3Q settings for recording vocals

[scifisol]

hi all,
this is my first post and with a bit of a rookie question at that! :p
i just got the 3Q to help in recording my vocals, and have recorded several takes of the same song with less than stellar results as far as the sound being a bit overloaded and muddy. not being a master engineer myself, i was wondering if anyone could give me some basic settings for compression and eq for doing vocal recording using a condenser mic.

cheers,
christina

[remco]

difficult to answer
Wich type/brand mic you are using ?

I would start with the eq and comp off
try the get a decent level and sound without overloading
now start playing with the comp and/or eq

Remco

[Reid Mason]

hi all,
this is my first post and with a bit of a rookie question at that! :p
i just got the 3Q to help in recording my vocals, and have recorded several takes of the same song with less than stellar results as far as the sound being a bit overloaded and muddy. not being a master engineer myself, i was wondering if anyone could give me some basic settings for compression and eq for doing vocal recording using a condenser mic.

cheers,
christina

Yeah, we'll need some more information before chiming in here with some help. In addition to the kind of mic, etc - what are you recording to?, how are you setting up the threeQ? We'll be glad to help - you should be able to get a great sound out of that box. We've got a guy who's a voiceover artist down in Florida who LOVES what it does. Not quite the same as singing, but his recordings are crisp and clear, with lots of "air" and an overall great sound.

[Del]

Learning how to sing and produce music people will actually want to listen to is probably the first step you should take. Based on your tracks on myspace you are a long way off from that. Why don't you just date a man who is able to do this ? You could have him do all the work for you, you could copy his work....If you have been musical all your life and all you have is what is on myspace then I suggest you find another profession.

[remco]

Why don't you just date a man who is able to do this ? You could have him do all the work for you, you could copy his work....If you have been musical all your life and all you have is what is on myspace then I suggest you find another profession.

Au, That's pretty harsh
I did not hear the tracks ,but if it is a hobby, (wich i suspect) then as long as you enjoy it, It does'nt matter that much. IMO

Have fun

Remco

[scifisol]

Learning how to sing and produce music people will actually want to listen to is probably the first step you should take. Based on your tracks on myspace you are a long way off from that. Why don't you just date a man who is able to do this ? You could have him do all the work for you, you could copy his work....If you have been musical all your life and all you have is what is on myspace then I suggest you find another profession.


you MUST be joking Del! i hope you are, if not, go back to the ice age.


To Reid:
i'm using an MXL condenser mic going into the JoeMeek, out to a Behringer mixer and into an m-audio ozonic soundcard midi interface recording into Ableton Live 5. For the settings on the JoeMeek, I have the threshold at about 5 with attack b/w 1-4, release at 5. eq w/ just a little roll off on the bass.
those are the basic settings i am working with at the moment, if that helps...

cheers!

[farny]

Learning how to sing and produce music people will actually want to listen to is probably the first step you should take. Based on your tracks on myspace you are a long way off from that. Why don't you just date a man who is able to do this ? You could have him do all the work for you, you could copy his work....If you have been musical all your life and all you have is what is on myspace then I suggest you find another profession.

Del, what kind of music do you produce? Did you record the official anthem of the Taliban? Why not provide constructive comments!!! :mad:

[lgo]

Learning how to sing and produce music people will actually want to listen to is probably the first step you should take. Based on your tracks on myspace you are a long way off from that. Why don't you just date a man who is able to do this ? You could have him do all the work for you, you could copy his work....If you have been musical all your life and all you have is what is on myspace then I suggest you find another profession.

she's big in scotland. glasgow's soma recordings has started a new label called pnuma records. scifisol's voice is featured on a couple pnuma releases coming out in july. and she didn't have to date anyone to lay down some seriously hot shit. she obviously can't post mp3s of the tracks, but just look for it at your local record store this july. i'm pretty sure it will be there.

- steve

[remco]

i'm using an MXL condenser mic going into the JoeMeek, out to a Behringer mixer and into an m-audio ozonic soundcard midi interface recording into Ableton Live 5.


that's a long signal chain
I think it's better like this:

mxl-> Joemeek -> recordingInterface(ableton???)
Going into the berhringer, degrades the signal.


eq w/ just a little roll off on the bass
Sound's okay to me

How close are you recording ? it sometimes it helps to get a bit more away from the mic to un-muddy a vocal and get a bit more overal sound

But the key is try,try try
repeat until satisfied

Good luck Remco

[Reid Mason]

Yep, skip the Behringer mixer for sure. You should be using the mixer only for monitoring playback. Your best bet would be to leave the EQ on your mixer flat (no boost or cut) or if it has a bypass, bypass the EQ altogether. That way you'll be hearing the tracks play back EXACTLY as they were recorded.

As far as settings for the threeQ, try this. First, turn the compressor and the EQ off. Set your mic up about 6 inches from the singer, and be sure you have a pop filter in between the capsule and the vocalist. Start with the preamp at 25 (which is actually 0), and sing into the mic. If the Peak light above the Preamp Gain knob does not light when you're singing your loudest, turn the know clockwise until it begins to flash. The key here is to have the PEak light flash ONLY in the loudest passages. Once you have that set up, you're ready to move on to the compressor. Turn the compressor on, and try the Compress at about 3 or 4, the attack at around 5, and the release somewhere around 1 or 2 o'clock. If you're not hearing the compressor work, rotate the Compress knob to the right. This increases the amount of compression. You should start to hear the softer passages come up in level, and if you yell, you'll hear it clamp down. Set it so that it sounds pleasing to your ear, and now you can move on to the EQ. Before turning the EQ on, set the LF at 0, MID at 0, and HF at 0. Then turn it on. Start by adding a bit of HF. You should hear the changes immediately (remember, you're listening just to the "highs"). Adjust it till it sounds crisp while singing, but not too cutting. Then turn the Mid Freq knob to around 2K, and rotate the MID knob right and left while singing and listening. Depending on a whole slew of factors (the room you're in, the microphone, singer, proximity of the singer to the mic) you may want to add mids (rotating past zero to the right) or subract mids (by rotating past zero to the left. You can pick out the specific frequency you want to address by adding or subtracting quite a lot, then sweeping the Mid Freq knob until you hear it effect the part of the sound you wish to address. I typically like to subract a bit of mids - but that's me. Once again, remember that while adjusting the EQ, you're only listening to the are affected by the knob your turning. try to ignore the rest. Once you have the MIDS where you want it, you can do the same with the Lows. Keep in mind (as mentioned above) that proximity of the singer to the mic will affect how "boomy" it sounds. Last, turn up the Output Gain until your input on the DAW is approaching zero. Be care to not go above zero.

Using this approach should put you on the path to getting a good sound. The key here is to remember to experiment. Experiment with mic placement, proximity of the singer, compression and EQ. A setting that works for one singer may be completely wrong for the next.

Last, I agree that we should do our best to keep our comments constructive. Not everyone who records music is a star. But, everyone who records SHOULD be allowed to enjoy it the process, and be encouraged to improve!

[scifisol]

thanks reid, this should help quite a bit!

--c

[Nik Keefe]

All good advice (apart from Del's, obviously!! :eek:), cutting out the Behringer is important for a couple of reasons. One is that it doesn't sound particularly great anyway ... but the second is that the line inputs on that mixer are just 10 or 20dB pads that then feed into the mic preamp. So in effect you're 'preamping' your mic twice ... wasting all the good sounds you will be getting from your Meek by squashing them down and adding additional unnecessary (sp?) noise.

For the same reason, make sure you are plugging into a line input on the Ozonic, NOT the mic input.

Well done on a classy and adult response to that rather unpleasant post by the way!!

Let us know how these bits of advice change things, I think it could be surprisingly dramatic!

Nik

[Thisisbay]

I Need help with My Joemeek threeq, im not getting a good sound out of it, i got a Emu 0404 interface, and my mic is a At 4050 n SE reflexion.. with those thing i should be getting way better sounds then im getting right now, and the room size its not that big its small.. so if anybody know what i should do help me out because im alll out of ideas

[Alan Hyatt]

I Need help with My Joemeek threeq, im not getting a good sound out of it, i got a Emu 0404 interface, and my mic is a At 4050 n SE reflexion.. with those thing i should be getting way better sounds then im getting right now, and the room size its not that big its small.. so if anybody know what i should do help me out because im alll out of ideas

Size of the room is not the issue as much as the acoustics of the room. You need to be sure your gain staging is right so you are not overloading or pegging the interface. Digital signals like to see about +15 FSD to get a good signal to noise. More than that you will get bad sound and distortion, less and you may not get enough signal.

I bypass the compressor and EQ and gain stage properly until you are happy with the sound, then add in compression and EQ. The threeQ is capable of wonderful sound if properly staged.

[Chris Martins]

I already own a OneQ and TwinQ for the studio, but I'm really thinking of adding a 3Q or 6Q in my vocal rig as a means of preamplification... I'll probably go the 6Q route as it's more gear than the 3Q for not so much more money, and I'm not willing to cut corners for a couple hundred buck... Also I want to keep it safe in the rack, but in any case, would there be a way to rack 2 3Qs for the road ? As the 3Q could be just enough for live shows...

[Alan Hyatt]

I already own a OneQ and TwinQ for the studio, but I'm really thinking of adding a 3Q or 6Q in my vocal rig as a means of preamplification... I'll probably go the 6Q route as it's more gear than the 3Q for not so much more money, and I'm not willing to cut corners for a couple hundred buck... Also I want to keep it safe in the rack, but in any case, would there be a way to rack 2 3Qs for the road ? As the 3Q could be just enough for live shows...

Two threeQ's can be racked to any 1U rack tray that has all the pre punched holes on the bottom. I believe they call them a universal rack tray. The threeQ has a threaded nut welded to the bottom of the chassis and accepts a threaded screw to lock it in(8mm I think!)...so the answer is yes, you can rack them side by side.

[Alan Hyatt]

I have a song that I want to get recorded nice. Im no expert, but I do have some good mics, a decent recorder/mixer, and a copy of Cool Edit Pro.

What I want to do is mic my 4x12 cab and also lay down the vocal track at the same time. My concern is getting a nice crisp and clean vocal track that does not have interference and bleed-over from the cab, which will be screaming.

Any ideas? Or will I have to lay the vocals down separately?


You should lay down the guitar and vocal tracks separately...

[Chris Martins]

Two threeQ's can be racked to any 1U rack tray that has all the pre punched holes on the bottom. I believe they call them a universal rack tray. The threeQ has a threaded nut welded to the bottom of the chassis and accepts a threaded screw to lock it in(8mm I think!)...so the answer is yes, you can rack them side by side.

Awesome !

Thanks Alan !