Persuading
a problematic vocal recording to play nicely with the rest of your mix
can seem like a futile task. Well-recorded vocals and poorly-recorded
vocals both need to be correctly prepared, and the processes we’re going
through today will
help you turn your untreated vocal take into a polished and commercial sound.
1. Get Rid of Background Noise with Gating
The first thing you’ll probably notice about any vocal recording
(good or bad) is the presence of background noise, ranging from subtle
to annoying. This can be caused by anything; a computer in the studio,
traffic, background conversation and, of course, headphone output
bleeding onto the microphone.
Before the core of the vocal signal can be tackled and processed
efficiently, as much of this background noise as possible must be
removed. You have a few options here as there are plenty of techniques
available, including manually editing the areas of noise or even using
automation to lower the level of these regions. Although perfectly valid
techniques, the most convenient tool for tackling the issue is a
noise gate.
Noise gates are supplied in one form or another with pretty much
every DAW (digital audio workstation). Products such as Cubase, Logic,
Ableton and Digital Performer all include feature-rich gate plug-ins out
of the box. I’m using Pro Tools 8 here, but the techniques are generic
and can be used with any software and similar plug-ins.
Once you have selected your gate plug, it’s simply a case of setting
the threshold so that the body of your vocal is heard but the areas of
silence or noise are muted. Even with the most precise setting here, you
may notice that your vocal sounds unnatural when coming in and out.
This can be solved with some tweaking of the attack and release
settings. Some gates will have extra controls such as hold time and gain
reduction amount to get an even more natural sound.
Gated vocal
2. Dealing with Low Frequencies
Once your vocal is playing back without any noise it’s time to start
thinking about a chain of processing that will compliment the vocal and
bring out the best in the performance. The order that I have here is by
no means set in stone and is simply one way you can
work. Once you have a good understanding of each process you can mess with the order of the processors as you see fit.
It is important to filter out low frequencies and it is always a good
idea to do it early in your chain as this will allow any plug-ins after
this point to operate at optimal capacity since they won’t have to
process large amounts of unwanted low frequency energy. Many problems
due to vibration, further noise during the recording and so on can be
eradicated with this simple process.
I have used an EQ plug-in with the high pass filter engaged. Watch
the slope and frequency you use here, as these will need to be adjusted
depending on the type of vocal you are
working with. For instance, I was able to filter quite a lot of low end as I am working with a female vocal.
Filtered vocal
3. Controlling Dynamics with Compression
Of course, it’s likely that in any vocal performance the singer is
louder at some points and quieter during others. This may be because the
piece requires lots of dynamic variance, or just that they were too
close or too far away from the mic at times. Whatever the cause, if your
take contains these issues you are going to want to fix them and this
is where dynamics processing comes in.
The use of compressors to control dynamics should be no secret to
even a beginner in the field of production. Even the most simple
production software will include some form of compression plug-in or
limiter that is capable of evening the peaks and troughs in any audio
signal. Vocals react especially well to compression and once the correct
attack and release settings are applied, pretty large amounts of gain
reduction can be used without introducing any negative side effects to
your sound.
Again, if you are not sure how to set up a compressor, start with an
initiated patch and try some subtle settings to begin with. You can
resort to presets to get the ball rolling and tweak things as you go.
Once you have a compressor working correctly on your vocal, you should
be able to enjoy an even and more powerful overall sound. If you still
feel there are some wayward dynamics leaping out of the vocal channel,
some light limiting can be used to put a cap on things.
4. Take the Hiss Out with De-Essing
If “ssss” and “ch” sounds are causing spikes in your vocal recording,
these need to be processed out. This unwanted artefact is called
sibilance and is pretty hard to avoid during the recording process.
You can tackle mild cases of sibilance with a high pass EQ or low
pass filter. You may even prefer reducing the gain of the problem areas
manually in an audio editor, but again, the easiest route is to use a
processor called a de-esser, an automated process designed especially
for the job.
De-essers are pretty common plug-ins with a simple set of controls.
Usually one would set the frequency of the problem area and then move
onto the sensitivity or threshold setting to ensure the process only
kicks in when needed. If you are in any doubt try using the plug-in
presets as a guideline and starting point.
You can hear the de-esser working on the ‘its’ section of the vocal
here. Be careful – over use of the process can effect the signal in
undesirable ways and make words sound unrealistic and illegible.
De-essed vocal
5. EQ and enhancers
After using compression and de-essing, it is possible you may have
lost some of the important higher frequencies in your vocal. Although
dynamics processing has obvious bonuses, it can leave the signal
sounding slightly dull. These frequencies can be dialled back in with
the use of subtle shelving equalization or the use of an enhancer.
In this case I have used Logic’s own EQ to add some upper mids, just
to claw back some of the ‘air’ lost in previous processing. Be careful
here as you can end up re-introducing the sibilance you spent time
removing in previous steps. ‘Less is more’ is the way forward here. Keep
things subtle.
EQed vocal
6. Keep Organized with Grouping
Although there was no use for it in this example, as there is only
one vocal track being used, setting up groups or busses can be extremely
useful. It is not uncommon to have several similar vocals playing on
numerous tracks in any one project. If this is the case, send them all
through a master buss and apply your chain of vocal processors to it.
Not only will this give you a more cohesive vocal sound but it can save
CPU resources as you are only applying the plug-ins once.
Of course backing vocals and ad libs may need to be sent through
their own buss to avoid confusion and masking. It can also be useful to
apply different more subtle processes to these secondary vocals to
create some contrast between them and your lead part.
7. Adding Reverb and Delay
Finally, to add space and an ethereal quality you can use some delay
and reverb effects. These can be used as inserts, but become especially
useful when used in a send/return configuration. This way any automation
on your vocal track will not effect the processing and any tails will
stay intact. Also the delay and reverb can be used on any channel in
your mix. Try not to swamp the vocal with extra effects as it will lose
presence and clarity.
Delay & Reverb
8. Pitch correction and other trouble shooting
There wasn’t a huge amount left to do to this vocal as everything was
working nicely after all this processing was applied, but in some cases
extra work may need to be done. For instance, if the singer was a
little shaky (or tone deaf!) you might feel the need for some pitch
correction. This process was made famous by the Antares Auto-Tune
plug-in, but there are plenty of other options. Logic 8 has a great
bundled pitch correction plug.
Another final alteration you may want to make is the use of
automation to reduce the level of any remaining problem transients. If
you aren’t happy with any sibilance or pops that have managed to find
their way though the chain of processors, you can simply apply a small
dip in the volume automation lane. This will really help to soften the
area and eliminate the problem.
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