Mixing distorted vocals

H

hanlon666

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I am trying to mix vocals recorded in a studio, they are distorted and the entire vocal session is on one track. I am bascially just lining them up with the music. My problem is that the engineer who recorded them gated them to remove the pops etc. in between the vocals. Because they were so heavily distorted, the ending of each phrase is slightly unnatural, and I am trying to remedy that. I am using cool edit pro if that helps anyone. Any info would be extremely helpful. Everything else sounds quite good so if I could fix this up even slightly I would be a happy man.
 
if the end of each phrase was gated out i don't think you can get that back since the gate cut them off and they weren't recorded.
 
none of the phrases were gated out, but the way that they fade out seems rather abrupt and unnatural.
 
hanlon666 said:
I am trying to mix vocals recorded in a studio, they are distorted and the entire vocal session is on one track. I am bascially just lining them up with the music. My problem is that the engineer who recorded them gated them to remove the pops etc. in between the vocals. Because they were so heavily distorted, the ending of each phrase is slightly unnatural, and I am trying to remedy that.

Once is recorded distorted you're pretty much stuck with it that way. And what kind of engineer was this to let it be recorded distorted in the first place? I hope you didnt pay this guy! I would have him re-do it for free or get your money back.
 
Sounds like reverb and a nudge of delay at the end of those particular phrases are the best friends you got right now.


555
 
Ebbiguise555 said:
Sounds like reverb and a nudge of delay at the end of those particular phrases are the best friends you got right now.

Bwhahahahahahaha you cant be serious!!???

Its distorted! There is no fixing it!

Even if you apply "reverb" to add tails at the end cut-offs it isnt going to fix the damaged harmonics! DUH!

Done!
 
god, youre a fookin tool.

I never said you could fix the distorted parts, but the gated cut-off was what I was addressing.
 
I'm assuming that it's deliberate distortion (like for industrial style music).

You can get some clarity into the track by whispering the lyrics along with the distorted voice, and mixing the whisper in (so you can hear the consonants from the whisper, but not really hear it as a separate sound).

Try running the distorted vocals into a vocoder, and vocoding them with yourself speaking the vocal lines, very clearly.

Both these techniques are more aimed at increasing intelligibility (and making the vocals sound cool! - that way you can tell people "oh, they're supposed to sound like that. Have the subliminal messages aroused your thirst for blood yet?" instead of "um, well, sorry about those vocals. I tried to make them more normal, you see, but I didn't quite get it, so you kind of need to imagine..." Know what I'm saying?)

Also, edit the gate cutoffs so they're in time with the music, rather than whenever the gate closed. Yep, this means chopping the vocals shorter. Make it a feature, not a bug. If these really are The Killer Vocal tracks, then make the most of their eccentricity. I assume they sounded good at the session, because you kept 'em. So aim at intensifying the vibe, rather than making the vocals more normal.

Of course, that's just what I'd do. You may want normal vocal tracks. Who knows?

-Hoax
 
These are again, intentionaly distorted for a digital hardcore record (breakbeats w/ death metal guitars screaming etc.) They were recorded without distortion, but mixed down to file with distortion because that is how they were meant to be, the problem is not the overall sound (which I am quite happy with) but rather the afformentioned ocassional unnatural gating that seperates phrases and silence. Cruel hoax, your suggestion matches what I actually did the most, faded and smoothed the endings and then left the rest so that it is a little strange and added even more ditortion, because that is how this sort of thing is supposed to be, thanks for the advice.
 
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