Vocal Processing Tips?

[FIMprov]

Within the fandom, I've been listening to Glaze, H8 Seed, and StormWolf. Outside of the fandom, I've heard a bit of A1 People.

So what I'm wondering is, what techniques are commonly used to get vocals to sound that way? I have already watched QT Mark's vocal processing tutorials, but the whole "mess with the EQ until you get a sound you like" hasn't been working out so well.

Oh, and I feel like I should clarify something here: I'm not asking this because I want to sound exactly like Glaze or H8 Seed or StormWolf, far from it. I want to learn techniques used in vocal processing so I can generate a sound of my own. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: I've done some searching around in the threads and have found a few helpful tips, but I'm going to leave this up to see what the rest of you have to say. Thanks!

[Nine Volt]

Vocoders are typically used to get that robotic quality, along with Melodyne or whatever to pitch it correctly if you can't really sing. Vocoders can also be used in dubstep basses, but that's another story altogether.

Aside from that, don't forget your reverb and EQ. I don't normally use vox, so sorry for not being very helpful 3:

[FIMprov]

No that's alright; every little bit helps.

[Dabrenn]

I've never worked with my own vocals so I'm also very inexpeirenced, but I think H8 seed uses Bitspeek. It makes your voice more.... bitty. I think Glaze does a lot of vocal layering. Layering vocals is a good idea; he said something about panning one to the left, one to the right, and another down the middle that's pitched up an octave in Melodyne.

Other than that, what Nine volt said.

[itroitnyah]

Yeah, IL Pitcher, IL Newtone can help you to get the pitch perfect, and Pitcher can help with other vocal effects, like chorusing the voice so that it sounds a bit more like a chorus, and a bunch of other cool things, so Pitcher is something that you should definitely go for with vocals. I'm not sure is Melodyne does the same things that Pitcher does.

If you find the user "the4thImpulse" (which you should be able to find without too much effort), in his signature he has a bunch of links to threads that are useful, one of them is the most detailed frequency chart you will ever see, and that has many awesome tips for EQing with vocals, definitely check that out. You may have to read through it quite a bit, but you'll find the tips strewn about within it. Hey, it'll help a bit with mixing as well! I'd recommend reading the entire thing.

Reverb as well. This part is more experimental, so feel free to mess around until you get results you want.

edit: compression as well! You can use this for two things:
1) lowering the sharp peaks on the "s" "t" and "p"'s, just set the threshold low enough that it only encompasses the peaks of those consonants, and set the ratio fairly high with a fairly hard knee.
2) making the volume of all the parts of the vocals more equal. Just set the threshold low enough that it barely, if at all, touches the tips of some of the lower peaks of the body of the vocals (not the tips of the spike peaks from the s, t, or p, the regular peaks) and set a low enough compression that it doesn't distort the vocals and a light knee, if any knee at all. gentle attack and release as to leave the vocals undamaged to the human ear, but lower them to be fairly equal to the rest of the vocals.

You can do both methods at once, just put the compressor for the s, t, and p peaks first in the chain. It's easier to do this with a visual compressor like Fruity Limiter (if you have FL Studio). After you've applied the compression, increase the gain to make the volume to a good level again too.

[Perpetual]

You can try a stereo imager with it, keep in mind that the mixing of the processed vocals is just as important as the vocal processing that Glaze does in Melodyne. As for an original sound try using other vocal effect plugins such as Bitpeek or Antares Throat. There are tons of things you can do to process vocals just keep experimenting, good luck.

[cyrricky]

It makes your voice more.... bitty.

It bitcrushes your voice*

[FIMprov]

Hey guys, thanks for all the tips so far. As for that frequency chart, I just so happen to have already had it bookmarked! So I guess I need to get familiar with vocoders and compression. Those seem to be my weak point. Anyone who sees this thread can feel free to answer; I'm always open to learning something new.

Edit: what I mean by that is, anyone who stumbles across this and has something to add, feel free, no matter when the last post was.

Edit again: I've familiarized myself with the workings of compressors and vocoders! Hopefully I can start cranking out some cool new stuff soon.

[Dabrenn]

It bitcrushes your voice*

It does a lot more than just that though, that's why I shied away from using that term. Just running your voice through a bitcrusher won't have nearly the same effect.

[FIMprov]

It bitcrushes your voice*

It does a lot more than just that though, that's why I shied away from using that term. Just running your voice through a bitcrusher won't have nearly the same effect.

Yeah, I think Bitspeek is a little more than a bitcrusher. Thanks though!

[Lavender_Harmony]

mda-talkbox

That's how.

http://wooden-toaster.tumblr.com/post/2 ... do-you-use

[WoodenToaster]

Despite popular belief I've not actually used any vocoding in my tracks before, appart from about 2 seconds in Awoken, but I do know how to vocode pretty well and I made somewhat of a guideline here: http://wooden-toaster.tumblr.com/tagged/toasty%20tips

Mainly my vocal processing is just me playing with melodyne, duplicating the same vocal track into harmonies gives that rich 'vocoder' kinda sound example: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9605425/Rise%2 ... 20demo.mp3
Make sure the harmonies are pretty flat in terms of pitch modulation and play around with the formants to get the tone you're after.
Also with close harmonies it's best to pan them out a bit, or they'll get messy pretty fast.

Also throwing a vocal track down an octave in melodyne and layering it with the original can give a cool mechanical kinda sound.

[FIMprov]

Those tips were really helpful; thanks!

[Foxtrot89]

Despite popular belief I've not actually used any vocoding in my tracks before, appart from about 2 seconds in Awoken, but I do know how to vocode pretty well and I made somewhat of a guideline here: http://wooden-toaster.tumblr.com/tagged/toasty%20tips

Mainly my vocal processing is just me playing with melodyne, duplicating the same vocal track into harmonies gives that rich 'vocoder' kinda sound example: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9605425/Rise%2 ... 20demo.mp3
Make sure the harmonies are pretty flat in terms of pitch modulation and play around with the formants to get the tone you're after.
Also with close harmonies it's best to pan them out a bit, or they'll get messy pretty fast.

Also throwing a vocal track down an octave in melodyne and layering it with the original can give a cool mechanical kinda sound.

Wow, that's cool as shit. Sounds very vocoderlike without all the mud. A lot cleaner and nice sounding, imo. I'll have to give it a go later when I get some free time.

[Lavender_Harmony]

glaz

u pulld an alex

hate forev

[itroitnyah]

Really? I didn't notice. It looks more like he was being helpful. But maybe you mean that his downloads he linked are trolling? I haven't downloaded them so I wouldn't know, but I think it would be more obvious if he pulled an alex

[FIMprov]

Uh, yeah, because that's completely relevant to the OP... I do believe Lavender was joking anyway.

[Conduit]

Really? I didn't notice. It looks more like he was being helpful. But maybe you mean that his downloads he linked are trolling? I haven't downloaded them so I wouldn't know, but I think it would be more obvious if he pulled an alex

I legit cannot understand how you didn't see the joke.

Anyway, huge props to glaze for the tips, its rare to find successful musicians sharing secrets.

[Raddons]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/84260720/lmao.mp3

Now if only I knew how to sing.