KVR Audio

Terrum · Post by **Terrum** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:31 pm

I've seen quite a few songs recently where the producer sings in their own songs, with almost little to no (or perhaps comical) knowledge or experience in singing. There are voices that aren't actually properly singing, that either sound slightly auto-tuned or very nicely synthesised. Here's a few:

DJ Roxx's voice effect is quite possibly the best in this case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gzWxhKNtDM
Tune Up (Manian) has a very decent effect on their vocals too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8CVR_VGh58

But I've also heard a few other unpopular songs and artists that have managed to succeed with this with either a tiny budget or even free VSTis, such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPsmFuHs5CA
https://soundcloud.com/limmy/electronic ... kin-park-1 (This one is supposed to be a joke

But the effects used on the vocals are still very decent).

If anyone is able to help out by letting me know an example of what effects/synths/vocoders etc could have been used in the above songs, that would be very helpful! (or read below if you can help in other ways)

But, for the TL;DR people, I need advice on what the best effects or procedures I can use to get cleaner sounding vocals. I've tried using reverbs, compressions, delays, vocoders/auto-tuners and whilst they all sound good, they still don't get the synthesised effect I'm looking for.

Thanks all for reading and I appreciate any help!

Deep Purple · Post by **Deep Purple** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:52 pm

Adding effects won't get you cleaner sounding vocals. Less effects will get you cleaner sounding vocals, and the best advice would be to record them with a good quality mic and preferably with some microphone technique so that you don't have to do too much to get them into good shape.

Unfortunately there's no easy shortcut to sounding like you can sing when you can't.

Terrum · Post by **Terrum** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:01 pm

Hi Deep Purple, thanks a lot for that response! Whilst I understand that may be true, I'm pretty sure none of the people I've mentioned just use a good quality mic and a non-effect related technique and get a nice, synthetic result

I already use a condenser microphone however, and even the slightest bit of advice would be great (easy or not). Anymore help is appreciated!

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:09 pm

https://youtu.be/spjECncnLcM?t=52s

Winstontaneous · Post by **Winstontaneous** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:18 pm

Out of the vocal pitch-correction/synthesis tools I've used (including vocoders, NI's Razor & The Mouth, Melodyne, assorted Logic & Digital Performer pitch-fixing tools/techniques) my favorite for creative use is Reason's Neptune.

Neptune's formant shifting sounds the most musical to my ears, and being able to create melodies by playing the vocal synth with a keyboard is great. That said, I can reliably sing multiple-part harmonies on pitch without electronic assistance, but Neptune is good for making parts that are simply out of my range.

NI Razor is great for digital-sounding vocoder FX, and The Mouth is fun for chaotic-sounding weirdness that's controllable enough for live performance.

DJ Roxx - my first guess was some sort of upward formant shift, the lower voice around 2:48 kinda confirmed that
Tune Up - probably downward formant shift + vocoder, NI Razor would be good for this kind of effect

Just experiment with whatever formant shifters, vocoders, pitch shifters, and granular sample players you have. Also go for the best performance in terms of phrasing and pitch so that you're embellishing something of value instead of polishing a turd. Probably best to have a decently edited/gated/compressed part rather than a raw one.

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:17 pm

buy my new plugin - signed, some guy on kvr

i'm an old person and anything i say which challenges your current outlook would require voluminous sorting out to be worth not saying. like "i know what you mean but" someone told you you can't sing and i know who it was, and that spending your time confronting them is more worthwhile than trying to sing in between the lines.

now i am giving you a taoist script and authorisation from the ayahuasca vine and leopards and sour bubble backcrosses - you can sing, you can!!!!! *sprinkles your forehead with some sacred ass stuff*

put some effects on it to transcendentalise it into a cultural ritual and it will be alright.

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:24 pm

Wuuuutttt

elassi · Post by **elassi** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:26 pm

Terrum wrote:Best advice for vocals when you can't sing

Rap?

Best effects/advice for vocals when you can't sing