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Ok so here it is, everytime i record vocals i have some "whommpmph" sounds behind, well i first thought it was the mic or the preamp, but i tried after with an u87 with an Avalon and the prob is still there, it may be my card ( M audio 18-14 ) or maybe an electricty prob ?
there is a sample :
http://2fre.free.fr/omni/voicewoof.mp3

thx for any advice and sorry for the crappy english :)

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Clayphish Sun, 11/14/2004 - 01:12

Thats interesting, I can't say I've never heard this before except for maybe cymbals stands touching a mic stand. It almost resembles a lousy octavor trying to track a signal but with one note. Maybe it could be some resonance, but I don't think a mic stand would resonate to this degree unless its somehow touching an instrument or object giving out a lot of energy (especially lower frequencies). Furthermore, unless you were using a direct mic clip for the U87, this sound should have been eliminated since a shock mount would almost completely absorb any vibrations making it's way up to the mic.

I'll assume that you had the singer in different positions and completely isolated, right? Is there any live monitoring while recording him? (dumb question, but need to ask to rule out the possibility). Where is the mic cable sitting? Have you tried recording the singer with low cut switch on (on the u87)?

Try putting the low cut switch on the Neumann followed by a high pass filter cutting off the disturbing frequencies of the signal before it gets to the sound card. If you still hear unwanted sound, then it's most likely the converter in your sound card.

Speaking of a high pass filter, this will make a very good quick fix if you can't locate the problem (for this vocal). And with that said, you should probably get used to using one since it will help clear up unwanted sounds in the lower register. You'd be surprised at how well high pass and low pass filters will give you room within a mix.

Hope this helps some!

Let us know if you get it all worked out or not!

Clayton.

luxeomni wrote: Ok so here it is, everytime i record vocals i have some "whommpmph" sounds behind, well i first thought it was the mic or the preamp, but i tried after with an u87 with an avalon and the prob is still there, it may be my card ( M audio 18-14 ) or maybe an electricty prob ?
there is a sample :
http://2fre.free.fr/omni/voicewoof.mp3

thx for any advice and sorry for the crappy english :)

anonymous Wed, 11/17/2004 - 03:09

hi, again, thx for all your replies, i tried with the mic at hand, and there is still the prob, i tried without any compression or eq etc etc, still the prob too, it may come from the converters of my soundcard ? i tried low cut and high pass filter, the prob seems to be minus but still here, tried in different room, with headphones and monitors out.
aarrg ;)

Thx

JoeH Wed, 11/17/2004 - 08:49

Right off the top of my head, it sounds like your bass track (or for that matter, most of the low freq. info from a guide track) is simply bleeding into the vocal track; either through the headphones the singer is wearing, or through an aux bus or something that's perhaps not entirely muted or "off".

For the first half, it does sound like it's "Tracking" your vocal in some odd subharmonic way, but then it veers off later, not quite in total sync, as the vocal does something a little different than the bass line.

Try playing the guide track along with it, and see if it doesn't match up to this low-freq. noise.

Sure sounds like the bass track just barely oozing in somehow....

if it turns out to be headphone bleed, maybe you can feed the singer a version of the mix without so much low end, or get something with better iso cups. If it's bleeding in elsewhere, you've got some detective work to do.

anonymous Wed, 12/01/2004 - 09:25

sounds

please try to record vocals withouth any monitoring device in the room, ie no guide track, if its still there then you can rule out leakage, atleast from a guide track source. It does sound to me that some instrument, prob bass guit is leaking... But actually, i don't think there are any headphones which would give such deep bass freqs as a leak... its wierd, prob a sound card problem, but again, it doesn't sound like an 'electronic sound', sounds more natural....

does it happen with all vocalists? could be that your pop filter is vibrating in some weird way? does it happen with all mics? try another mic, if it doesn't happen then its probably the mic, although not necesarily...