Deep and WET vocal sounds

Tyler

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Apr 20, 2004
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I am trying to figure out what makes a vocal sound dry vs wet. I am not
referring to the amount of ambience (real or artificial) in a vocal
recording. I am referring the the timbre of the vocal. I realize most
of it comes down to the tone of the vocalist, but it seems like some
mics may flatter or accentuate this tendency.

The best analogy I can think of to describe what I mean by dry vs wet
is in guitar tone. Think of a the clean guitar tone from a shitty
transistor amp. No matter the EQ of the tone, it has a thin "dry"
stiff, 2 dimensional sound to it. Now think of a tube brownface fender
clean tone. Even with similar overall EQ, it sounds lush deep and wet
and 3d.

My questions are:

1) What the hell am I hearing? Is it really timbre? Or is it the
envelope/transients? Other non-linearities/distortions?

2) How can I move towards this sound, specifically with vocalists that
may not be George Jones or Roy Orbison.


To give an idea of my signal chain, I am recording with a delta 1010,
using modest mics and pres:

AT3035
MXLV67G

Also other "non-vocal" mics (no such thing):
SM57
MXL603s
SP C4

Presonus MP20 (jensen trannies)
Peavey VMP2


Short of upgrading the talent in front of the mic, what would give me a
greater improvement in realism of my recordings, a new mic or better AD
converters? I have been looking at the Lucid 2 channel box.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>From: tyler@dhiw.com
>Date: 10/25/04 8:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <1098749295.956445.141940@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
>
>I am trying to figure out what makes a vocal sound dry vs wet. I am not
>referring to the amount of ambience (real or artificial) in a vocal
>recording. I am referring the the timbre of the vocal. I realize most
>of it comes down to the tone of the vocalist, but it seems like some
>mics may flatter or accentuate this tendency.
>
>The best analogy I can think of to describe what I mean by dry vs wet
>is in guitar tone. Think of a the clean guitar tone from a shitty
>transistor amp. No matter the EQ of the tone, it has a thin "dry"
>stiff, 2 dimensional sound to it. Now think of a tube brownface fender
>clean tone. Even with similar overall EQ, it sounds lush deep and wet
>and 3d.
>
>My questions are:
>
>1) What the hell am I hearing? Is it really timbre? Or is it the
>envelope/transients? Other non-linearities/distortions?
>
>2) How can I move towards this sound, specifically with vocalists that
>may not be George Jones or Roy Orbison.
>
>
>To give an idea of my signal chain, I am recording with a delta 1010,
>using modest mics and pres:
>
>AT3035
>MXLV67G
>
>Also other "non-vocal" mics (no such thing):
>SM57
>MXL603s
>SP C4
>
>Presonus MP20 (jensen trannies)
>Peavey VMP2
>
>
>Short of upgrading the talent in front of the mic, what would give me a
>greater improvement in realism of my recordings, a new mic or better AD
>converters? I have been looking at the Lucid 2 channel box.
>

If you have a problem with the singer is there really any way to make it sound
like a real pro? I think not.