How would you achive such an effect with male voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJlnJSGRuaE&t=52s?
Is it a mere EQ of certain frequencies or something more elaborate, I wonder?
For a great vocal recording, in order of importance:
- first you need a good vocal
- second, you need a good recording environment (good acoustics and very low background noise)
- third is microphone placement and setting all of the levels correctly
- fourth is choice of microphone and pre-amp (if the equipment is very bad quality then this becomes greater priority)
- finally, what you do after recording is the icing on the cake. Too much icing can ruin a good cake.
And, given one does have such a recording, what sort of icing would you then recommend to achieve the aforementioned effect?
There is reverberation on that, probably a reverb effect rather than due to the location …
http://forum.audacityteam.org/search.php?keywords=anwida
You’re dangerously close to asking, “Which effect makes me into a famous singer.” We’re working on that one.
They’re all lip-syncing in the video. The real voice was recorded something like this.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/wynonna2.jpg
Anything you do to a voice track brings up noise and interference, that’s why you still have to rent a studio or create a very quiet one at home with blankets and quilts on the walls.
http://www.kozco.com/pictures/boothFinished/laptop-mic.jpg
If your voice doesn’t already have lower register tones, there’s no good way to create them and just boosting your existing voice sounds very other-worldly and not in a good way. There are sub-bass generators and that may be one possibility, but they tend to work best with bass instruments and not voices.
Voices are hard. We take a lot of “person” clues from listening to somebody’s voice. “Happy to finally meet you. You don’t look at all like your voice…” So messing with the voice quality is very important – and very difficult.
We have postings from people who are aggressively NOT SINGERS wanting that filter.
Koz
Even if all you did was add reverb/echo that would go a long way, but Audacity’s GVerb may not be the place to go for that. It’s a tool to build an echo tool, not the tool itself.
Post some of your voice and we’ll see what can be done. You can do a very short chunk here…
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1
Or you can get a free posting service to host a larger chunk. Remembering that it must be voice only. We can’t split voice and music – or put music on the right and voice on the left.
Koz
Thanks. Here is a sample: sample
Thanks for the upload, but could you post a “raw” (completely unprocessed) sample.
Do you have a backing to go with it? The vocal will be able to carry a lot more “icing” when/if it is against a backing track.
I had a few minutes spare so I did a quick bit of post production. Sorry about some of the clashing chords, it was done very quickly 
Basically I’ve raised the bass and the top end a little (Equalization), compressed the dynamics (Compressor effect) then some Delay and Reverb.
For comparison there;s a short extract of your original recording at the end.
In other words, forget the oddball bass boost, your voice is fine as it is.
You two should talk.
Koz
It was basically unprocessed, I had just applied the Noise Removal effect prior to posting it. 
It sounds great, considering it’s a completely unrelated tune. If anything, the voice is maybe a bit quiet and cancelled out by the overlaying music, but other than that it sounds very good.
I was merely curious with regards to how it was achieved. Did they use an extraneous bass microphone, whose output they boosted and then mixed with the main mic, did they use a VST or is it just equalisation magic? I do not know, yet it’s an effect so widespread in professional records that it’s hard to believe that someone else wouldn’t know.
If you listen carefully you can hear “the room” (reverberation and the “colouration” of the frequency response) during the singing, but it cuts off abruptly between words. The problem with that is that to then apply Equalization and artificial reverb, it’s more difficult to get the EQ right because you can’t hear the “room tone” and the tails of the reverb sound “disconnected” from the audio (because the input level to the reverb has suddenly dropped close to zero, chopping off the natural reverb).
I would normally do a first pass of EQ before any Noise Removal, then fix any clicks / pops etc (there is an over-emphasized “k” sound somewhere near the middle that becomes very pronounced when lifting the high frequencies), then apply gentle noise reduction. Increasing the “Attack / Decay” slider a little in the Noise Removal effect can help to avoid clipping off the natural reverb.
It is usually better to avoid too much natural reverb by having plenty of sound absorbing material in the room. When processing the audio, you need to work with the natural reverb, not against it.
It’s funny how well it works isn’t it
Probably not. They probably just used one “large diaphragm condenser” microphone with a “cardioid” pick-up pattern, placed about 10 cm in front of the singer with a “pop shield” between the mic and the singer. The closeness of the microphone will tend to accentuate the low frequencies, but a “pop shield” is essential to prevent blowing on the mic.
High stools can be useful when close mic’ing as they help to prevent the singer moving too far without affecting their breathing. Some singers prefer to stand, but for inexperienced recording artists you need to be careful that they do not move too much or the tone will change and ruin the recording.
Close mic’ing, equalization, compression, reverb. These are staple techniques for vocal recording. Professional studios usually do not apply noise removal, but may use a slow release “gate” to remove “shuffling” noises in pauses. Where noise is concerned, prevention is much better than cure.
Sadly “auto-tune” is also becoming a staple technique - I hate it. If someone cannot sing in tune they should not be singing professionally 
Yup, I have noticed.
In other words - a microphone of sorts I will never be able to afford.
I see!
I wouldn’t be so hateful. It does have its place if you’re going for a vocaloid/electronic feel. Although it’s definitely overused in the main stream production.
Prices start at around $50, although they go up to thousands.
Yes, the “T-Pain” effect was interesting to hear “once”. 
Directional microphones have Proximity Effect where your bass goes up as you get closer. It’s the “rock and roll band at the local watering hole” effect. As you drive up to find parking all you can hear are the bass guitar and Woof Woof Woof vocals.
Also known as an SM58.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SM58
I have done straight recordings with one of those. That’s it behind the blast filter on the right.
http://www.kozco.com/pictures/boothFinished/laptop-mic.jpg
Combined with this…
http://www.kozco.com/pictures/boothFinished/mixer.jpg
To produce a voice track for a video feature.
Yes, those are furniture moving pads. I would not buy another FP24 field microphone mixer. They cut too many corners in the design to make it small.
Koz
Oh, and that’s the PVC Pipe shock mount.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/pvcShockMount/shockmount.html
Koz
I’m remembering that shoot. We were doing voice tracks for a cartoon bidding. Multiple people around the company with very different voices were invited to read for the parts. “You’re the girl sniggle ‘Onni’ with the high squeaky voice. Read from the second paragraph.”
That black cloth is Duvetyne. It’s nothing on a roll. It’s dead black – absorbs light like a sponge and it’s acoustically dead as well. If you want to make a portion of a set or stage “go away,” drape it in Duvetyne. It’s also good for keeping computers from getting scratched.
Koz
Wow, so much useful information! Thanks, Koz. 
Most people remember their vacation to Honolulu. Koz