beefing up thin vocals

[xonlocust]

what do you guys do when you have a singer that's just got a thin, throaty sound that doesn't mesh well with the track/band? (guitar heavy almost classic rock sounding band)

a good portion of me knows it's the source, but i'm scrounging to think of things to do to help a record i'm working on. i've tried multiple mics/pre combinations, but nothing has hit as sounding right yet. my eq attempts have gotten closer, but not "it" yet. i think we're gonna try doubling which i think will help beef it up, but the effect of doubling doesn't really jive with source material. might be cool though... i'm at the perfect point right now that i can still retrack vocals if need be, or if i can come up with a good mix solution, do it that way.

ideas?

thx,
nk

[surf's up]

maybe try doubling but mix the double track pretty low so it doesnt have that classic 'doubled vocal' sound if that doesnt fit the music. maybe have the singer get right up on the mic to take advantage of some natural boost from the proximity effect. the right compressor might help a bit (old dbx 160 for example).

at some point you might just have to accept that that is how his voice sounds and just roll with it.

[xSALx]

What mics and comps have you tried?

[AGCurry]

The first thing I do is ask the singer to get closer to the mic. Proximity effect is his friend. It will generally also behoove him to actually sing softer. A thin voice sounds better when it is not being pushed. Of course, that gets into style, which you may or may not be comfortable making suggestions to the "talent" about.

But listen to Chet Baker. There's a picture of him in the dictionary under "thin voices that sound good on recordings."

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Have the singer sing quetly. Thin voices get thinner when pushed hard. Make sure they can hear themselves very well so they don't feel the need to scream.
If this doesn't work I'd go the double tracked route. Try recording a double of the singer singing really quietly, almost whispering, and blend that under the main vocal.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

P.S. also try tracking a double with the singer singing the whole song one octave lower, then blend that in under the main vocal. It works wonders for Meatloaf and Squeeze.

[???????]

P.S. also try tracking a double with the singer singing the whole song one octave lower, then blend that in under the main vocal. It works wonders for Meatloaf and Squeeze.

and dinosaur jr!

Also, +1 on chet baker!

[Gebo]

I always thought Dino. Jr. doubled the vox with a falsetto, no?

[???????]

guess it depends on how you look at it!

[xonlocust]

good ideas so far. the dude BELTS it out and i think you guys are onto something. he sounds a lot better on the quieter country-ish songs than the belted rockers.

so far i've tried:

marshall/royer mod tube mic > aphex 107 > vla > tape
m88 > aphex > vla > tape (better of the 2)

my idea was to get as much "character" in there as i could with what i have since i knew he was gonna be thin. but i might just fall back on the sytek and dbx 160

others i have at my disposal that i thought might work:

421
m500
beyer 201
atm25
d112
4033
nevaton 51
oktava 52

a dynamic seems to me like the way to go in this situation... no sm7 or re20 sadly.

i think probably coaching his style a bit, making sure he's up on the mic and making sure his headphone mix is great will help a lot. he's one of those guys that is always like "everything's cool... bam, bam, bam power thought it... don't change a thing.... we're done!" and "it sounds fucking great, now if i could just learn to sing we'd be golden!" so he's a real pleasure to work with and i wanna do whatever i can to help them out. he's also one of those guys where his talking voice is like yelling. just a loud dude. i feel we can do better though.

excellent suggestions so far, thank you.

[drumsound]

Using chorus type effects can add a lot of depth to vocals. A nice dark, slow moving modulation tucked under the vocal can add a lot.

[I'm Painting Again]

start with the mic and the positioning..some mics and preamps too for that matter make thin voices thinner..ugh..so make sure your using the set that adds the most "weight"..deeper sounds may come from the artist's chest..try pointing your thing there..on the chin too maybe..err..and umm..the other things down the line that have helped me add that "weight" are harmonic distortion..like with a driven tube amp like the altec pre..or the distressor in distortion mode..tape effects from a tape machine..anything you have handy..my main magic thing though is my space echo set to no verb and subtle delay..works wonders for a thicker..more syrupy almost magic vocal..hell if it can make me sound like I can sing it's got to be something extra special..must be the "controlled atmoshere conditions" they kept the "beautiful girls" in..or something like that..but a short ass delay is a fine way to add "weight"..works well just pasting a vocal to a second DAW track and nudging slightly..another thing is to do the vocal take while you have it PA-ed in the room or another room and mic that seperately as you would a guitar amp..good stuff there..I have even had singers sing into glass jugs and crap which actually feels completely idiotic but when it works..holy cow..stand back!..the risk is double humiliation if it doesn't work out..you gotta take risks though..sometimes you gotta..you know..Wow I have had way too much sugar..I feel crazy..

[MoreSpaceEcho]

agreed on the harmonic distortion. i try and pile on as much as possible. obviously the space echo too, tools said it well...it just really helps...anyway between adding some nice sounding distortion and getting the guy closer to the mic/singing softer it should help a lot.

i would try the 421...

[kayagum]

i would try the 421...

+1. 421s are also used for radio VO mics like the SM7 and RE20.

[joeysimms]

Maybe have him try one pass with no headphones, just quiet monitors, ala Brian Johnson and others.. and get a nicely pitched take that way, and THEN open a new track and let him belt along with himself.