Karaoke Forums

ok this could get long... (I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE)

First thing i do before recording is check and see if the track i'm useing has a good level and will allow me room to record my vocals....if not i bring the volume down on the track R raise it, what ever is needed to leave room for me....

after thats done, i add my effects to the vocal track.....everyone has different settings for there reverb...whatever sounds good to you.... remember (THE MORE REVERB YOU ADD THE FARTHER AWAY YOUR VOCALS WILL GET....LESS REVERB THE CLOSER)...then i add COMPRESSION...i use LIMIT HARD -3DB...no more then -6DB HARD...you may be different this is JUST ME....(KEEP IN MIND THAT WHEN ADDING ANY EFFECTS UR VOLUME LEVEL WILL RAISE)

Then i add E Q....i use the 20 band E Q....I start out by making a small smiley face starting at the middle...pulling the mids down then working from there.....REMEMBER i said....the MORE effects you use the higher your levels....Well... by lowering ur E Q (which is effect) you just dropped ur levels...so keep that in mind... this is just a rough setting anyway.....after this i sing the song....

i'll sing a dummy track and watch my levels and ajust as i need to on the levels... (REMEMBER NEVER GO IN THE RED) remember also to(WORK YOUR MIC)...BY THAT I MEAN, IF UR GOING TO HIT A HARD NOTE R NOTES BACK OFF UR MIC WHEN THAT NOTE COMES UP....if its a SOFT NOTE get closer to the mic....i am always moving my mic back and forth as i sing....helps to get good levels with fewer spikes...

after i have the vocal track down, where i think it sounds ok...then i will start twiking the effects....i might have to lower the reverb r raise it, r change the E Q.....watching my levels as i make any change, because it does effect them....

on E Q....MIDS...the more MIDS you add the closer you get.....less MIDS the farther away you get... its like picturing urself standing in front of a mic, as you take away MIDS the farther away u seem to be from the mic, add MIDS the closer u r to the mic...till it seems ur eating the mic...be very careful with MIDS....they can make r break a good mix....

HIGHS and LOWS r not as bad....u can play with those some....each persons voice calls for different settings on the E Q....

after i have things the way i want them, r close, i then play around with different things like....SMOOTH/INHANCE.....smooth just adds more lows depending on how much u want if any....inhance adds highs....i use it sometimes...but not much....OTHERS ON HERE USE THE FILTERS,

Ok here it gets a little different...because for me i then take that vocal track to a program called soundforge...its a mastering program.....very easy to use also.....they say that CEP can do anything soundforge can do but i can't find it on cep....i love the edit on S/F...theres alotta do's/ redo's on there....anywho.....if i have any large spikes in my vocal tracks i go in and with each spike i lower it, to get my track more equal in the levels...the reason for this is....i can now raise the OVER ALL level of the track and get closer to 0 db which is what ur looking for anyway...it also adds more PUNCH to ur vocals....
i can also E Q are add effects to any WORD/WORDS i want.... after that i will bring it back to CEP....then check my levels again.....raise r lower as i need to....(i have a habit of bringing my vocals to far out front i believe) but thats just what i feel sounds good.... i'm working on it....

i think that just about covers it......i know it sounds like alot but after i sing the song i can mix it in like 10 min....(thats not be a good thing)....but i really don't spend alotta time on a song...i get bored....

i will say and i don't do this very much myself BUT... after you sing ur song, and worked on mixing it to where you think it sounds good .... take a break and get away from it for a few min...maybe an hr....the mix will sound very different when you come back....i need to do it more myself

one thing about mixing is getting the vocals mixed right with the music...you want the vocals some what infront the music....not behind it....but if ur wearing headphones a good trick is to....lower ur headphones so low that u can barely hear anything....then listen to ur track....do you hear the vocals first then the music ? if not ajust ur levels....if ur hearing nothing but music and can barely hear ur vocals then ajust......

THIS IS JUST HOW I DO IT....OTHERS I'M SURE DO IT DIFFERENT....PLEASE POST UR TIPS ON HERE FOR OTHERS TO LEARN....

I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE

oWn, thank you very much. Many people learn from that. One thing I would like to add (actually 2 things, maybe 3)

1. Once I have the individual tracks in place, I do a noise reduction which will also (in CEP) bring my tracks on the zero cross piont.

2. I always normalize my songs, normally after a db amplification (if needed) just to make sure I ALWAYS stay below the 0db mark.

3. After the final mix, check the levels again.

Sorry, just my 2c worth!

hiya allstar, don't be sorry....heck i love knowing that....i use the normalize sometimes...and it does add great punch but sometimes depending on the song..it doesn't sound right .....as far as noise reduction....heck i never use that......i would if i knew some settings...altho i was playing around with cep last night and figured out some things on the filters...its pretty cool....ty for ur tips my friend... think of anymore post them ok.....

OK, noise reduction, especially usefull Hmmmmmmmmmm ALWAYS!

In CEP, there's always some "dead space" before the song starts. Here's what you do (trust me, it makes a huge difference)

1. With the mouse, select a part in the song (normally in the beginning) that has no music or vocals. What I do, I record "nothing" before the song starts. E.g. start recording 5 seconds before pressing play on the music track for recording or before singing (keep the mic on in this case, then you can eliminate any noise generated either by your mic, or sounds in the room, e.g. PC fan). This will show the DC offset from your soundcard. If not on the Zero line, it's pretty much impossible to cut/paste song parts without actually hearing it. The other thingy is that with your soundcard, good or bad, you always have external noise. (Some would say, Ahhhhhh AllStar, it's your Behringer mixer or your Nady mic's) but no, it happens with everyone.

2. In CEP select Transform>Noise Reduction>Noise Reduction

3. Press Get Profile From Selection. You'll see a noise profile in yellow/black

4. Press Close

5. Select the complete song. (Ctrl A)

6. Take note of the Zero crossing line position.

6. Select Transform>Noise Reduction>Noise Reduction (Not a typo, just do it )

7. Now you press OK, and away he/she goes! (this depends on your intimite relationship with your computer)

8. See, your song has no more DC offset, which is what happens with certain soundcards, and even better, all that hissing you hear in a song, Viola, clear as glass!

Hope this helps!

Billy and Allstar,

You guys are just too awesome! I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate all the effort you've put forth. I know I will get the hang of this and when I do I'll have you guys to thank especially.

Hey Luly, what's the point in knowing this stuff and not being able to share? I'm sure I can say the same for Billy! Don't have to thank me GrL, just keep sub'bing!

Oh, I intend to! You're gonna get sick of hearing me so much!!

Billy plays around with his stuff way more than I do. I find, at least for me, that Allstar's method makes a very clean recording.

I have found that the less I play with the effects the better it sounds for me. I set my vocal recording track to use a bus and that helps to keep it cleaner too. And if you use a bus you can "punch in" over your mistakes easier too.

But for my puny voice I set up a bus in this manner: First in the list is "Full Reverb" next is "Amplitude\Dynamics Processing" (vocal compressor) and Last in line is "Amplitude\Hard Limiting". The order of these is very important. Trial and error has taught me that this is the best order for (as I say) my puny voice. If you use a vocal compressor you don't have to goof around with pulling your mic in and out from your face to adjust the volume. And hard limiting is just a way to boost the volume without going over a set limit. I never bump it up more than 20db and the "limit" is never more that -2db. More than -2db tends to cause distortion. You may not be able to hear it... but it's there just the same. (Billy, I'm certianly not trying to negate your tutelage. This is simply what I have found to be true for me.)

After I have made the recording I switch from multi-track mode and use the noise reduction in the same way that Allstar described.

And since we don't have Tim Mcgraw's $10,000 mic and people to correct his pitch (can you hear it?) I like to make several different mixes with the volume settings a little different on the voice track. Then I burn them to a CD to play them on several different systems to see which does best for all systems. Just because it sounds good on my computer doesn't mean it will sound good in my car or on a good home sound system. Listen to my recording of "Never been to spain" I was in a rush and submitted the first take/mix. Sounded just fine on my computer. But the volume on the voice track was too loud.

Well, that's my pitiful offering. If you find it helpful I'll share in your amazement.

Dale

Thank you, Dale for all the info. You guys have been so nice and helpful and I truly appreciate it. I hope I can take all this information and produce the right effect on my recordings. You're the greatest!

Well, well, well... I just read my addition to this thread again and noticed that what I said about Tim Mcgraw sounds like I'm some snot nosed jealous kid. I want you all to know that I never intended to sound that way. In fact I am a fan of his. I never ment to suggest that he needed his pitch corrected. What I ment to say was "people to co correct my pitch". I did read that he has a $10,000 mic though. Don't know if it's true, but I wish I had one.

If you read any of my comments to people who have submitted here you will understand that that last thing I want to ever be guilty of is saying something to put someone down. It's simply not in my character.

Dale

Yeah definatly good tips and help in this thread! Another tip(important) which is a subject Dale42 touched a little bit. Here are some other tips.

#1: No.1 newbie mixing error: NEVER do your final mixing with headphones, always do it on your best speakers. Yeah headphones compact the sound and makes errors stand out more, but the sound is completely different on real speakers. Usually alot of bass is cut out in headphones, so if you compensate for that and then play on real speakers, you will crack your moms china and the windows in your home from all the bass!

#2: Different mixing techiques between female singers and male singers amd different types of voices. Find the best effects that suit your specific voice. Generally on female singers..add some extra bass to smooth it out and make it less pitchy. Male singers in general remove a little bass and add some highs(You don't want to sound like Johnny Cash) If you sing like Michael Jackson, yeah add bass and so on!

Hi !

I am thinking, allstar makes good with Noise Reduction.
There is just one thing. You musst meke noise reduction by 20db (not 40 or 80db), because the peaple can hear moust 22 db. So, you are filtering from your sound, just so many you need. This sounds as your recording, just without noise. If you wont very clear recording, you musst filtering frekvenzen under 30Hz. Anyone box can play frekvenz under 30db, and this makes just all unclean.

Hope this also helps!

Holy cow- am I the only person on here doing this stuff @$$ backwards? - I guess so.

I don't add any effects before I sing. I take the vocal track into "edit vew" and do it there. (after I'm done singing) As well as lowering any spikes , or the overall volume of any track. The ONLY thing I do PRIOR to recording is make sure the music track is at a comfortable level for me to sing with. IE: If it's a song I gotta holler on, I make sure the music is loud enough in my ears for me to cut loose with it. If it's a softer song, I don't want the music so loud.

I don't even know where "limit hard" and "compression" are. Geez, call me an idiot. (knock it off, now)

Is that how everyone does it- add the effects on to the multi track view to be added to your singing? Then, if you don't like it- don't you have to sing it over? Cause I'm like you OWN, I hate to do them over, I get bored and want to do a different song.

I'm gonna keep my eye on this topic, I need to learn some stuff. I was raised doing things totaly "unplugged" and then got karaoke when it came out- so prior to CEP and SS I have no experience with recording. (lol- used to use "sound recorder" on my desktop, was all I had)

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I have to tell you all my emberrasing secret. Here goes


I set up the music, do a test run (a few seconds too see the rec level)
Test the mic, listen to the levels, listen to the effects from my FX unit (hardware)
Press record and there she goes.

I never use CEP's FX capabilities. The way we record is live. I use CEP to record, normalize, noise rduction and that's it.

See, we are very low on the high tech scale

I have to tell you all my emberrasing secret. Here goes


I set up the music, do a test run (a few seconds too see the rec level)
Test the mic, listen to the levels, listen to the effects from my FX unit (hardware)
Press record and there she goes.

I never use CEP's FX capabilities. The way we record is live. I use CEP to record, normalize, noise rduction and that's it.

See, we are very low on the high tech scale