This is one of the major problems of recording vocals or any instrument for that matter.
Like when you hear a vocal track which sounds too loud at some parts and too soft at other parts. We may have recorded the vocals perfectly by taking all the measures to deal with the above problem, but some problems cannot be dealt with at the time of recording. Again this problem can be fixed at source by the vocalist by tilting their heads and controlling the force while pronouncing the sibilant words. Usually, the sounds which are also called the glitches, for instance, “st”, “ch”, “ss”, either starts or ends with these formants. The presence band, would range around 4Khz to 6Khz and the brilliance frequency band would range from 6Khz to 20Khz. The “esses”, usually refers to the sounds which are mostly prominent in the presence or the brilliance frequency band. The microphones are usually coloured due to the type of electronic circuit which is being used inside. This is a very common problem that can be caused due to the type and the colour of the microphone which is being used at the time of recording. Sometimes, this is also caused if the microphone is kept too close to the sound source causing a “Proximity Effect”. A pop-filter can be placed in front of the microphone to solve this problem.
A good vocalist knows how to adjust singing position according to the words to avoid these problems. This usually occur, when the artist exhales air directly on the diaphragm of the microphone. The word ‘phone’ would be a good example of how the plosives would sound when you record the vocals. These include words that usually starts with ‘P’, ‘T’, ‘Ph’, ‘Bh’ or ‘-th’ sounds. Plosives are basically the consonants which causes immense bass boost. But that’s not the only way to go about it.
The most common way would be to add a noise gate, which is a dynamic processor and will allow the voice to pass through, only when the audio exceeds the set threshold. Now there are a couple of alternative solutions to deal with this problem. The most common issue while dealing with vocals that are recorded in a noisy environment or cheap gear. So, these are the most common problems you’ll come across when dealing with recorded vocal track:
Irrespective of how the vocals have been recorded, whether it was recorded in a professional studio or even in a bedroom studio, you need to understand that there are some common problems, that we face when we are told to clean up the vocal tracks. Just like how every patient needs a different treatment depending upon the physiology of the patient, not every voice should be treated in the same way. Understanding the problems that are present in the vocals is the most important task which a lot of people fail to do. So, the vocal processing would differ from person to person. Today we are going to talk about the 10 best vocal processing plugins you can use to process your vocals from Waves Audio.