Karaoke Forums

During my live band years, I've accumlated several different effect units:
Digitech Vocalist VR
Boss RV 70 Digital Reverb Unit
Alesis MidiVerb 4

Most of the time, I use a slight reverb, with a very tight slapback delay to thicken and slightly sustain notes.

Do any of you use any type of vocal effects, or do the majority just go with the basic reverb and leave it at that?
Just curious.

James
Maninblack

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For the most part just some reverb to wetten up the sound.  On certain songs such as "Black Magic Woman", "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" and any rockabilly stuff some delay is good to.

As far as I am concerend, it's much better to have understated effects than too much.  Also, I hate a completely dry sound.  To me it just doesn't sound natural.

Larry

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Using the Mackie CFX-12, I like to use a slight amount of the "Cathedral" setting on my effects as a base line.  Not much but just enought for starts.  And of course that is for my main gig; based on the room.  Other places I have found the "Spring" or "Phaser" the better.  The "Cathedral" seems to take the vocals and "wrap" into the music; (if that makes any sense.)

Kelly

I use the internal reverb on the CFX12 usually run a medium-large plate with an external Lexicon MPX110 running a delay.  How much, depends on the song.  Sometimes I will also run the delay trail into the reverb (great for Aerosmith - Dream on) or run the reverb into the delay - again, depends on the song.

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Alesis Micro verb.   14 years.  I bought a Lexicon MX 200 over 6 months ago, it's still in the box.    Music guy says they are suppose to be really good.

Lexicon are about the the best for reverbs in the lower price ranges.

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I have spent many 8 hour days playing all genres thru a system and figuring out which Fx they applied to the vocals and each instrument. I could write 40 pages in this post and you still wouldnt know anything I could show you at a show wat Fxare all about but it ties in with audio procs etc... There is no magical formula for apllying fx What works one time will be totally overdone in another instance. Spend many hours playing mp'3s thru your system and see wat works then do it in your venue.
I rarely put  a link to a personal post in my forum but here it is. re-mastering

Thanks karoker. I'm quite familiar with some of the items mentioned in your article.
I also do computer composition as well. I normally will use BBE on individual tracks, especially vocal and acoustic tracks, then use T-racks for my final mixdown.
I also use quite a bit of the Sonic Foundry/Sony software, such as Acid, Soundforge.
For my effects I've often used Native Instrument Wavs packages.  
Mainly what I've been doing lately is composing tunes more or less in the form of sound test, combining several different bass, drums, drone frequencies and running them as a p.a. test when I first set up. Then I'll use the actual Karaoke disc to tweak it. So far so good.  
My interest was if there were any folks going the extra steps with the vocals. I view Karaoke the same way as I do a live band sound when it comes to vocals, and actually go the extra effort to make the singer sound better than they really are. I was more or less curious as what others were doing along these lines.
Your article is very good by the way, thanks for sharing.

James
Maninblack

_________________
I serve no man and am loyal to only one God.

Being critical of a person's success in any respect speaks volumes about the lack of your own.

Love as though you've never been hurt, Dance as though no one's watching, Sing as though God Himself were listening.

I have the Mackie DFX 12, and Reverse is my "standard", I guess, I try to change it up according to song, but I believe "Reverse" and ''Delay 1 "are probably my most used effects, thought I'll have to remimber to try "Cathedral" this week. (Kellyoke, are you using Cathedral for Country, or what type of music?)

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I use a Behringer Virtualizer Pro; the presets cover the bases and then some, and the price was decent.

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Sounds Great! Entertainment
Bartlett, Illinois

On an MG16/4 Yamaha, we mostly use the verb3 preset at the bare min. A lot depend on the singer and the room. For example, I was setting the system in the church a few months back and it has a natural cathedral  exf. and no exf was use. In the more open space we use vocal reverb with echo set low. But I personally like reverb with some delay.
Now that we have a Lex MX200 (the one Keith sent me) we will have more to choose from. We will have the first real practised with it this week end.

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Country music doesn't have a lot of reverb in the vocal mix, usually.   Rock songs have a fair amount.  I have noticed oldies from the sixties have a lot of reverb.    Cathedral would probably never be used.     Might work on some Led Zepplin songs.

Midiverb 4 here and I really like it. I use one of 3 pre set settings depends on the song. One of these days I need to sit down and experiment and come up with some custom settings.

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gahmc,

Yes I have used it for country also.  I don't mean heavily.  Just a tad.  Other places I have worked I woudn't think of using it.  You have to realize all rooms are different.  And some can really be a bugger until you find out what works best.  It just works best for me in this location.

Kelly

Thanks for the reply Kellyoke,

Yeah, even trying to "go by the book" doesn't seem to work for me, I just try to go by ear.  I haven't had any complaints, but I'm a netorious perfectionist, and always trying to learn ways to improve my sound........That's why I LOVE this place.

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One thing about effects (this will confuse ya  :whistle: ) you just want it underlying, it shouldn't be "heard" or overtaking the regular vocals - although there are some songs that are intentionally recorded that way.  
Overall, you shouldn't be able to hear the effect, but notice if it isn't there!  EVERY song - every genre in recorded history has some kind of effect on vocals, be it ever so slight you don't think it's there - it is.

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Didn't confuse me one bit  :D  But therein is where our mixing talents come in is recognising that there are effects in every song, and knowing which ones to add, because, of course, the good mix is the ones you don't notice the effects in....

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Lonman hit it on the head.  One thing that I think can really help anyone; set your equipment up at home where it it quiet.  Play some music or sing with everything flat.  Then one at a time insert each of your effects and listen to how it affects your sound.  Learn what each of your effects will do so you will have a better idea when your setting up at your gig.  And then you can experiment again all over when you start adding dampining and time delay.  Ain't sound fun?

Kelly

However....... a good echo and delay can make a bad singer sound tolerable. It's a judgement call. and as far as a lot of echo when I am singing. It isn't going to happen. I like to hear the clean notes. No vibrato. If I cant hit it, I don't sing it.

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That actually goes for ALL equipment too.  LEARN what each & every knob, effect, processor does.  There are several easy to understand articles on the basics of everything from mixing to processors to more complex systems.  You just need to do a little research - you'd be surprised what you can learn & how it will affect your sound for the better.

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