Daisy,

I don't think Dan is in full agreement with Silvertones from the other thread. Here, there's a whole lot of work on EQing, without an intended goal in mind. What effect or tendency is the outcome of doing all the different EQ work?

Of course the goal should be to nail a track in one take. That is always the goal. But what exactly does 'nailing it' mean?

I like to have a little menu to pick from with my vox. If time allows, I KEEP 3 keeper takes around if I know I'm going to be doing some downstream studio trickery. It's much easier to get the vox all at one time than to try to go back to add to it.

I'll give an example: I had a pretty bad sinus infection one February last year, where I was writing and recording 14 songs in the month of February (trust me, with that kind of a schedule, you keep first takes). It got so bad during the month, that my voice lowered several steps beyond what was typical. I wrote and recorded these two songs that month, amongst others. These are songs intended for kids, mind you - not masterpieces of songwriting:

Before sinus infection took hold:
http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/fawm2009/Scott%20Lake%20-%20Hoodie.mp3

After sinus infection took hold:
http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/fawm2009/Scott%20Lake%20-%20Moe%20theToe.mp3

On Moe the Toe, I knew that my voice probably wouldn't sound that way anytime soon. So I took more takes than I usually do. I kept the best bits from all 3.

Your favorite recording vocalists - my money is on the fact that they do more than one take and they keep more than one take, and the results you hear are comp'ed, most of the time.

Back to the topic:

Another technique that is somewhat popular that can do some of what might be looked for with the 'exciter' mentality is to track one time through while whispering the words. Then you high-pass filter that track and mix it in with the main vocal to where you can clearly hear it, then dial it back a couple of dB. This can give definition to fricatives as well as provide a little 'buzz' for the vox, without having access to an exciter unit or plugin.

This is not unlike intentionally adding slight hints of overdrive to guitars and drums (yes, I said drums).

-Scott

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