Hmm, put a deesser in the chain, the Behringers do a good job at that...;-)...seriously! Waves make a good Plugin, to deal with it later on.
:w:

Heh, kinda funny you brought this up. I had a similar situation about a week ago. Just a really high pitched, whiney, horrid singer I had to deal with. You know, the kind that makes the dogs run for cover. :) Anyway, I started with a Dragonfly with him, and it was just unbearable. That mic has a lot of top end in my opinion, and just really seemed to bring out that quality in this persons voice. So perhaps changing to a different, more neutral, or even more bottom end sounding mic would help you out a bit. Worked for me. Kept the really high things a bit more under control. Still sounds bad, but now it's just because his notes are all off, not because of too much high end. :) lol. Oh well, everyone has to deal with it sometimes I guess....

Mike

Just a really high pitched, whiney, horrid singer I had to deal with. You know, the kind that makes the dogs run for cover.

Ah you were talking about that Whitesnake-Symptom of Metal singers. A feedback destroyer could help :D :D :D

Niko

Since you have ProTools, why not just automate an EQ that cuts out some of the offending frequencies just on the notes that require it?

why am I not surprised that a BLUE mic was used?

the blueberry reviews that I read before buying said that the mic was optimised for vocals. Big untruth. They should have come out and said that the mic is optimised for SOME male rock vocals ONLY

I tried it on a femle opera singer. Sorry had to switch

tried it on a male crooner. No workie

tried it on rap vox. Totally short of the mark

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm guessing that the de-esser will work like the wave c4. So I'll give that a try and see if that helps.

I probably shoud have put a 57/58 in front of the guy but I'd just pulled him off a Brauner Valvet which really didn't flatter him, he was nervous/self-conscious and I wanted to keep things moving. It was sounding fine during tracking. While my dragonfly is certainly very colored, it does a nice job in a lot of applications.

The feedback destroyer... joke? I guess it's all hanging out in that 1k -3k range... (I don't have one though).

Automated EQ sounds like a plan. Any tips on how to set this up quickly?? I'll give it a try! My best EQ plugs are Focusrite and Rennaisance. This is probably my best bet though. I know there was a thread on automating plugs not too long ago but I have to admit to being kinda slow at this.

Thanks for the tips, they should keep me busy for a couple hours!!

Originally posted by Curious G:

Automated EQ sounds like a plan. Any tips on how to set this up quickly?? I'll give it a try! My best EQ plugs are Focusrite and Rennaisance. This is probably my best bet though. I know there was a thread on automating plugs not too long ago but I have to admit to being kinda slow at this.

This may not be "quick", but it probably will work. Add your EQ plug-in to the vocal track and select a particularly offensive section of the vocal. Boost one band at least 6 dB and sweep it up and down manually while playing the track until you find the spot that makes the vocal sound the worst. (Or if you have something like PAZ analyzer you can look at a frequency snapshot and note where the biggest spikes are). Once you pinpoint the offending frequency, play with the amount of dB of cut, as well as the Q to try and get the best compromise of smoothing out the vocal sound without making it sound too dull or otherwise unmusical. Chances are, what works on one offending section should work pretty well on other similar sections.

Now for the automation: you could try automating the mute and unmute of the EQ, or activating/deactivating that particular EQ band - but often that creates audible pops or clicks. I prefer to automate the band gain - then you can draw in a slanted line on the way in and out of each section, which will be far less noticeable.

This is a brute force method which requires manually locating and automating each offending note. I use it when there's only a few such notes in a song. But if there's tons of them and you're looking for something less labor intensive, you might try using a multiband compressor with a sidechain. Copy the vocals to a 2nd track - and cut everything but the "bad" frequency - use that track for the sidechain only (don't output it into the mix!) that will trigger the multiband compressor - set to compress only around the offending frequencies.

Hope this helps!

Or even easier, set up the eq on the channel and find the offensive frequencies, and audiosuite it on the offensive parts. If it doesnt work you can always go back and get the original track back. I normally just duplicate the track and play with it for awhile and if it doesnt work i still have the original and dont have to go looking for it. I like audiosuiting gain changes and eq's a lot more then trying to automate stuff. And doing gain changes on esss's sounds a lot better to me then just using a deesser.

Either way I have a fatso coming monday so hopefully that should be able to soften some of the harsh/high pitched singers i work with.

Hey perhaps u could try a humble SM57/58....

Too many people dismiss them as good vocal mikes.

ride the compression on them and have a nice pre that can give them lots a juice. I have had great vocal cut with either 57/58 into a neve 1073/1272 and some simple compression from a RNC.

If its not bright enough u can allways put an eq in line to ad or subtract a few nasties or some 'fairy dust'.

Have been curious to try the Blue mics... but will be cautious when adutioning soon.

Hope it helps!

PEACE
Wiggy

Focusrite ISA series is fantastic at whipping out 'telephone' frequency at very narrow bandwidth but leaving the signal in relatively good shape... You get 2 x chances then a bass boost / cut (with HP filter off too) & finaly a super top HF boost / cut.

It's THE tool for the job, once mic & pre selection has left you STILL with a piercing vox,

Allso try adding bass, to leave the mid less at the forefront..

????

:)

This is a very familiar situation to me as well!

All of the suggestions above sound very good, but do not forget simple volume automation. After lots of compression and limiting some parts just sound too loud, if not automated carefully.

Good Luck!
- Teuvo

"[QUOTE]Originally posted by Julian Standen:
[QB]Focusrite ISA series is fantastic at whipping out 'telephone' frequency at very narrow bandwidth but leaving the signal in relatively good shape... You get 2 x chances then a bass boost / cut (with HP filter off too) & finaly a super top HF boost / cut."

very good suggestion.

I would add that we all should have an SM7 in our mic cupboards. If you don't have an SM7, you can approach it by using a SM57 and have the singer backed off from the capsule by about 4 inches. (using a pop filter as a "target" in front of the sm7). Dynamics have a lot to be desired for rock vocals. Also with the aforementioned mics being dynamic, and less sensitive than condensers, you can record them in the control room with the monitors on. You would not believe how much better their performance & pitch will be.
One Huge problem with loud headphones is
that as volume increases so does the perception of pitch. Place a loud pair of cans on your head for a moment and notice the key of the song...as you slowly take them off your head notice how the picth of the song goes flat. That's why people whith loau cans have a tendency to sing flat. If your producing, it's usually (in my experiance) much easier to direct performance without the glass in between.

ALSO: A ribbon is another way to go....

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded. By the way, this worked really well for me:
"you might try using a multiband compressor with a sidechain. Copy the vocals to a 2nd track - and cut everything but the "bad" frequency - use that track for the sidechain only (don't output it into the mix!) that will trigger the multiband compressor - set to compress only around the offending frequencies."
Thank you Littledog!

Finding the worse parts was made way easier by monitoring the sidechain. (duh!) I used a de-esser as the trigger and the C4 on the track.

I'll also keep the SM7, Royer-121and ISA on my wish list.

should of switched the mic when you were just gettin' started, but now... slap a tube across it & if you can get your hands on a EL8 Distrssor- the band emphasis detector mode, 10:1 ratio does the trick everytime. (automating in PT sounds pretty silly)