KVR Audio

ShylohMH · Post by **ShylohMH** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:39 pm

I have a rode nt-1a mic running in to the digidesign mbox. the vocals are clear but dont sound up in your face and warm. I do rap music so how do i go about getting that kind of sound.

jens · Post by **jens** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:46 pm

try blockfish

ShylohMH · Post by **ShylohMH** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:48 pm

where can i get that from?

spacefox · Post by **spacefox** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:04 pm

jens · Post by **jens** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:07 pm

http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.p ... &subItem=5

Endorphin (from the same site) is worth a try as well

b.t.w.: if someone at kvr mentions a plugin without giving a link it usually means it's in the kvr-database - then you can find the plugin by using the 'quick-links' in the top right corner of the screen.

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/861.html

grotman · Post by **grotman** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:32 pm

download all the fishfillets they are friggin great , dare isay it pro.... don't quote me on it but to my ears they are gold.(especially for free)

mr.me · Post by **mr.me** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 7:01 pm

ShylohMH wrote:I have a rode nt-1a mic running in to the digidesign mbox. the vocals are clear but dont sound up in your face and warm. I do rap music so how do i go about getting that kind of sound.

How many vacal layers do you have and do you use reverb?

ammoniad · Post by **ammoniad** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 7:45 pm

You may want to run your mike into a a tube preamp like that little blue box that Art use to make.

jones-y · Post by **jones-y** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 8:41 pm

Well, I wouldn't recommend that particular Art tube. (The ART MPA is pretty good though) The cheap tube pre's tend to be of the starved-plate-voltage design, which besides the tech talk, don't give you the sound of the more expensive tubes, which are not cheap at all. IMO they do more damage than good.

Save your scratch and get a UA M610 if you want the best vocal warming preamp money can buy. And they're relatively cheap at $1000 new and ~$600 used.

A good middle ground would be a Bellari RP220 or the afore-mentioned ART MPA. I have the Bellari and I did a side-by-side with my old M-Audio Omni Studio Pres, and the Presonus Blue Tube thingy and there was no competition.

Another angle to try would be to keep your current setup and get an outboard compressor. Again, for mid-range products, I recommend the ART VLA or the Bellari RP583. Or maybe an all-in-one pre/comp unit like the Bellari RP503, ART Pro Channel, or one of the Joe Meek units.

What preamp are you using now? Your mic is pretty decent, but you may want to step up to a better model. I would recommend, from experience, the Audio Technica AT4033. (that model works very well with the UA M610, I got to hear them together when a few of my vocalists went to a local studio to redo some vocals we had recorded on my AT3035/OMNI Studio pres. It was like night and day)

ShylohMH · Post by **ShylohMH** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:16 am

i have no preamp hooked up to the mic at the moment, just the mbox. someone at samash music store told me to get a channel strip and that will bring life to the vocals.

jens · Post by **jens** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:34 am

ShylohMH wrote:i have no preamp hooked up to the mic at the moment, just the mbox. someone at samash music store told me to get a channel strip and that will bring life to the vocals.

sure - he wants your money

seriously: if you have a nicely harmonic-distorted signal already before it goes into your soundcard that's a good thing... but if the signal is clean you can as well add everything you aim for in a at least satisfying quality with free plugins.

:-D

what about your experiments with Blockfish and Endorphin...? (I could name various others of course but these two are for sure a good start... ( the successor to Blockfish is included in Samplitude 8 pro now by the way

))

jones-y · Post by **jones-y** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:55 am

ShylohMH wrote:i have no preamp hooked up to the mic at the moment, just the mbox. someone at samash music store told me to get a channel strip and that will bring life to the vocals.

You do have a preamp. Its inside the mbox. There's no other way to record a condenser mic. The best way to get a good vocal is to have a good mic/preamp combo. They can go into the thousands. You have a decent mic, now you may want to consider getting a respectable preamp.

Having said that, there's only so far plugins will take you. Plugins will not make a decent mic sound like an esoteric $5000 german unit, and they will not make a cheap preamp sound like a Great River Unit. So it really depends on how serious you are. If this is your hobby, then stick with, and master, what you have (you'll also gain the advantage of experience, when you do get better equipment) but if you are making money with this, or you plan to, then look at it as an investment. A carpenter wouldn't go to the job site with a subpar hammer. But the guy fixing his own banister will use a hairbrush to knock that nail in...

Of course there's a middle road, which is why I mentioned some of the units in my first post. I'd personally recommend Bellari's stuff, since I have a tube preamp from them, and Joe Meek also has a good rep. But keep in mind, you won't notice a huge jump in sound quality, it'll be better, but not vastly better. That doesn't happen until you get up in the $500-1000 per-preamp-channel price range.

xmuzik · Post by **xmuzik** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:21 am

Antares Tube Costs $399

and is a software that works great and is probably what your looking for until you can spend some thick dollars for pro gear and a diamond necklace

Improv · Post by **Improv** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 7:28 am

xmuzik wrote:Antares Tube Costs $399

Actually, it costs $129 USD from their online store:

https://transactions.antarestech.com/se ... Store.aspx

stale bread · Post by **stale bread** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 7:53 am

hi, it really depends on exactly what kind of vocals you are going for, could you give some examples of other artist vocal sounds cause rapvocal sounds really vary, for instance for some it's a must that you use compression and some artist absolutely refuse to use it, same goes for reverb these people have completely different vocal sounds and techniques

lil jon
aceyalone
ELp-(company flow)
snoopdog
gift of gab from blackalicous
mobdeep
jurassic 5
mos def
jay-z

Warmer in ur Face Vocals