A truly addictive song consists of excellently composed music and equally good vocals. Just like music is subject to editing, there are tricks that can make your voice sound better in the final product.
What Makes a Good Voice?
A really good voice in the music industry is a product of quality sound recording, processing by audio engineers and of course the vocalist’s skill himself.
Speaking of the voice itself, the following points are of greatest importance:
- Ability to control your vocals. It’s a key requirement for performers. The vocalist mustn’t go off the pace or sing in the wrong key.
- Clarity. It’s good if listeners can discern what you are singing about. Of course, there are genres of music in which the voice sounds more relaxed, but nevertheless, it will be noticeable by ear if the matter is in a particular style or pronunciation.
- Loudness. It’s imperative that the volume of the vocals blend well with the music, so that the singer doesn’t shout over a quiet melody or, on the contrary, his quiet muttering wouldn’t be heard. It’s important to choose the volume at which the overall musical composition sounds at its best.
- Tone. In simple terms, this is the general sound of the voice. It creates the song mood and in no case should be lifeless and monotonous.
- Compliance with style. Your vocal performance should match the genre and the mood of the song.
If you aren’t sure that you are good with all the points, it’s worthwhile to improve a vocal voice with a coach.
Effects to Make Your Voice Sound Better
Even if your voice isn’t as perfect as you’d like, it can be brought to perfection by mixing mastering sound. Experienced mixing and mastering engineers know how to make your voice sound at its best.
Nowadays, professionals often use these techniques to modify voices:
- boosting top-end to make the voice recorded on a more budget microphone sounds better;
- if after the top-end boosting the voice becomes more sibilant, it’s corrected with the help of de’esser;
- boost-and-sweep technique is used to get rid of resonances;
- levelling out the vocal with automation;
- multiband compression to eliminate single frequency-based shortcomings;
- subtle reverb or chorus to add width and depth to the voice.
In general, the whole process to make sound voice as professional as possible is the most time-consuming process in mixing, because, at the same time, you need not to overdo it with effects so that they become too noticeable to the listener. Soundful has built the ultimate, completely customizeable song generation platform that is learning every day.
Basic Rules for Proper Studio Voice Recording
Even if you have great vocals, there may be interferences during the voice recording phase that will affect the recording quality. Of course, many problems can be relatively solved at the stage of mixing and mastering, but it’s better to avoid them initially and save yourself and audio engineers from unnecessary work.
There are a few basic rules that will help you create quality voice music:
- Preparing for recording. It’s not a good idea to start recording right after you run out of breath while running into the studio. Tune in, drink enough water, or even better, take the time to practice at home and figure out which part of your performance you like and which you don’t. This will avoid the exhausting takes repetition in the studio.
- Proper handling of the microphone. Please note that unnecessary head movements, breathing and distance from the microphone will affect the recording quality. Control the required volume level by approaching or moving away from the microphone. Of course, it’s undesirable to move your head and thereby create interferences. Don’t breathe into the microphone, but instead breathe in turning head sideways. Be careful not to hiss pronouncing S and F, and avoid popping pronouncing P and B.
- Pick a microphone that sounds best for your singing.
- Work on the vowel shaping.
- Sing with emotion. The listener won’t be able to feel the song on an emotional level unless you do it in the first place. Imagine that the song is an appeal or a story for an imaginary person in front of you: sing with the same mood and intonation that you’d use in live communication to convey the essence of the song.
Of course, the first time you record in the studio, you’ll be a little nervous. Just give yourself time to tune in, keep these rules in mind and you’ll succeed!
Conclusion
Thus, creating a great-sounding voice is largely dependent on the performer himself, his technique and persistent practice to achieve the desired result. But the work of audio engineers also significantly affects the final product, smoothing out irregularities and making the merits more noticeable.