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Help!
Working on a session and I have a vocal track that I swear sounds slightly distorted in spots. I don't have the option to re-record it, so I have to work with what I've got.
Female voice, recording with a ribbon mic about 18-24 inches away into a solid state preamp connected to an Audient iD22 interface.
During recording, none of the meters or waveform on the track showed any indication of overmodulating or clipping. The resulting waveform is nowhere near clipping as far as level is concerned, and even zooming in as far as possible shows no sign of clipping (typical "square wave" artifacts). But on certain loud notes, it sounds like it's distorting a bit.
I find it odd because I used the same signal chain on a guy's voice a couple months ago, and he was a lot closer to the mic, and singing a lot louder. No issues.
I'm tempted to think it's just her voice!
Are there any plugins that might help clean this up a little? Would spectral editing help in this instance?
Any suggestions are welcome.
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Make/model of the ribbon mic?
Is this your mic or someone else's?
Do you use it often? Or is this the first time you've used it since your male voice recording (a couple months ago)?
Are you running it through an in-line device such as a CloudLifter or some other impedance matcher?
Are you running it on phantom power or battery?
My first suspicions are that the mic was running under sub-optimal conditions - low battery/phantom power or incorrectly set impedance matcher.
I also wonder if the mic has been damaged - maybe dropped or gob build-up due to not using a gob/pop screen.
I recently experienced a really crappy sounding Sennheiser 635 (I think that was the number) during a vocal recording at a friends studio.
Took the wind screen off - the diaphragm was covered with crap.
Unfortunately... Once you have a distorted vocal track there isn't a lot you can do to fix it. Someone here might be able to recommend a sonic enhancer
of some sort, but I would be very surprised to read that it was totally effective. Please follow up here with how you eventually resolved the issue as many
readers (myself included!) would like to know how you made out.
Cheers!
Patrick
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(08-10-2021, 07:29 PM)PBuryk Wrote: Make/model of the ribbon mic?
Is this your mic or someone else's?
Do you use it often? Or is this the first time you've used it since your male voice recording (a couple months ago)?
Are you running it through an in-line device such as a CloudLifter or some other impedance matcher?
Are you running it on phantom power or battery?
My first suspicions are that the mic was running under sub-optimal conditions - low battery/phantom power or incorrectly set impedance matcher.
I also wonder if the mic has been damaged - maybe dropped or gob build-up due to not using a gob/pop screen.
I recently experienced a really crappy sounding Sennheiser 635 (I think that was the number) during a vocal recording at a friends studio.
Took the wind screen off - the diaphragm was covered with crap.
Unfortunately... Once you have a distorted vocal track there isn't a lot you can do to fix it. Someone here might be able to recommend a sonic enhancer
of some sort, but I would be very surprised to read that it was totally effective. Please follow up here with how you eventually resolved the issue as many
readers (myself included!) would like to know how you made out.
Cheers!
Patrick
MXL R40 Ribbon. It's my own and cared for meticulously. Same mic and preamp I used before.
No gadgets between mic and preamp. No phantom or battery required.
So far I've tried a few EQs to try to make it less obnoxious. That seems to help a little. I'll keep you posted.
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08-10-2021, 08:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-10-2021, 08:40 PM by Dingo.)
(08-10-2021, 03:11 PM)CurtZHP Wrote: Help!
I'm tempted to think it's just her voice!
Are there any plugins that might help clean this up a little? Would spectral editing help in this instance?
Any suggestions are welcome.
Spectral Editing might help you to an extent.
I have had similar issues with certain Voice Over / ADR artists on some mics and attributed it to various things including:
Recording in too small a space or a room that has too much negative air pressure from HVAC systems - can create a pneumatic effect on the diaphragm.
Sometimes the effect of plosives (p, t, k, b, d, g) acting on the diaphragm can overload - it's not full on popping but resonating heavily in one frequency.
I use RX to cleanup a lot of location recordings, ADR and VO sessions - using a combo of brush wand and harmonics to select and then gain trim the areas that need it.
Macmini 8,1 | OS X 13.6.3 | 3 GHz i5 32G | Scarlett 18i20 | Mixbus 10 | PT_2024.3.1 ..... Macmini 9,1 | OS X 14.4.1 | M1 2020 | Mixbus 10 | Resolve 18.6.5
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(08-10-2021, 08:39 PM)Dingo Wrote: (08-10-2021, 03:11 PM)CurtZHP Wrote: Help!
I'm tempted to think it's just her voice!
Are there any plugins that might help clean this up a little? Would spectral editing help in this instance?
Any suggestions are welcome.
Spectral Editing might help you to an extent.
I have had similar issues with certain Voice Over / ADR artists on some mics and attributed it to various things including:
Recording in too small a space or a room that has too much negative air pressure from HVAC systems - can create a pneumatic effect on the diaphragm.
Sometimes the effect of plosives (p, t, k, b, d, g) acting on the diaphragm can overload - it's not full on popping but resonating heavily in one frequency.
I use RX to cleanup a lot of location recordings, ADR and VO sessions - using a combo of brush wand and harmonics to select and then gain trim the areas that need it.
Recorded in a very large studio space.
The worst offenders seemed to be when she would hold a note. Definitely some resonance thing going on.
I seem to have made some progress on this using, of all things, a graphic EQ. Voxengo Marvel EQ to be precise. Dropped a frequency or two and managed not to gouge big holes in her performance. Double tracking also seems to help mask some of the mess, and fortunately it lends itself to the song.
RX sounds familiar. Who makes that one?
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Stupid question: is this voice running through a Mixbus and is tape saturation on?
MMM
Linux throughout!
Main PC: XEON, 64GB DDR4, 1x SATA SSD, 1x NVME, MOTU UltraLite AVB
OS: Debian11 with KX atm
Mixbus 32C, Hydrogen, Jack... and Behringer synths
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(08-11-2021, 02:47 AM)madmaxmiller Wrote: Stupid question: is this voice running through a Mixbus and is tape saturation on?
MMM
No.
And I've also pulled up the tracks in other DAW programs and heard the problem there as well.
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have you seen my email?
Tassy
Win7/64, Mixbus32C, Mixbus2.5 the Queen  UR22, Dynaudio BM5A MKII, Pc all SSD,
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(08-11-2021, 10:54 AM)Tassy Wrote: have you seen my email?
Tassy
I have not. PM?
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(08-11-2021, 07:28 AM)CurtZHP Wrote: (08-11-2021, 02:47 AM)madmaxmiller Wrote: Stupid question: is this voice running through a Mixbus and is tape saturation on?
MMM
No.
And I've also pulled up the tracks in other DAW programs and heard the problem there as well.
Outch.
There are de-clipper plugins but I don't know if they are a real help on a fine vocal track. Maybe RX with an experienced operator as Dingo suggested is your best bet.
MMM
Linux throughout!
Main PC: XEON, 64GB DDR4, 1x SATA SSD, 1x NVME, MOTU UltraLite AVB
OS: Debian11 with KX atm
Mixbus 32C, Hydrogen, Jack... and Behringer synths
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