| I have a pop rock song with vocals that are talked in rhyme with some elements of singing that very loosely resemble those of Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers. I doubled them to thicken them and they sound pretty good that way. What plugins could I add to them to make them sound better? I am a beginner and, therefore, I prefer to work with presets. Example: For the bass parts, I recorded with a clean guitar and transposed the parts down an octave. Then I added Ampire. The preset values for the cabinet I selected sounded better than any adjustments I made to the various parameters. I'm looking for something like that for vocals. I'll play with the parameters a little, but I am skeptical of my ability to start from scratch and actually come up with something that is a meaningful improvement. My guess is that stock reverb and compression would help, but I would like some suggestions as to specific plugins. Thanks for the tips. Studio One Artist 2.6.5.30360, Audiobox USB (two channels), Vox ToneLab ErisE4.5 monitors, Presonus HD7 2x32 Ohms headphones, PreSonus M7 mic Dell XPS 8700, Windows 8.1 (64-bit) OS, 16.0 GB RAM Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4790 @3.6 GHz, 1.8 TB storage (1.74 free) Ibanez RGT 42 electric guitar, Ibanez GSR 200 bass guitar |
| Both compression and reverb are very common tools for ANY tracks. Compression you would probably use on the insert of the channel, where the reverb may be best on an FX track or Buss. There are vocal presets, and whatnot, on every plug that I have seen, but you want to make sure that using them doesn't get in the way of hearing what it does. A well set compressor may not even be heard by most people, so it may inhibit learning. The best way to learn it is to set the compressor to extreme settings, and start adjusting parameters back a bit until the extreme settings are not so damaging. There is a tutorial that I saw recently. I will attempt to track it down and post to this thread. Also, an alternative to compression, is to individually edit the vocal track, slicing into phrases, and adjust the clip gain in each event to even out the performance. More manual labor, but more natural sounding result. Matt Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 Win 10 64bit, 8GB RAM, Intel Xeon Lenovo Thinkpad E520, Windows 7 64bit, 8 GB RAM, Intel i5 Processor S1Pro V4 |
| There are lots of tools for treating Vocals but you are severely limited while using Artist version. I have had great results with Fat Channel but I believe you need Pro version for that plugin.. Win8. i7 64 bit w ssd and 2 tb drive. 16 gigs of ram. Maudio firewire 410 and Tascom US 1641,. Alesis io2, 2 23' monitors, M-Audio Keystation 88 keyboard, 3 Ibanez guitars, 5 string Bass, Fender Strat, fender Showman amp, Bugera V22, Bugera V55,Meldaproductions plugins, Reaper, Sonar , Studio One , Waves vst etc etc etc |
| donchilcott wroteThere are lots of tools for treating Vocals but you are severely limited while using Artist version. I have had great results with Fat Channel but I believe you need Pro version for that plugin.. What, specifically, comes with the pricier versions? Studio One Artist 2.6.5.30360, Audiobox USB (two channels), Vox ToneLab ErisE4.5 monitors, Presonus HD7 2x32 Ohms headphones, PreSonus M7 mic Dell XPS 8700, Windows 8.1 (64-bit) OS, 16.0 GB RAM Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4790 @3.6 GHz, 1.8 TB storage (1.74 free) Ibanez RGT 42 electric guitar, Ibanez GSR 200 bass guitar |
| matthewgorman wroteBoth compression and reverb are very common tools for ANY tracks. Compression you would probably use on the insert of the channel, where the reverb may be best on an FX track or Buss. I already evened out the volume of the clips. The mix is quite nice for a beginner and sounds smooth. Why not create a vocal bus and put compression and reverb on it? Also, there is more than one type of compression and reverb. Do you recommend a particular one? Studio One Artist 2.6.5.30360, Audiobox USB (two channels), Vox ToneLab ErisE4.5 monitors, Presonus HD7 2x32 Ohms headphones, PreSonus M7 mic Dell XPS 8700, Windows 8.1 (64-bit) OS, 16.0 GB RAM Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4790 @3.6 GHz, 1.8 TB storage (1.74 free) Ibanez RGT 42 electric guitar, Ibanez GSR 200 bass guitar |
| donchilcott wroteThere are lots of tools for treating Vocals but you are severely limited while using Artist version. I have had great results with Fat Channel but I believe you need Pro version for that plugin.. Fat channel comes with Artist according to the comparison chart. johnsaxon wroteWhat, specifically, comes with the pricier versions? There's a sticky at the top of this forum with all of those links in it. Been there for over a year. Not sure why people keep asking about the version differences or why users have to keep giving out the same link that's already at the top of the support forum. |
| Why not create a vocal bus and put compression and reverb on it? Also, there is more than one type of compression and reverb. Do you recommend a particular one? You absolutely can use a buss, I do it a lot. For compression, I only do it when I have multiple channels feeding the buss. You can also do it with reverb, but reverb to me is a different animal. If I want to affect 100% of the signal with an effect, I throw it on the channel inster. If I am looking to blend the effect with the original more subtly, I will use an fax channel. If I need to do more routing, like a delay into a reverb, into a something else, I will use a buss. A buss can be routed anywhere, an fx channel can go to the main. There are other options to blend sounds with wet/dry controls, things like that. I am just more used to the 'console' way of routing. There are different kinds of compressors, with different control options, but compression is compression. It takes a signal, and after a certain point (threshold) it will decrease the volume of the signal by a certain amount (ratio). You can have a quick release, or allow the sound to breath going into the threshold, and sustain more to a degree with a long release. There are many types of reverbs as well. Convolvers which take an impulse response as a way to mimic a space or piece of gear, algorithmic which uses calculations to mimic a space, and so on. What I use on a particular channel or song is 100% going to depend on the song. Even a short delay can act as a reverb if you just want the track to have a bit of air. Matt Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 Win 10 64bit, 8GB RAM, Intel Xeon Lenovo Thinkpad E520, Windows 7 64bit, 8 GB RAM, Intel i5 Processor S1Pro V4 |
| I tend to do more aggressive sounding music so this might not be as relavant but worth mentioning either way. I found this plugin called gain reduction. jst tones is the company. its a very simple plugin with very few knobs and dials and its cheap. Its my go to vocal processor now. it just makes everything sit in the mix properly with very little tinkering. Im pretty sure its just a series of compressors and slight eqs. but it has dpne wonders for my songs. It almost feels like cheating half the time. It doesnt have any reverb or delay but you should be able to get vocals to sit decent with just compression and eq and then the delay and reverb is icing on the cake. For the cheap price it may be worth looking into. I have yet to try it on softer more acoustic music but maybe ill try tonight and report back. Windows 8.1 - Studio One 3 Professional - Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5GHz - ASUS Z97-E LGA 1150 Intel Z97 - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM - SAMSUNG 840 EVO - On board video (for now) - Focusrite 18i20 interface - KRK Monitors - Glyph Studio External drive (amazing drive!) - Razer NAGA mouse - AXIOM49 midi controller - Alesis DM10 drum kit |
| Helpful information here. Thanks. Studio One Artist 2.6.5.30360, Audiobox USB (two channels), Vox ToneLab ErisE4.5 monitors, Presonus HD7 2x32 Ohms headphones, PreSonus M7 mic Dell XPS 8700, Windows 8.1 (64-bit) OS, 16.0 GB RAM Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4790 @3.6 GHz, 1.8 TB storage (1.74 free) Ibanez RGT 42 electric guitar, Ibanez GSR 200 bass guitar |