Subject:voice enhancer?

Posted by: rival

Date:11/23/2002 6:53:50 AM

i have a few songs recorded but with no singing. i was wondering, since i suck at singing, if acidpro or sound forge have any kind of voice enhancer? if not, does anyone know where i can get one? also, whats the proper name? thanks. later.

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: salad

Date:11/23/2002 5:34:36 PM

I'm in the same boat, so I won't be doing any singing, but they have those external devices like "vocal harmonizers" and such. Maybe you have a outboard FX unit with such a preset?
In the back of the AP4 manual, there's that secton called Acid Tips & Tricks, where they mention laying down a copy of a track and applying "pitch shift" to one of the tracks, then play with EQ...delay....bury it in the mix.....let a good vocalist hear it and have 'em record their own vocals ;-o

Good question though!

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: DjXSoundz

Date:11/23/2002 5:39:57 PM

i have asked again and again, and there is no real "vocal enhancer" preset (especially on software) that will make you a good singer. DigiTech makes a line of products called "Vocalsits" (i have the old early 90's vocalist II) that do harmonizing with nice midi work and such. My dad did some tracks where it stiffened up his voice a lot and it helped him. Of course, if vocals are not the main part of ur track, yes you could use eq to hide them in the mix. Maybe try paning them out and cut lows and mids. Reveb is the key for that.

DJ XSOUNDZ

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: drbam

Date:11/23/2002 9:00:01 PM

You may be referring to something like Antares Autotune, which can do amazing things with pitch correction of vocals (and other instruments). Remember though. . . trying to get even the best technology to perform "miracles" is pretty unrealistic. ;-)

drbam

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: rival

Date:11/24/2002 6:32:06 AM

but you hear certain bands that sound good.... then you hear them in concert and wonder how they ever got their voice to sound like it does on their records.

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: drbam

Date:11/24/2002 7:50:13 AM

<<but you hear certain bands that sound good.... then you hear them in concert and wonder how they ever got their voice to sound like it does on their records.>>

Yeah, well those are the bands that obviously make good use of some of this technology in the studio. More often than not, its virtually impossible for a band to recreate their final recorded sound in a live performance - some don't even come close! Even the very best musicians and singers can't do this very well unless they kept their recording pretty straight forward with a minimum of tricks and efx. But those typically aren't the acts or bands that would be using an app like Acid. There a few exceptions of course but this is starting to get bit OT so I'll leave it at that. Good luck!

drbam

drbam

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: Nechromatic

Date:11/29/2002 7:58:25 AM

1. if you cant stay in tune, antares autotune would be a solution..it drags wrong notes to the correct pitch, according to the scale you choose...or just practice :)

2. if youre talking about the sound of the vocals:

a) use a condenser mic, a lot better resolution for soft instruments, like voices ;)

b) use a pop guard (is that the correct word in english? :P)
you know, the round gauzey thing you hook up in front of your mic...it keeps the mic from recording the plosives (the POP sounds you hear if you breathe into the mic to hard)

c) if your vocal track sounds too harsh when you sing "ssss" sounds, you might wanna try a special plugin which is called a de-esser, or just choose an eq with a narrow band, frequency 7 kHz, and pull the gain down 1-3 dB for that frequency

d) use reverb (set the pre-delay to something like 50 ms, so it wont muddle up the sound)

e) use short delays (theyll fatten up the vocal sound, but turn them down so they wont be as loud as the original vocals)

f) use a chorus or something, thatll sort of double the vocals

g) use an "exciter" on the vocal track to let it sparkle a lil more

h) IMPORTANT: use a compressor!! itll make the volume changes in the track smaller, so itll all be almost one level, whether youre whispering or singin the chorus death-metal style) ... (try setting the threshold to -5db, attack to 10 ms, ratio 8:1, release to 300 ms...you HAVE to experiment with these settings!!!)


you see, theres lots of methods to mess with the vocals to get them right, and good studios prolly use most of them or all of them ... if the band plays live, they wont have all the gear with them (for instance: theyll almost invariably use dynamic mics up on stage, not condenser mics) -> the vocals will sound a lot weaker most of the time)

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: RasKeita

Date:11/29/2002 10:05:51 AM

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http://www.antarestech.com/products/jvp.html
http://www.aphexsys.com/AE3.htm
http://www.virsonix.com/products/index.html

Subject:RE: voice enhancer?

Reply by: noFony

Date:11/29/2002 10:22:22 PM

For really lush vocals, or lush tracks in general, I like to follow these guidlines which I found on another forum.;)

“1,. Compress everything!
2,. EQ each instrument or voice to a very limited band.
3, Apply reverb everywhere!
4,.if You are looking for "modern" lush, make sure you use doplers and duckers or vocoder on all vocal tracks.
5,. Now limit HARD ! If you don't have a 20db fast limit chances are the lush won't be so plush and may just be slush by the time your done.

If not lush enough, use the Lushelistic Pro. I can get a an uthorized copy to you for less then $500 / channel"

Now we're talkin', baby!!! Yeah!!