removing distortion from vocals

J

jerryroy

Resident Music Producer
i wanna know how do i get rid of distortion out of a vocal track that was recorded with clips?
 
Or distort the hell out of it and make it seem like it was done that way on purpose.
 
well its on a vocal track an u can hear the distortion in it and i want to know how to make it less obvious
 
It really depends on the distortion. But if you can't recut the vocal tracks, I'd suggesting trying to make lemonade from the lemons.

For sure, put an elliptic rolloff on the lows - A lot of the energy in distortion is more or less DC. That'll open up some headroom. If you have an FFT that you can isolate whatever frequencies are the most irritating, that'll help also. But that setting is going to change for every note the vocalist sings (or speaks, as there is always a tone).
 
Once again, an excellent lesson in why proper recording technique is SO important. The best way to remove clipping from a signal is make sure it doesn't get there in the first place....

...if it does get there in a significant way (extremely short duration clips can sometimes be taken out without obviously affecting the sound), then you either re-cut it, or live with having to compromise to the sound - either by a band-aid fix with EQ/plug-ins or as John suggested, adding more distortion to the track to make it seem more intentional.
 
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...or if your "clipping distortion" manifests itself as intermittent "pops" or "clicks"...

you may be able to physically cut out (i.e., remove) the offending areas while leaving the vocal performance virtually intact.
 
well with the music it sounds less obvious but u can still hear it but the vocalist aggreed to redo the whole take. but when i was eqing the mids it jus wen in your face an thanx for the info guys
 
(Entering broken record mode)

You do know what "normal" levels are, right?

Maximum peaks hitting *maybe* -12dBFS or so and all...?

Not saying you don't, but there are an awful lot of people out there who think "getting it hot but without clipping" is actually a good idea for some reason... Just covering the possibilities...
 
dfoster004 said:
Damn Massive, if only u had a dollar for every time you mention proper recording levels...lol
Click to expand...
If I only had a nickel for every time I found somebody beating the snot out of their front end... :D
 
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