear

[k_munic]

My knowledge is small, I sit aside, 20y ago…
but basicly:

excellent mics - a cheap mic sounds … cheap… they did use mics, 4000€ each!
excellent acoustics - meaning a "dead dry" room, zero reflections… some poeple use old woolen blankets…
discipline - constant distance to mic; use a "popp"cover
filerting - beware! you can filter a guitar, a drum, a synthi… but the human ear is extremely sensitve about voice!
compression - gives you voice an extra "kick"
processing - nowadays, there're millions of effects, harmonizers (Shania Twain), vocoders (Cher), room simualtions (Georg Michael)… this depends extremly of your kind of music… a gothic singer needs other processes as a bar singer…

a very basic setting for a "nice" voice:
dry room; double the voice tracks (sing the lines twice, no harmony, just two times the same notes)); add some 200Hz and some 6 KHz (depth and brilliance); do some compression; add some "room" with a room simulator…

an audio engineer can work for days just for the best sound of a voice with tons of material…

[PacHead]

Getting great sounding vocals is really not that hard, and others have already given good answers. I've recorded vocals that have been on Cd's that have sold millions of copies, and most of those vocal sounds were achieved in a matter of minutes. With recording budgets today, few bands have the luxury of dicking around for days tweaking their sound setups.

Most of the best gear is still the so-called "vintage" pieces. And I don't mean buying some piece of crap $200 gear at musicians friend that has the word "vintage" inscribed on it.

(1) Good Microphone (This is going to cost money) Neumann U87, U67, U47, TLM 170, AKG C12, Sony C800 etc. (It depends on the source voice, male or female, and what sound you're attempting to achieve.) I LOVE tube mics !
(2) Good recording environment. Usually just a dead, quiet place will do the trick. Have a decent pop filter in front of the microphone. Also, hopefully the singer has a decent mic technique, and they don't wiggle about or move around like a chimp on drugs. Try to use headphones that are not fully open, so they don't leak into the mic, and prepare a headphone mix that is pleasing for the artist. Even with all this great gear, a vocalist needs to have a good headphone mix in order to perform at their best. The balance betweeen voice/music can affect a performance in big ways. Also, have the vocalist take off any clothes/ jewelry / shoes whatever, if they make noise. Nude chicks in the vocal booth are preferable of course.
(3) Good preamp - (This also costs a bit of money) Neve 1073, API, Focusrite, Manley, GML etc. (They're all good, just different flavors.)
(4) Good compressor - (more money)La-2a, La-3a, Fairchild, SSL etc. Unless you're looking for something extreme, just a hint of light compression (2-3db) will do the trick. Most vocals will receive the compression treatment again, when it's mixdown time.
(5) Good clock - (money again) If you're recording to a DAW, many pro studios will run off of a good external clock, which reduces jitter etc., and having a more stable clock will ultimately lead to a better overall sound.
(6) Good AD convertor - (save those pesos) So, once you have your good sounding vocal, you now need to get it into your DAW. If you have a $8,000 mic, you should not be going into a $150 soundcard, as this sort of defeats the whole purpose.
(7) You vocal track should now be on your DAW, and it should sound pretty damn good at this stage. If you're looking for a relatively clean sound, there is usually not that much EQ'ing required on good vocals. Perhaps a little highpass filter, inorder to rid any low freq rumble that may exist on the track (20hz, 40hz etc.). Perhaps a bit of presence for the voice (2-6 kHZ). Perhaps a bit of "air" (10 khz,12 khz etc.). The EQ all depends on the source voice, the mic, and the other instruments that exist in the mix. Each should be allowed to breathe. Sometimes ZERO EQ is neccesary, it all depends.
(8) Last step is perhaps some processing, where you will perhaps keep it dry, or perhaps you will add ambience, reverb, delays, pitch/time delays etc. It will also most likely get compressed again, depending upon the sound one is going for.

That's it, your vocals should now sound as good as any others on most CD's you have heard.

[analogika]

What's a "fairly nice" condensor mic? Which one are you using?

Also, a "fairly nice" condensor mic is pretty useless without a "fairly nice" mic pre-amp.

And if, for example, you've got Behringer equipment anywhere in the signal chain, that's your problem right there, easily identified.

What kind of sound are you looking for?

If you're looking for that extremely direct, full voice sound even at fairly low volumes, you will want to get fairly close (a few inches) to that condensor mic - though getting too close is not necessarily ideal either. You need, as k_munic mentioned, a wind protector to keep the "p"s and the "t"s from plopping. A nylon stocking over a wire loop makes an excellent poor man's plop shield.

Good compression will also pull the voice to the front and make it punchy, as mentioned. Check out the RNC (Really Nice Compressor, http://www.fmraudio.com/RNC1773.htm ) for excellent value for money - it's one of the best compressors you can get below $2000, and it's only $200 MSRP (I am not affiliated with FMR in any way).

The compressors included with GarageBand, and even with Logic and Logic Pro, are not by any stretch of the imagination "good" compressors.

[fisherKing]

we've been using studio projects stuff, the C1 mic and their VTB1 mic preamp; not expensive at all and great sound (we record thru an edirol interface, the pcr-1, into logic).

a pop filter ($20) in front of the mic helps.

closed space, close-up to mic (6 inches maybe), a good level (but watch for overloading).

then, in logic, we compress a bit, a little eq.

and are putting this stuff out!


read everyones tips, trust your ears.

good luck!