Wow, this thread has certainly blossomed. Let me throw this out there: Mick Jagger.
Now that you’ve thought about someone who has been making a fairly handsome living for 50 years by singing using a voice that is the equivalent of doing brain surgery with a snow shovel, we can agree that a great performance is all that matters.
Use what you have with conviction, do your best with what you have to work with, print it, and start the next one. In the long run it is the character of the performance that makes it unique, and you’re not doing opera, so let it fly.
I know some folks have meantioning doubling before. I tend to record with two different mics to balance my sound out a little, but even then I don’t like my voice too much when I’m listening to it on its own, so most times I quickly drop it into the mix before doing major tweaks.
Do you mean to use mics on top of each other? Because I would be wary of phase issues if they aren’t exactly placed. Using both could end up creating more of a mess than it would solve, wouldn’t it?
Would it be similar to using a pair of mics to record acoustic guitar, for example? One config could be to sing into a directional mic like an SM58 (or higher-end equivalent if you dislike that mic) with a condenser mic a few feet away or something. I realize I have no idea what I’m talking about here!
Aye. Phasing is something to watch out for. But is works out better than the multiple recordings I was comping together to get what I wanted before.
As for the other question. No not paired. Although a paired mic set would be something I want to do in the future. I don’t have that yet. But I do have a ribbon mic and a condensor mic. So I pick up slightly different emphasis on my voice from each mic.
Long thread! Sorry if I’m duplicating answers couldn’t go through all the replies too closely…
I can relate to not liking the sound of your own voice.
For me it was a quest to find the right microphone and the right preamp.
The only way I can try something is to own it.
So I bought a mic then tried using it for some time, like weeks then if it wasn’t working I sell it on ebay.
After about 4 mics I settled on the Sputnik mic. Same process with preamps, didn’t like the Meek one and had some cheaper ones where you change the tube around etc. they were all cool but didn’t work for me. Then I got the FMR preamp/compressor which worked. So this took a few years all in all.
That was a good start. Lately I’ve been liking a few of the specialized vocal channel artist things from waves. The last thing I got was waves triple D plug in. Not magic but I like what it can do to my voice.
No toxic relationship…
The goal of the thread was to ask if I was alone having trouble EQ-ing my own voice.
There’s been plenty of good answers and food for thoughts…
I don’ worry about it. My voice is my voice and people way worse than me have made huge careers out of their own weird voices, so fuck it. I sing the way I sing, sometimes pitchy, sometimes good, and don’t worry about it, I treat vocals as just another instrument in the mix and mix accordingly. I’m not one that believes vocals are more important than anything else.
Yeah but does it really? Or is that chronic self-criticism I can hear? I bet if the voice had come out of someone else’s mouth you wouldn’t have problem.
I have a similar problem recording myself playing guitar or bass. If I don’t keep telling myself to remain detached I end up running round in ever decreasing circles until I disappear up my own arsehole.
I think the key is the self-talk. Just keep telling yourself whatever you need to in order to remain detached, so that you can apply unbiased objectivity.
@AJ113
Yep I think you have summarised that nicely… it’s the ‘detachment’ that is the key. When I’m in mixing mode, I tend to listen to my sounds as sounds.
It’s when I switch from that to a more interpretive form of listening that all sorts of extraneous judgement stuff rocks on in and messes up my detachment.
Singing…Not even in the shower. But i’m planning to sing for a special song that i have composed recently. Or maybe @Emma can give me a hand with the chorus?
I figured I should address the phasing issue if anyone chose to try what I mentioned.
I use the Little Labs IBP from UAD to clean up any potential issues there. http://www.uaudio.com/uad-plugins/special-processing/little-labs-ibp.html
I first looked at that tool when I was reading an article on Paul Epworth and how he used the hardware version on drums, because he liked to manually adjust drums and take advantage of proximity effect instead of using EQ. I of course had to experiment.
