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dwlb
zen recordist
Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 6608
Location: criticizing globally, offending locally
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 Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:49 am Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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| Nick Sevilla wrote: | | dwlb wrote: |
Backup singer trick: don't sing the first and last consonants of phrases. |
I hate that trick. when going to tape, maybe. But to NoTools?
All lead singers are like "where's the rest of the words?" |
Why should it matter what you're recording to? I hear "use ProTools like it's a tape machine" all the time around here, why not perform parts as if you're working with tape? Otherwise you're setting yourself up for a shitload of editing you shouldn't have to do.
Fuck lead singers. Everybody knows it's all in the backup vocals these days.
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vvv
on a wing and a prayer
Joined: 13 May 2003
Posts: 5619
Location: Chi
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:25 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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| Nick Sevilla wrote: | | vvv wrote: | I'm having that problem right now, with a tune where the chorus has a cuppla lines ending in "SSS"; they just don't line up, and knocking the levels down 9dBu doesn't help ...  |
1.- Use a de esser.
2.- If in a daw, don't complain. Fix it.
3.- Darken the reverb of the BeeGees. Or automate it so those eases never get reverbed.
Cheers |
1. Tried various and changed settings, tried parametric EQ - not much help due to the alignment prob's.
2. I did go thru and manually drop each SSS by 9dBu - no help.
3. No verb, but some echo.
Ya can hear it here; I guess I'm gonna hafta re-sing the parts or else delete the SSS's.
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Nick Sevilla
cryogenically thawing
Joined: 03 Mar 2008
Posts: 3643
Location: Los Angeles California USA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:27 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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| dwlb wrote: | | Nick Sevilla wrote: | | dwlb wrote: |
Backup singer trick: don't sing the first and last consonants of phrases. |
I hate that trick. when going to tape, maybe. But to NoTools?
All lead singers are like "where's the rest of the words?" |
Why should it matter what you're recording to? I hear "use ProTools like it's a tape machine" all the time around here, why not perform parts as if you're working with tape? Otherwise you're setting yourself up for a shitload of editing you shouldn't have to do.
Fuck lead singers. Everybody knows it's all in the backup vocals these days. |
Why should it matter? I don't know... tape tends to eliminate those high frequencies after playing back tape for a while. Pro tools... not so much.
As to that trick, good singers can do it, but they almost never get rid of the first part of the word. And almost always that I've seen it don, properly, it is when doing a LOT of harmony vocals at once. Like 8 or more BeeGees singing the same lines.
And yes, I did mix one Beatles cover that when the BeeGees came in, they were STUPID LOUD. As they should be. They decimated the lead singer with their awesomeness.
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vvv
on a wing and a prayer
Joined: 13 May 2003
Posts: 5619
Location: Chi
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:29 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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| MoreSpaceEcho wrote: |
1:47-2:11 of this tune is about 36 tracks of vocals. and i think every line ended with either an s or a t.... |
Cool track!
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dwlb
zen recordist
Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 6608
Location: criticizing globally, offending locally
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:55 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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| Nick Sevilla wrote: | | dwlb wrote: | | Nick Sevilla wrote: | | dwlb wrote: |
Backup singer trick: don't sing the first and last consonants of phrases. |
I hate that trick. when going to tape, maybe. But to NoTools?
All lead singers are like "where's the rest of the words?" |
Why should it matter what you're recording to? I hear "use ProTools like it's a tape machine" all the time around here, why not perform parts as if you're working with tape? Otherwise you're setting yourself up for a shitload of editing you shouldn't have to do.
Fuck lead singers. Everybody knows it's all in the backup vocals these days. |
Why should it matter? I don't know... tape tends to eliminate those high frequencies after playing back tape for a while. Pro tools... not so much.
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you mean the high frequencies in the s's and t's they're not singing? I don't get what you're driving at here.
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"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."
"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." – Brian Eno
All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/ |
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cale w
gimme a little kick & snare
Joined: 09 Nov 2009
Posts: 99
Location: Seattle
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 2:38 am Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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| vvv wrote: | | MoreSpaceEcho wrote: |
1:47-2:11 of this tune is about 36 tracks of vocals. and i think every line ended with either an s or a t.... |
Cool track! |
Agreed. That is a fantastic track.
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low-fi dub! http://soundcloud.com/calewilcox/sets/district-dubs# |
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MoreSpaceEcho
on a wing and a prayer
Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 5780
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:35 am Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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thanks!
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Gregg Juke
resurrected
Joined: 12 Jun 2010
Posts: 2280
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 12:08 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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Sorry, the consonants thing _does_ work, regardless of platform. You just need one key "lead" background vocalist (or the lead singer, if the vocals are actually harmonies rather than back-ups) to sing the consonants; the rest blend right in.
Totally works.
GJ |
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KennyLusk
deaf.
Joined: 22 Sep 2004
Posts: 1955
Location: Mesa, AZ, USA
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| Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:47 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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Seems that the background vocal has a nice reverb on it.
Also hard to tell if its an actual vocal or just a harmonizer. Could be either.
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thefanbelow
pluggin' in mics
Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:53 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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| dwlb wrote: | | Mr Explosion wrote: |
The other thing i have a problem with is time aligning, especially with words starting with "p" "b" "s" and "d". There are multiple "p"'s at the beginning of a phrase, so to speak. It sounds bad after compression |
Backup singer trick: don't sing the first and last consonants of phrases. |
So if you aren't singing the consonants, can you jst give me an example? It sounds like it would be funny to record. ie. This line: "Eleanor rigby picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been" would be.... ? I can't even guess how to sing that without consonants |
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The Scum
deaf.
Joined: 04 Jul 2003
Posts: 1994
Location: Denver, CO
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| Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 1:20 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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"Eleanor rigby icks up the rice in a urch where a wedding has een"
The "ce" in rice and "g" in wedding might need it, too, sorta dependent on accent and diction.
You chop off the parts where words have hard stops or starts, so only one part sings them.
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vvv
on a wing and a prayer
Joined: 13 May 2003
Posts: 5619
Location: Chi
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| Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 6:29 pm Post subject: Re: How to make airy / dreamy vocals |
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I recall first noticing this trick on Tom Petty records, around the time of Hard Promises ...
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