Mixing Death Metal Vox

[shinderhizzle84]

Hello. So, this may come off as a bit strange, but I'm an aspiring death metal vocalist. I know that a lot bands use a tiny bit of reverb and a ton of compression on their vocalist's screams, but I don't know what the heck I'm doing when I mix my own screams.

I'm recording with a SHURE SM58 Mic with a 10 dollar Sony cable that hooks my mic directly to a USB slot on my computer.

I guess what my question is is what EXACT settings can I put in Audacity to give my screams more fill and power and clarity?

Thanks so much to all, and stay metal!

[steve]

First off, are you able to get an undistorted recording of your screams? If the "source material" is distorted then the jobs over.
Secondly - Are you using Audacity 1.3.12? If you're using an earlier version, upgrade so that you can take advantage of the new and improved feature.

"ADT" is another common technique that is used for thickening vocals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_double_tracking

See here for information about using additional effects in Audacity. http://audacityteam.org/download/plugins
Chris's Dynamic Compressor is a very nice compressor that may come in useful and is available from his website http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

[shinderhizzle84]

if by undistorted you mean that my screams are "natural" and not "modded" or anything, then yeah, I scream from the diaphragm and what not and don't use any effects or anything, outside of compression and reverb and such.

I also use a pretty good microphone so the sound is really clear, yeah.

I recently updated to the newest version of Audacity.

Where would I find a plugin for ADT and how would I go about using it?

[steve]

This is what I mean by "distortion" http://forum.audacityteam.org/download/ ... ew&id=1397

"sounds really clear" is what I was hoping you would say.

The simplest form of ADT is simply a second copy of the original track that has been delayed a little.
You can create this effect easily in Audacity by:
Selecting the track then press Ctrl+D to make a duplicate
Switch to the "Time Shift" tool (F5 key)
Drag the copy track a little to the right
Go back to the normal Selection Tool (F1 key)
Adjust the volume of the "delayed" track as required. The second track would usually be delayed enough to be noticeable, but not so far as to create a distinct echo - something less than 50 milliseconds.

For a slightly thicker and more complex sound you can make 2 copies of the original, delay them each by different amounts and pan one a bit to the left and the other a bit to the right. Leave the original in the centre and adjust the levels so that the overall voice effect sounds central. Use the "pan" slider on the left end of the track to pan the sound left/right.

[Trebor]

... Where would I find a plugin for ADT and how would I go about using it?

Could try a Chorus effect which is similar to ADT.