Anybody knows how to create the Enya vocals sound?

[funkychickendance]

And... about the live performance... If I remember correctly there were a few occasions when she performed "live". "May it be" at the Oscar ceremony few years ago for example. Actually she just sings over the singback (if that's the correct term).

Just like Eminem

Now, that's what I call talent.

Meantime, I remind myself that I once asked to be seated in the 'Enya-free zone' at a local restaurant.

Funny, ennit? There's no need for a 'Cher-free zone,' is there? Sounds a bit too Heimlich, I suppose.

/fcd

[Shane Sanders]

One of the keys to the type of vocal sound being discussed is the unpitched breath noise. When you layer 30 takes, the cumulative chorusing effect of the noise is pleasing.

I was told by someone in the know that Queen used to record their chant parts many many times over, but then add some additional takes of them whispering the part. Apparently, just like in a really huge choir, when you have all that raspy throat noise adding up, it results in the Enya sound.

[xander]

One of the keys to the type of vocal sound being discussed is the unpitched breath noise. When you layer 30 takes, the cumulative chorusing effect of the noise is pleasing.

I was told by someone in the know that Queen used to record their chant parts many many times over, but then add some additional takes of them whispering the part. Apparently, just like in a really huge choir, when you have all that raspy throat noise adding up, it results in the Enya sound.

Good point indeed. I reckon a good example to hear that effect would be her song "Carribean Blue".

[LIMITAPROACHINGINFINITY]

OOOOOOONNNNLLLLYYYY TIMMMMEEEEEEE!!!!!

[Landphil]

Here's a couple of interviews I found if anyone's interested. Not really a lot said about the studio process, tho...

Nicky Ryan interview

Versatility was vital during the creation of the Watermark album. Enya has said that Ryan often asks her to sing a section ’60 or a hundred times’, and Ryan himself admits that he’s surprised at the range of strange noises Enya is prepared to try. ‘She is so open to ideas,’ he said. ‘She’ll sing anything I ask her to sing as far as musical sound is concerned – she’ll experiment endlessly. If I ask her to go... (he blows a raspberry) into the mike, she’ll go right ahead and do it.
Vocal harmonies are at the centre of what we do, absolutely – and I use a phenomenal amount of reverb on the sound. In fact, I still don’t think there’s enough. A company called Lexicon have finally come up with a reverb I might use from now on, the 4ADL, and both the Alesis Company and Roland have developed some amazing equipment. In fact I might use a combination of all three of those for the next LP. I guess we’ll all have to wait and see what happens.’

Interview with Nicky & Enya

1988 interview with Enya

[opia]

take one cup of tepid water

add 2 scoops of wispy irish waif

stir slowly whilst gazing at the muffin crumbs on the counter

[LBN]

More info:

Outboard gear is kept to a functional minimum; two MIDIverb IIs ("I prefer them to the super duper machines"), an ATC Q1 reverb and a Roland SDE-1000 digital delay. Nicky uses no compression whatsoever, preferring to let the music breathe freely, saying: "It's time engineers got back to listening to sounds and not flavour of the month. I wish they'd stop reading Studio Sound for a while. It pisses me off."

Nicky and Enya build up the huge vocal swathes which are so much a feature of the sound, by patiently layering sometimes dozens of tracks, bouncing them onto a Sony F1 and then spinning them back in. Many engineers remain unconvinced by the F1 but, as with everything, Nicky is practical and philosophical about this.

"The F1's better than DAT because it has an accurate pause button, even though the DAT sounds better."

[VitaminD]

Here's a couple of interviews I found if anyone's interested. Not really a lot said about the studio process, tho...

Nicky Ryan interview

Versatility was vital during the creation of the Watermark album. Enya has said that Ryan often asks her to sing a section ’60 or a hundred times’, and Ryan himself admits that he’s surprised at the range of strange noises Enya is prepared to try. ‘She is so open to ideas,’ he said. ‘She’ll sing anything I ask her to sing as far as musical sound is concerned – she’ll experiment endlessly. If I ask her to go... (he blows a raspberry) into the mike, she’ll go right ahead and do it.
Vocal harmonies are at the centre of what we do, absolutely – and I use a phenomenal amount of reverb on the sound. In fact, I still don’t think there’s enough. A company called Lexicon have finally come up with a reverb I might use from now on, the 4ADL, and both the Alesis Company and Roland have developed some amazing equipment. In fact I might use a combination of all three of those for the next LP. I guess we’ll all have to wait and see what happens.’

"the 4ADL" ?? are you sure they didnt mean "480L" ??

[Frippertronix]

"If I ask her to go... (he blows a raspberry) into the mike, she’ll go right ahead and do it."

Ouch! Not into my mic she wouldn't!

If you like Enya, remember she was also in Clannad for two years (sister of the main singer and a few other members).

[Landphil]

"the 4ADL" ?? are you sure they didnt mean "480L" ??]

Phonetic spelling of numbers?

More info:

That's more like it!

Looks like Landphil will be taking LBN's "How To Do A Proper Search" course this winter!

[Voidoid Surrealist]

Grow up among speakers of several gaelic dialects, in a family that has a heritage of mouth music.

Puirt-a-beul

[TheMelodian62]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

Check this out for the Enya like sounds; it wasn't on purpose at all, tracks 1 and 3.

EP: “Above The Clouds” by the Melodian



ALSO

EP: “Kingdom of Neptune” by the Melodian

Listen to the whole EP, but pay attention to tracks 2 and 4, again just by chance I was looking for something different and creative. Enjoy!

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list ... QvD7HZcIvI (https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nfPw7NKLRAwv0nKTwwXyjNXQvD7HZcIvI)

I don't know if it was her voice that was sampled in the software or not or just somebody that sounds like her. Maybe someone can answer that question.


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The Melodian