Adding vocals -ACID Product Family - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:Adding vocals Posted by: Brasilia Date:1/30/2004 7:46:54 PM Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some helpful suggestions. I'm working on a track and I've got the levels about perfect and it sounds great. Now I've found some vocal samples that I wanna add to it but they don't really sound part of the same track, they sound flat compared to the crispness of the music and sound just like an afterthought. I've tried adding some fx to them but can't really get the loudness and clarity I need. Can anyone suggest anything? What fx can I use to get a more rounded sound?
Subject:RE: Adding vocals Reply by: marcarotsky Date:1/31/2004 12:24:09 AM a good reverb and compression is great for vocals!!! around a 2:1 compression with a threshold around -15 db will "blend" vocals pretty well. especially if the rest of your track is running a little "hot." reverb, just play with it while your track is running until you get that good blending feel. maybe even a little chorus and/or delay will add some depth to your vocal. most importantly will be a good compression so that the vocal doesnt just "jump" out at you. --marc
Subject:RE: Adding vocals Reply by: Big_Faced_Boy Date:2/1/2004 2:54:45 AM ^ Compression threshold settings depend on the volume of the source material... -15dB sounds like a generic setting from a preset to me. If the body of your vocal track lies well above -15dB, using this threshold will probably ruin your sound. And make sure you're happy with your eq and compression before thinking about reverb. Here's what I said recently in the Sound Forge forum ("Even Vocals" thread): There are no set rules to it, you gotta go with what sounds good (loud normally doesn't, so BE GENTLE! - which means using volume maximizers (aka limiters) is not always a good idea. You want your vox rounded, not squared.) It all depends on the material you're working with and the sound you want. You could try some eq to reduce offensive frequencies; check your mic's frequency response graph and see where it adds colour and account for these. A multi-band dynamic processor such as Waves C4 may flatten these out nicely without affecting the overall sound like eq does, but a combination is probably best. Top end frequencies (5-10kHz) usually require some de-essing, you can do this with one of many de-esser plugins (Waves Renaissance DeEsser is very good, but costly, DigitalFishPhones SpitFish (vst plugin) is free and very nice. Try Spin Audio's free vst-dx wrapper in order to use vstfx in SF/ACID). Once offensive frequencies have been dealt with (you don't want them saturating under compression and ruining the sound), try a compressor to level the sounds out. I can't really give too much advice here and now, just get your vox to a reasonable volume before doing this. Most compressor plugins will have a vocal preset. Try playing with the threshold to achieve some gain reduction and hit ok. An example: Use a vox preset in a compressor plugin as this should set good attack/release times. If your peaks stand at, say -2dB and the bulk of the sound at -6dB (ie 4dB difference), you might set the threshold to about -5 to -7dB and tweak your ratio to get -4dB reduction. This should remove or level the peaks without affecting the body of the sound too much. Try it and see. This is only an example... don't take it as absolute gospel... trust your ears and BE GENTLE! Hope this helps.
Subject:RE: Adding vocals Reply by: Brasilia Date:2/2/2004 6:55:33 PM Thanks for the input guys!!! I'll go back and play around with your suggestions and see what I come up with....thanks again :)

^ Compression threshold settings depend on the volume of the source material... -15dB sounds like a generic setting from a preset to me. If the body of your vocal track lies well above -15dB, using this threshold will probably ruin your sound. And make sure you're happy with your eq and compression before thinking about reverb.

Here's what I said recently in the Sound Forge forum ("Even Vocals" thread):

There are no set rules to it, you gotta go with what sounds good (loud normally doesn't, so BE GENTLE! - which means using volume maximizers (aka limiters) is not always a good idea. You want your vox rounded, not squared.) It all depends on the material you're working with and the sound you want.

You could try some eq to reduce offensive frequencies; check your mic's frequency response graph and see where it adds colour and account for these. A multi-band dynamic processor such as Waves C4 may flatten these out nicely without affecting the overall sound like eq does, but a combination is probably best.

Top end frequencies (5-10kHz) usually require some de-essing, you can do this with one of many de-esser plugins (Waves Renaissance DeEsser is very good, but costly, DigitalFishPhones SpitFish (vst plugin) is free and very nice. Try Spin Audio's free vst-dx wrapper in order to use vstfx in SF/ACID).

Once offensive frequencies have been dealt with (you don't want them saturating under compression and ruining the sound), try a compressor to level the sounds out. I can't really give too much advice here and now, just get your vox to a reasonable volume before doing this. Most compressor plugins will have a vocal preset. Try playing with the threshold to achieve some gain reduction and hit ok.

An example: Use a vox preset in a compressor plugin as this should set good attack/release times. If your peaks stand at, say -2dB and the bulk of the sound at -6dB (ie 4dB difference), you might set the threshold to about -5 to -7dB and tweak your ratio to get -4dB reduction. This should remove or level the peaks without affecting the body of the sound too much. Try it and see. This is only an example... don't take it as absolute gospel... trust your ears and BE GENTLE!

Hope this helps.