Yikes! Lisping vocals

jinglebelle17 wrote on 4/20/2004, 8:51 PM
I am getting lisping pronunciations on female vocals with vegas 4.0, using relatively small diaphragm condenser mic (Oktava M012). What I mean is the "s" sounds a little like "th" and the "r" sound like "w". Sounds kind of underwater, no clarity. I am using no compression, no FX, etc. I have experiemented with pad and without pad, and adjusted gains on my pre-amps. Nothing seems to change. I am a newbie, so more sophisticated ideas are not yet on my radar. I just need to lay down clean tracks, won't be doing mixing here. I would really appreciate specific suggestions.

Could it be my soundcard? I haven't been able to get my m-audio soundcard to record multi-track with previous track monitoring, so my engineer hooked it through a Soundblaster card he had. I am stilll hooking through the m-audio too, and don't understand the hardware setup (sorry I am so clueless about this!)

One audio engineer I have worked with in the past said I need a different mic (AT440? or Studio Projects C1 for my budget), but I think it's much more than that. When I was using only the m-audio I recorded a piano and vocal (2 mics, single track, for reasons mentioned above) and I think the vocal sounded pretty good - it is hard to tell because of the spillover. But what I am getting now is completely unacceptable.
Thanks for advice!
J

Comments

drbam wrote on 4/20/2004, 9:38 PM
The soundblaster definitely could be causing the lack of "clarity." I'd never use one for serious recording. Try and get the maudio working correctly - many folks have problems with maudio drivers so you may consider dumping it and getting an Echo card. The 012 mic is not a good choice for vocals. Its almost impossible to avoid "plosives." However, it shouldn't sound "underwater" or muddy. What mic preamps are you using? This would factor in greatly to the quality of your recording. Post more info and some people here may be able to assist.

drbam
jinglebelle17 wrote on 4/21/2004, 2:17 AM
Thanks drbam! I would appreciate your recommendation for an Echo soundcard, lowest possible price. I am way over budget already, and still need to buy a decent vocal mic. The Oktavas are nice for my piano. I am using m-audio duo for my pre-amps and mic inputs. Have onboard (MB)soundcard also, not sure the specs. Legacy audio driver, soundmax, MAudio USB DUO, SB Live, on P4 machine, 2 hard drives 2.4 GHz, 2.4 GHz, 1 Gb RAM, etc

I have looked online at the mia. Will this go into a slot? And be compatible with my duo pre-amp/phantom power setup?
Thanks again for specific info, as I am approaching this from the art side with zero tech knowledge.
j
drbam wrote on 4/21/2004, 7:14 AM
Sounds like you can do with 2 in 2 out, so the Mia would be a great choice. It will go in a PCI slot. Since your maudio is USB, I suspect you may not be able to use just the mic pres but I'm not sure about this. You may need to check with maudio to see if/how it can be used with other cards. Maudio's support fairly sucks tho. You could sell your duo on ebay and purchase a Behringer UB802 ($50 street). The pres are as good or better than the duo and you would have far better monitoring functions. With an 802 and the mia, you would have NO compatibility issues. I would disable your onboard card and anything else that you absolutely don't need. Dump the soundblaster unless you absolutely need it for something else. There are a few sites that offer suggestions for optimizing Windows for audio work. If you want good results, then I suggest you optimize your system (do a search here or google).

HTH,

drbam
jinglebelle17 wrote on 4/21/2004, 1:24 PM
Thank you again. I will check with maudio about the MIA compatability. I looked online at the beringer802 you suggest. It scares me because of all the dials for mixing, fx, etc. I don't have a clue how to set those! I love the idea of only $50, as I paid $250 for the Duo. All I need is:
1. 2 mic inputs
2. pre-amps
3. phantom power
4. headphones out, though right now the engineer plugged it into my speaker with a Y and they work fine

It looks like the beringer fits this criteria, but can you tell me for sure? It doesn't mention phantom power as a feature, but there is a button on the photo. Can I put the dials at neutral straight up? Or do I need to hire an engineer in here again? As I mentioned, I will not be doing any mixing, etc.
I'm just trying to record clean piano and vocal tracks (separately).

Thank you so much drbam for your suggestions and comments!
Jeanni
drbam wrote on 4/21/2004, 3:11 PM
The learning curve on the 802 is very minimal and yes it has everything you need; phantom power, etc. The manual is quite clear and illustrated. There are some features you probably won't need/use so you will just ignore them. At any rate it would serve your needs well and if you need your engineer to assist you, it shouldn't be much of an investment. The set up I'm suggesting is as basic as it gets. ;-)

drbam