Audacity Forum

Hello I hope this is in the right place,

I have recorded some vocals for a song I want to make however I have no idea how to edit my vocals and add an effect to them so that they sound good and mix well with the beat. Could anybody help me with this?

I really just wanted a basic distortion effect or something that morphs the vocals so they sound different but still understandable. Just a filter or something not too crazy to do. I would usually send them to a friend who is a music producer but he broke his laptop and isnt available haha.

-Any tips and help here will be greatly appreciated

hikoseijx wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:57 pm

I really just wanted a basic distortion effect or something that morphs the vocals so they sound different but still understandable. Just a filter or something not too crazy to do.

The latest version of Audacity has distortion effect, which has various presets from subtle to harsh ...
https ://manual.audacityteam.org/man/distortion.html

I really just wanted a basic distortion effect or something that morphs the vocals so they sound different but still understandable.

I read a book by Geoff Emerick* who engineered most of The Beatles recordings, and John Lennon never wanted to sound "like himself". Once he said he wanted to sound like he was singing on the moon and nobody understood what he wanted, but I guess they came-up with some effect that he liked.

I would usually send them to a friend who is a music producer but he broke his laptop and isnt available haha.

Did you ask your friend for some hints, or what kinds of things he normally does with your vocals?

The most common effects are compression and limiting for "strong vocals". A little reverb, but usually just enough that it's not heard as a "special" or "unnatural" effect. And sometimes some "corrective" EQ if your mic is "imperfect" or just to "enhance your voice a bit.

Those are the 3 most-commonly used effects.

You can use effects like echo (AKA delay) or lots of reverb or automatic double-tracking** (ADT) for more "obvious" or "special" effects.




* The book is called Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles: It's not a technical book about recording The Beatles... It's mostly stories about his life and experiences in the studio, etc., with some "big picture" information about the recording & production techniques.

** Audacity doesn't have an built-in ADT effect and it doesn't sound the same as true double-tracking.

Based on what you have said I think you can save yourself a lot of time by making a call to your friend who usually does this for you and ask what specific effects he/she had been applying to your other work. You can learn a lot just by trying things and listening, but you can also spend a great deal of time getting a feel for the affect of each effect. In the long term that may be good time spent on the learning curve, but if you just want your latest recording tweaked, call your friend.