I'm not very experienced with mixing vocals, but I'm doing some remixes and I keep running into the issue of vocals being really harsh in the upper mids, like they were recorded too hot or processed really poorly. Often squashed to death, with a real digital autotune kind of timbre, yuck.
I need something to soften them up without taking off the high end. My first thought was something like a tape saturation, which works a little, but I was hoping for a more surefire solution.
Thoughts?
Best plugin to de-harsh some vocals
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Brother Charles Brother Charles https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=271995 - KVRian
- 1104 posts since 3 Jan, 2012 from Alberta, Canada
Personally, I find bx_Refinement super simple to use and highly effective. Sure,you can do the good ol’ fashioned filter sweeping to find the problem area(s), dynamically EQ and/or compress, . . . Yadda yadda. However, bx Refinement works a treat and is almost “dummy proof”. I know . . .I use it. 
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- KVRAF
- 4711 posts since 26 Nov, 2015 from Way Downunder
EQ / Dynamic EQ 
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1403 posts since 30 Mar, 2014
That was one I was thinking about. The other one I was thinking about was the Gulfoss plugin, which is hecka expensive right now.Brother Charles wrote: ↑Sun Oct 07, 2018 4:16 am Personally, I find bx_Refinement super simple to use and highly effective. Sure,you can do the good ol’ fashioned filter sweeping to find the problem area(s), dynamically EQ and/or compress, . . . Yadda yadda. However, bx Refinement works a treat and is almost “dummy proof”. I know . . .I use it.
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- KVRian
- 1016 posts since 16 Aug, 2010 from almost everywhere...
Airwindows has a few: Acceleration, Slew, Slew2...
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- KVRist
- 156 posts since 4 Mar, 2014
Noisebud Smile, Terry West De-Harsh.
SlickEQ is handy too for this.
And Spitfish of course.
SlickEQ is handy too for this.
And Spitfish of course.
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heavymetalmixer heavymetalmixer https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=391539
- KVRian
- 692 posts since 8 Jan, 2017
Using the Mellow OUT STAGE somehow helps to deess without having to use any EQ moves (the CALIBRATE depends on the track).Anti-Logic wrote: ↑Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:25 pm Noisebud Smile, Terry West De-Harsh.
SlickEQ is handy too for this.
And Spitfish of course.
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- KVRAF
- 4881 posts since 4 Aug, 2006 from Helsinki
As said here, Eq is the basic tool.
There are different special tools in the market for the de-harsh purposes (e.g. Waves Tipple D), but most of the are based
only for Eq or Eq + compression, such as the Dynamic Eq.
Eq with a feature of listening only the selected frequency, helps to locate challenging areas in you audio material (Pro-Q 2 as a great example of those Eqs).
There are different special tools in the market for the de-harsh purposes (e.g. Waves Tipple D), but most of the are based
only for Eq or Eq + compression, such as the Dynamic Eq.
Eq with a feature of listening only the selected frequency, helps to locate challenging areas in you audio material (Pro-Q 2 as a great example of those Eqs).
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1403 posts since 30 Mar, 2014
If I do the EQ sweep over the affected areas with Pro-Q 2, it ends up looking like a comb filter. Is that right? A multiband dynamic EQ should handle it in theory, but maybe so just need to get gud.
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- KVRAF
- 10361 posts since 3 Feb, 2003 from Finland, Espoo
Oeksound Soothe
.. or toneboosters sibalance.
There is also an alternative trick and that is to quite heavily saturate the vocal with something gentle, like Kazrog True Iron, select the 111C transformer, hit it with 20 to 30dB of extra gain (with the Crush knob), compensate output volume increase.. and then use an ordinary EQ with relatively tight notches to take out the worst offending harshness areas.
This combination of first saturating and then EQing will give you the harmonic overtone content of the material so that the EQ correction afterwards doesn't feel too drastic. It sort of "fills in the holes" in a way.
This technique usually works best in a crowded mix. In a sparse mix with clear vocals upfront it may not work as well.
.. or toneboosters sibalance.
There is also an alternative trick and that is to quite heavily saturate the vocal with something gentle, like Kazrog True Iron, select the 111C transformer, hit it with 20 to 30dB of extra gain (with the Crush knob), compensate output volume increase.. and then use an ordinary EQ with relatively tight notches to take out the worst offending harshness areas.
This combination of first saturating and then EQing will give you the harmonic overtone content of the material so that the EQ correction afterwards doesn't feel too drastic. It sort of "fills in the holes" in a way.
This technique usually works best in a crowded mix. In a sparse mix with clear vocals upfront it may not work as well.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot
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- KVRist
- 79 posts since 12 Mar, 2004
+1 for Oeksound Soothe
Anoher goodie is DSM v2
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... er_v2.html
Anoher goodie is DSM v2
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... er_v2.html
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- KVRAF
- 2565 posts since 2 Jul, 2010
Another thing that can be quite useful for overcompressed/distorted vocals is an upwards expander. I've had good results with Nova GE bouncing a few dB around 2k to bring some life back.
