EQ Magazine - August 2008 - (Page 36)

VOCAL CORDS pairs of whisper tracks, I’m done. Now that I have four amazingly recorded whisper tracks, I can begin the editing process. To begin, I solo each track for maximum focus. In addition to the quest to eliminate room noise—or any other glitches that slipped by me during the recording process—I do a simple “s,” “t,” and breath check for each whisper track. Especially at the end of a phrase, nothing sounds worse than eight outof-sync “esses” that sound like a flutter of open hi-hats, 16 “t” sounds that have a sixteenth-note triplet feel, or 32 breaths that sound like an audience reacting to a scene. The goal here is to make sure timing and clarity are flawless in every performance. If the problems are minor, I use Synchro Arts VocAlign Pro. In life or death sessions, I prefer to perform each edit and time alignment manually, one “s,” “t,” or breath at a time. With everything recorded and edited to perfection, I quickly solidify the presence of the whisper tracks with a few signal processors. At the top of the signal chain is GRM Tools Bandpass. As air transmits strongest in the midrange frequency, I bring focus to the mids by completely removing a lot of the top and bottom. Filtering out low end helps me eliminate as much room noise as possible, and cutting highs increases the clarity of the whisper tracks. Next, I slap on a Waves RComp, because I don’t want the compressor to react to anything other than the specified frequencies of my filtered vocals. I tend to go with extreme compression settings, which are great for helping whisper vocals kick in and provide maximum support to the main vocal. The next step is to “double” de-ess my vocals using two Waves DeEsser plug-ins. I set the plug-ins to two different frequencies—6kHz and 10kHz—mostly to catch any sneaky “sss” sounds that may have slipped through the filters at the top of my effects chain. Occasionally, I like to add the SoundToys Tremolator—no need to talk tech, it just sounds cool! Once my tracks are filtered, compressed to death, de-essed, and Tremolated, I send my “W-FX” track to a stereo aux return, where I enhance or alter the stereo field to taste using Waves S1 Imager. BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER Because I work in various platforms, I do a lot of importing and exporting. It is absolutely imperative I remain extremely organized with every move I make. Once all the editing, comping, creation of harmonies, and imported MIDI tracks are brought back into my master session, I spend a lot more time fine-tuning every vocal throughout the entire song. Sometimes, making a song perfect means I need to undo one or two moves, or it could mean that I need to undo everything. The key to being a professional is being willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to make something right. If you give your clients this level of commitment, the rewards and reputation you earn will follow you through your entire career. Famous drummers. Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons, Zappa) Lonnie Wilson (Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill) Sly Dunbar (Bob Marley, Black Uhuru) Matt Sorum (G N’ R, Velvet Revolver) John Tempesta (Helmet, White Zombie) Inspiration in a box. DrumCore brings you the authentic grooves and drum sounds of over a dozen hit-proven drummers across a multitude of musical styles. Get awardwinning software, audio loops and MIDI beats, plus MIDI drum sounds at a price any songwriter can n afford. Start with just a DrummerPack and DrumCore LT T for only $79. Want it all? Get DrumCore Deluxe! Available at Sweetwater, AudioMIDI, Sam Ash and other great stores at new promo pricing! Software, audio and video demos at submersiblemusic.com © 2008 Submersible Music Inc. DrumCore™ and DrummerPack™ are trademarks of Submersible Music Inc. 36 EQ AUGUST 2008 www.eqmag.com http://submersiblemusic.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - August 2008

EQ Magazine - August 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Lyrics Born, Fink, David Kahne on Working with Paul McCartney, What a Future with no Record Industry looks like Tool Box ?uestlove Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Sonar 7 Apple Logic Pro 8 USM Mic Round-Up USB Mics Chameleon Labs 7720 Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - August 2008

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