Better sounding vocals?

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:48 pm

hi i have cubase 4 and a firepod. mics are 4 sm57, akg perception condenser, beta 52, mxl 990. so my problem is everything sounds really good execpt vocals never really turn out that great. so im looking on what i should look at that inexpensive (i have about 700 now) that would help with vocals. mic? Pre? i am fairly inexperianced with recording and sry if i can't really explain what is wrong with the vocals they just don't sound that great. thanks, alex

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:23 pm

Well it really depends on how you have things set up. I've seen low budget set ups (mbox, protools mpowered, etc) sound better than a full hd set up. It really depends on how you have things set up. A good pre helps out a lot, but not neccesaraly an expensive one. I would say go check out your local music shop and ask around. For your set up I would look for a focusrite or something of the sort. Everybody can't afford an avalon but you can get the same sound out of good tweaking. Even then if you set up your avalon settings wrong it will sound horrible. So basically the moral of this story is that, you'll need someone with a good ear that know how to mix and preferably master and have him set your system up. He should know some good tweaks and have you sound pro in no time.

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:41 pm

Alex- What kind of music? What kind of space are you recording in? How are you doing the tracking? What is it that you don't like about the current vocal tracks?

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:17 pm

i play 60s/70s rock, and as of now just in a open basement but soon a soundproof room is being built. well idk how to describe the vocals, thin sounding? vocals are tracked by themself after the other tracks are done. sry if this doesn't really help. thanks again, alex

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:35 pm

Get thee to the Acoustics Forum. My guess is that the problem is your room. Sure you can get better mics and preamps, but until you have a good room to record in you'll be disappointed with the difference it makes. Hold off on building your soundproof room until you have done some research. It's easy to waste money on sound treatment and not that hard to spend it wisely.

BTW, I'm not close to the most knowledgeable person posting here and I haven't heard your recordings, so take the advice above with a grain of salt. But from what you have told me, the room is a good first guess and it doesn't cost anything to learn about acoustic treatments (unless you want to buy Rod's book, which I recommend).

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:14 pm

you would be pretty fine with an AT4040 (U$320) and a single channel pre Like the ART VLA.

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