I need some "Sound" advice. HURHUR.

[theleafyone]

Hi all,

i need to know exactly what i should do to thicken my voice in a recording.

Basically, i have a Audio Technica AT2020 & Maudio Fast Track Pro. A simple setup to Garage band. That's how i record...

Ok. here's a recent recording i did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpAZx_GWbDg (Marry You - Bruno Mars)

I find that after i EQ-ed the main vocals, it's a bit too thin for my liking. I'd like a bit more fuller sound. I used the normal Female Basic from garageband and reduced the reverb and echo by quite a bit. No autotune. Oh, i used a bit of compression i think.. But i basically didn't know what i was compressing..

Can anyone advice on how i can EQ the sound better?

As for my other cover,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xne-IJGQ3Zc (Firework - Katy Perry)
It has slightly less reverb and echo than the one above.. But some of my friends says the sound feels like it's hitting on a wood. Need a bit more reverb to sound better... I used extreme compression for this cos of the high notes. didn't want people's ears to bleed. ahahha.

These are genuine questions, and i really really really need sound advice!!!

Appreciate all the advice i can get...

Thanks..
)

 

[Likui]

put delay? of course not too much

 

[theleafyone]

delay?

Hmm.. i think delay generally work for electric guitars... They don't work for vocals or accoustic guitars right? Or do you mean reverb?

 

[kongwee]

Garageband EQ is not so easy to control. You can do some boosting between 500-2000hz. You really got to find the spot.

 

[Likui]

yes vocal also have delay, alot of professional cd recordings they use also, Delay + reverb. For me I use ping pong delay. of course don't put too much like i said

 

[kongwee]

I never dig inside Garageband delay, but I think it is not easy to control free timing rather than sync.

 

[xfigox]

There's actually quite alot of stuff going on in a typical song for vocals alone. Try going onto youtube and find songs with vocals isolated alone and you can learn quite alot from that alone.

Some ways to make vocals "thicker" is to double track or use a plugin that actually simulates a "doubled" vocal effect to make it thicker. Adding harmonies is another way to thicken up vocals, but these methods have to recorded really tight to get a really nice sound.

Anyway I've commented on your thread in the open mic too.

Some stuff that I really dig, its progressive metal but you'll get the idea - stacking harmonies
Isolated vocal track of DT's Wither - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh4TbFNU5O8

 

[Likui]

for me when I do delay I don't use the synch, I adjust to what it sounds good to my ears.

Some ways to make vocals "thicker" is to double track or use a plugin that actually simulates a "doubled" vocal effect to make it thicker. Adding harmonies is another way to thicken up vocals, but these methods have to recorded really tight to get a really nice sound.
This is called the chorus effect. you make a few tracks and manually delay the sound, so for eg you duplicate the track one track u pan right 1 u pan left and maybe the left track u just shift it in front slightly. should sound quite cool

 

[studio2105]

The first thing I'd like to point out is the reverb. There's far too much of it which tends to smear the vocal and "push" it further back in the mix. It sounds like some sort of hall preset to me and the reverb tail is far too long which can further blur the vocals. For an acapella style production like the one you're doing, I'd go for a short (under 1sec) plate-type reverb.

The purpose of reverb is to add a sense of space and size, but too much reverb can rob it of fullness and presence. A useful guideline is to raise the level of reverb to the point where you can hear it and then backing it off just tad bit. You want reverb to reinforce the sense of space around the vocal not distract the listener from it.

Actually, most modern vocal production avoid reverb altogether. What you hear on a lot of newer records that sound like reverb is actually clever use of delay (echo). Engineers love using delay because at proper settings, they can impart the same sense of space like reverb WITHOUT smearing the vocal. Depending on the song tempo, I tend to use either mono 8th or 16th note delays. I find mono delays offer more depth and helps the vocal maintain focus in a busy mix compared with stereo or ping-pong delay. I will sometimes add a little bit of subtle stereo delay in the chorus to make the lead vocal sound bigger but not too much. The saying "a little goes a long way" definitely applies to using reverb and delays.

Hope this helps