Quote:

What makes some artists voice more pleasing to my ears than other artists - and how can I make my own voice more pleasing to my own ears ?

I've noticed that many of the artists I like have high voices that seem to really cut through the mix and have ?? rich frequency content ?. My voice is much lower, both in range, and I think 'frequency content richness' - though I've never passed it through a frequency analyzer.



If the comparison is being done between modern pro recordings you may have, there are *many* reasons for that.

The Audio Compressor is often used in Studios. Care and feeding of Audio Compressor is one of those things that many noobs attempt to either ignore or want magic "default" presets that instantly make this happen.

But learning a bit about the Audio Compressor and its uses in digital recording, whether a hardware unit between mic preamp output and computer's audio input, or "after the fact" application as an audio plugin at playback, can go a long way towards putting the vocal track out in front.

For example, an Optical Compressor, because of its sheer speed of operation, can be used to put the rather whispering singing of a performer overtop of the loudest band in the world. Some find the example I'm going to use rather dated, others seem not to get it due to the genre or other reasons, but a very good example of what the Compressor and EQ can do are any of the old Karen Carpenter recordings. Intimate, small, yet still warm and always "out in front" of the backing tracks.

Hardware Audio Compression is often used in live performance situations as well. Here it is a constant game of applying enough Compression while avoiding runaway feedback, though. This usually means settling for a more conservative setting than possible if you don't have an active sound engineer to keep things in constant control. There are, however, a few devices now on the market that utilize internal processors to do the job. Google, "DriveRack".


Quote:

Also - given my voice is in a lower range, how do I find the range, and how do I write music that will complement my lower range. For example, I think Billy Joel, Ian Anderson, and Jim Morrison all had lower ranges, and I'm willing to bet, the music they composed was designed around it - they're some of the fewer guys with deeper, lower voices that I like. But generally, I like the guys with higher voices, and in fact, I think most renowned singers have really high voices and ranges - Steve Perry, Freddie Mercury, the Gibb brothers (bee gees). Is there a logical reason for this ?



Use of a good Cardioid Dynamic mic in Live Performance can ease the situation a lot. The "Proximity Effect" of the Cardioid Dynamic mic is that situation where, when you get closer to the mic's element, there is more Bass, back away a bit and the Bass backs off. We male singers can use that to great advantage. This is why you will often see singers with their lips actually touching the mic's windscreen while singing certain passages and styles. The closer the lips get to the mic, the warmer that Bass Response sounds. And, it 'punches'.


--Mac

PGmusic FAQs, Tutorials and Updates! click here

You must be Audiominds.
www.audiominds.com