Voice getting old

[maarkr]

I'm in my late 60's with a decent tenor to alto voice, but in the songs I'm recording, the vocals sound too... "old, low, bass-y, fill in your adjective here"?
I mix and produce my own stuff, so I've tried using hi pass at different freqs, sweeping eq for sweet spots, formant shifting in melodyne, other effects. I can get some reasonable chorus parts since the melody is usually higher in the chorus, but then my range is limited. Singing lower notes for the verse portion just doesn't sound good. Any ideas that older singers take advantage of, or do I need to stick with a limited higher range, or something engineers use to keep the vocal brighter?

[Unaspected]

Embrace your vocal qualities. Johnny Cash sounded fantastic on his cover of Hurt.

If you want a younger voice - employ a younger vocalist.

[donkey tugger]

Tune everything else down? I'm in my 50s and have noticed a loss of range (the smoking probably doesn't help... ) too. Since you'd probably say I was a baritone, it's not as big a deal as for you I'd imagine.

What I have been doing though (and this also avoids string snappage on the 12 strings..grr) is routinely tuning the guitars to D rather than E. Makes hitting the higher notes that bit easier, but probably not much use if you play in a band!

[CHOOS]

Post an audio example here and we can see what we can do.
If you don't wanna post it for the public send it by DM.
I've a few tricks up my sleeve I can show but it always depends on the invldividual source

[maarkr]

VocTest.zip

short clip attached... I have many albums and I'm now working on a worship album. This has been 'melodyned' for pitch but is otherwise raw. It actually sounds better alone than in the mix... maybe that's part of the problem ( strings/guitar over G- C - Em -Am). The chorus melody follows starting in a higher range with A G F... and sounds better. I've recorded 3 different verse melodies since I have not liked the outcome, and will prob record a 4th later...

[CHOOS]

Yes I can see/hear exactly whats happening.
you're probably using a carioid microphone to help isolate you're voice from the room. The cardioid pattern on your mic (which is most likely fixed) means that you get the "proximity effect" which in simple words means when you're close to the mic it enhances the low frequencies in your voice which makes the lows stand out in the mix.

Using a slight hi-pass eq on you voice for the very bottom will help a little and then use a fairly wide multi-band compressor to only work on the region around 200Hz.
You can compress the whole signal after this.

TDR Nova is free and can do this very well.

I don't know if you lowered the quality of the sample to upload it but the recording quality wasn't great. And the auto-tune was a little too much and too aggressive with the correction timing. Which makes it sound less natural.

If you have a full track (even dry/original) and want me to have a go at it, let me know.

[Unaspected]

I haven't listened to the recording (on laptop) but going by what CHOOS has said, you might also consider experimenting with mic placement: Adjusting distance and recording with the mic off-axis might help.

[CHOOS]

I haven't listened to the recording (on laptop) but going by what CHOOS has said, you might also consider experimenting with mic placement: Adjusting distance and recording with the mic off-axis might help.

yes I actually was gonne mention that but then forgot. Ive found a good way is to have the mic instead of in front of you have it a a few inches to the left/right (@ around your ear)
This way you dont get plosives and can help with a bit of proximity too.

[Unaspected]

I haven't listened to the recording (on laptop) but going by what CHOOS has said, you might also consider experimenting with mic placement: Adjusting distance and recording with the mic off-axis might help.

yes I actually was gonne mention that but then forgot. Ive found a good way is to have the mic instead of in front of you have it a a few inches to the left/right (@ around your ear)
This way you dont get plosives and can help with a bit of proximity too.

Depends on the vocalist and their technique, of course. The edge of the mic diaphragm might bring out more grit if it's present in the voice.

If we're recording worship styles then we're possibly talking about more traditional singing so backing off on the mic might work here. Using some screening could help if the room sound doesn't sound good. I wouldn't worry about using specifically treated spaces as plenty of good recordings have been made in untreated locations.

One trick that springs to mind - for adding some lightness to a vocal - is to mix in a parallel channel with some high passed plate reverb on it: You'll want to use quite a high cut-off frequency on the filter - well above 1kHz; and then mix this signal into the input ahead of any compression so they hit the compressor with the vocal. Then mix the reverb up from zero to get the balance right.

[maarkr]

thanks, I use a cardoid so often that I forget about the prox effect, I will try using a couple different dynamic mics to see how that works... I was using a hi-pass on my mix at around 300hz but it still not suitable...
and I know there are other issues with the recording and melodyne, but this is a rough test and I'm trying to focus on the 'lowness' of the vocal... I also tested a vocal double that sits with it abt -10 db and has a hi-pass at arnd 1khz, but I still don't like it.
edit... tried the ol michael jackson sm57 trick and it did brighten up the top and cut back the bottom. don't think i'm done but it's an improvement.