EQ Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 52)

GEAR HEAD SSL VOCALSTRIP FOR DUENDE Threshold, Release, Attack, and Makeup Gain. You also have a choice of hard or soft knee curve. Cool stuff: The Drive button can definitely add “character” to the voice. This seems to be a saturation stage after the Makeup Gain control, where increasing the gain increases an overdrive-type of distortion. Another interesting feature is you can put the various modules in any order—for example, if the compressor “pops” because you want a really squashed sound, you can put the DePloser after it instead of the more traditional pre-compressor position. But one feature that really differentiates Vocalstrip is the set of displays that monitor the signal. The EQ curves are accurate, while an FFT display can monitor the input (to see if there are anomalies that need to be tamed) or output, which reveals the effect of the EQ. As soon as you touch a compander control, the display changes to show the typical compression curve display on the left, while the right half shows an I/O Difference Display—in short, it makes it easy to see how compression affects the signal. Of course, you don’t adjust controls with your eyes, but with your ears. But in keeping with Vocalstrip’s “get it done fast” attitude, these visual displays help you zero in faster on optimum sounds. Limitations: It’s only mono, which makes sense if you’re dealing with vocals—but if you want to do something like use it on a stereo choir track, you’ll lose the imaging. I also wish the EQ were more flexible; although I was able to get the sounds I wanted, I would like a bandwidth control on the mid EQ and the ability to change the low EQ between bandpass and shelf. And it probably goes without saying that you have to have the Duende host hardware. Bottom line: Vocalstrip’s main competition is actually the EQ and Dynamics Channel Strip that’s bundled with Duende, because it performs very well with vocals and the sidechaining means you can set up de-essing and plosive reduction (albeit with more effort than Vocalstrip). It doesn’t surprise me that quite a few Duende users with limited budgets seem to go for the Drumstrip, Bus Compressor, X-Comp, and X-EQ plug-ins first; but there’s no denying that the Vocalstrip brings a lot to the Duende platform, and also, that it’s an extremely fast way to get solid vocal sounds. Fig. 2. SSL’s Vocalstrip, which includes vocal-specific modules with vocal-specific features, runs on their Duende and Duende Mini hardware platforms. There are plenty of fine hardware/software combos, including Universal Audio’s UAD-2 and TC’s PowerCore. Duende ($399) is SSL’s answer to the concept, and the Vocalstrip runs on both the standard Duende and the less expensive Duende Mini (both support VST, AU, and RTAS). What it does: Vocalstrip (Figure 2) is a mono plug-in with four vocal-specific sub-sections. The De-Esser has Threshold and Amount controls, with an indicator to show when de-essing takes place. The best feature, though, is the Aud button so you can hear what’s being removed—this really simplifies the adjustment process. A complementary De-Ploser takes out low frequencies, like “P” and “B” sounds, and has an identical complement of controls (although of course, they are tailored for different frequencies). The EQ includes a low shelf with a slight bump at its cutoff, hi-Q bandpass/notch filter with 12dB boot/36dB attenuation, and a low-Q high band EQ for adding “air” or intelligibility. The EQ is more limited than a standard parametric—there’s no resonance control for any of the bands—but its virtue is that the filters themselves, and their characteristics, are optimized for finding good vocal sounds as quickly as possible. (If you need a more traditional EQ, the Channel Strip that’s bundled with the Duende hardware does the job.) The Compander is also vocal-friendly, as it first has an expander to help reduce mic pre hiss, room ambience, low-level mouth sounds, and the like before heading into the compressor, which has the expected controls: Ratio, bit flat before swooping up to the tonic can put the “tension” into “tension and release.” Besidses, processing a vocal note can produce audible artifacts, and the more you shift, the more audible these artifacts become. Finally, the human ear expects vocals to have slight inconsistencies—removing those can give vocals an artificial feel. While this works for certain types of music, it’s hard to imagine a sensitive jazz ballad given this kind of treatment. THE VOCAL PITCH-CORRECTION TOOLBOX There are two basic types of harmonization plug-ins. The simpler ones, such as Waves’ UltraPitch, do straight pitch transposition (actually, UltraPitch can generate multiple parallel transposed lines, but it doesn’t generate “intelligent” harmonies). With slight pitch variations, these plug-ins can also produce grandiose chorusing and thickening effects. The second type breaks audio down into events that you can edit 52 EQ MARCH 2009 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - March 2009

EQ Magazine - March 2009 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Mr. Scruff Apollo Sunshine Al Schmitt Toolbox Third Eye Blind Kind of Blue Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Ableton Live Vocal Tools Gadgets & Goodies Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - March 2009

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