Finding online examples of vocals manipulated by sound engineers.

Following up on the last post, I continued to research how vocals are treated by sound engineers and what the differences sound like, so I’ll mention a few below that I thought were helpful.   If you want to save time you can listen to this first video from 1:10:30 to 1:11:30 and from 1:14:30 to 1:15:30:

I can imagine that more than a few people might say that Lemmy sounds like “just some old man croaking” when they hear just the main vocal track, without effects.  And here is a video for those who want extreme distortion effects that might not require any ability to sing:

Then there is an example of what a “quality” compressor can do (you can fast forward to 20:00):

This video provides the most examples of slight modifications, but at the beginning, when he says, “we’re going to listen to it without anything,” it sure sounds like it has been auto-tuned (and she was likely using one of the best mics available):

The comments are often quite interesting to read as well.  For example, for the video above there were these:

what a lot of these mixing tutorials fail to explain is that these top dudes aren’t receiving stems recorded on a tiny interface with a $200 mic with no pre, performed by an aspiring artist/producers lol The most important thing is that they’re getting tracks produced out by some of the best producers, writers, singers/artists and engineers. AND a huge bonus is that it gets tracked through some amazing equipment, but that isn’t the most important thing. so if you’re starting out, try focusing on making great content and making it sound great through your system by any means!

And:

I learned this the hard way… good is nice, but amazing is beyond this world (planning on getting a channel strip, I’ve watched youtube videos /MixbusTV/ and it seems using hardware (preamp, compressor for Vocals) is a game changer.

After watching these, I found a good deal on a used iPhone 4s, and after watching videos such as these two (directly below), decided to buy it.  I intend to write up a post about my “experiments” with it (I already own a Samson Go USB mic), probably within the next two months at most:

In the video titled, “A little sample of the Samson Go mic,” if you start around 6:30, you’ll hear him speaking with a different mic, then he switches over to the Samson, and when he sings he’s got compression and reverb effects from the Garageband software.  What’s odd (to me) is how you can hear strong reverb when  he’s talking but not while he’s singing with instrumental accompaniment.  So, if you decide to record yourself with no accompaniment, you might want to save a version with  reverb and one without it (if you add reverb later, of course; otherwise you might have to record yourself twice if you do it the way he does).

I’d say the most important thing I’ve learned is to be subtle with my vocals rather than to try and “show off,” such as with extreme note bending.  Once you have a sense about what your singing voice sounds like after manipulation with basic sound engineering, you can figure out how to optimally “shape” your singing.  But do you worry about “sounding bad” or “having bad tone.”  And certainly do not be concerned about those who dislike your genre and/or stylistic preferences.  My advice: learn the fundamentals of singing and then think about genre/style as well as sound engineering; otherwise it’s “putting the cart before the horse.”  And while you are learning do not be mislead by “fake” videos, for example:

I think this person recorded himself and is lip syncing here.  I’ve seen people either sing live at low volume (with the original studio recording playing at high volume), or else they play the recording of themselves singing the song at perhaps 10%, with the studio recording at 90%, and they lip sync it.  The sound quality one would expect if he was singing in a walk-in closet with no sound treatment on the walls is absent.  By contrast, this seems to be a “real” performance, though possibly with a mic that would be too expensive for most of us:

NOTE:  As of this date I am still offering a free first lesson/assessment with absolutely no obligation of any kind.  Just email me: nickspinner55@gmail.com.  Also, I won’t give your personal information to anyone else.  I might reference your singing on some blog posts if you provide me with audio clips, so let me know if you don’t want me to do that, but remember that the idea is to help aspiring singers!  If you have publicly posted on sites like Youtube or Soundcloud, I’ll assume it’s okay to link to those in my blog post.  I can’t guarantee that there is room for you in my schedule at any given time, and the earliest I can schedule new lessons will be some time in July, 2020, but I should be able to provide you with some advice that might be helpful, after getting a sense of where you’re at.