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Our singer has a quite difficult voice to work with. It's very "open" and high-middy sounding, with rather nasal quality to it. The problem is, that even when the vocal track is well done (intonation wise, etc), it seems to stick out from the mix like a sore thumb, especially when played back on stuff like computer speakers. we tried using different microphones (shure sm 57, 58, beta 58, some dynamic EVs, Oktavas, Neumann U87, Neum TLM 170) and though it sounded a little better with expensive mics, none of them could mask the problem.

Is it, erm, fixable at all? How would you deal with it?

I'lld say find his nose and cut the top of a bit.
With your EQ boost the mid band and move it around a bit till hes nose comes sticking out and then cut it just a little.
I'm no expert though.

Peter

BadHearing wrote:I'lld say find his nose and cut the top of a bit.

Peter

LOL or may be it's his empty head that resonates in such an ugly way

Seriously though, find the mid frequency of this guys nasal sound and cut it just a tiny bit.

Peter

reverb.
-n

n.c. wrote:reverb.
-n

okay, and what if it becomes all "washy"? can the problem be in, say, the way guitars sound??

Hmmm, could be where the guitars are sitting. Does his voice sound nasal solo or just in a mix? If so you're eq on the vox or other instruments could be the issue. The guy who says find the nasal and cut it sounds like he's got the best idea. Reverb won't help. Maybe try multiband compressor, double track and different mic positions if nothing helps. I suppose you could get a singing instructor to do a couple of lessons with him and get him to sort out that tonal resonance or whatever

what about using a mic with a strong proximity effect to boost the low-end, and have him sing into it from right up on the grille, but like 70 or 80 or 90 degrees off-axis? that might thicken it up a little. EQ sounds like a good way to go, too. what about having him sing into a kick drum mic?

very close to mic is good of idea!

peak limit the voice 15-20dB!
EQ yr 'verb' rtns all to hell!:twisted:
so okay!

toomanyhelicopters wrote:. what about having him sing into a kick drum mic?

LOL that could be a good idea..
by the way, here's the link where you can download a song (3.6 Mb mp3 file) and listen to the way his voice sounds. it's a "live" recording with overdubbed rhythm parts.

last night i spent some time trying to find the offensive freq and scoop it out.. it didn't work to well, cause it was like 1,6 kHz and if you cut it, it really sounds like the dude is singing into a D112 mic.