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stefanz40219435
Inspiring
December 18, 2019
Answered

Harsh vocals

  • December 18, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 2910 views

Hi!  I recently bought a a song in CD quality from Qobuz but I noticed that the vocals in parts of it were harsh and peaked (like you know for example if there is a prolonged "ooooo" or "aaaaaaaa" in the song(when they prolong the end of words) sometimes it sounds harsh and unnatural. I can't explain it better sorry. Do you have any idea how can I fix this in Adobe Audition if I can at all. It's probably bad recording or something but if you got tips on this it would be cool. I tried compression but the results aren't very satisfying,the whole song gets quieter. Do you know what effect could fix that and make the voice smoother but in the same time alter as little as possible the music and the whole song itself.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer SteveG_AudioMasters_

    if there is a follow up you can send it to me if not thanks a lot! I could also work on the louder bits to see if they can be improved but it honestly sounds almost perfect.


    Since it was still there, it occured to me that if I swapped the processing order slightly I might be able to optimise it a bit better, especially at the end. Part of the problem is that she moved back just a bit too far from the mic, which altered the vocal perspective in a way that didn't match the backing properly - especially on that long-held note. I split the vocal perspective adjustments into four parts, which now match the orchestration slightly better. I've juggled the stereo perspective slightly differently - hopefully this won't upset you so much - and done a classic 'scoop' on it in two goes, which improves the bottom end, I think.

     

    But you are correct; without the stems there's a limit to what can be done, and I think I may have reached it...

    1 reply

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
    Community Expert
    December 19, 2019

    It's very unlikely that a commercially recorded work would sound that bad, in my experience - although not absolutely impossible I admit. But without actually hearing the work in question, there's no way we could give you any information about rectifying any aspect of it, simply because all audio is different; no one-size-fits-all solution for anything like this. Also, what you monitor on can make a significant difference to your perception, and it's very easy to alter something to compensate for deficiencies in that, and have it sound lousy on everything else you play it on. So at the very least we'd need a reference for the track in question...

    S
    stefanz40219435Author
    Inspiring
    May 2, 2021

    Hey so I completely forgot about this question,I found out since then that listening to that song it sounds way better if I put the 8k on the equalizer basically at the bottom then the problem's fixed but evrything becomes more muffly naturally. So if you are still on that here's the track. Listen to 52 seconds the oooo there. and there is the fix I found. It's Bulgarian but I think you will hear it it's nothing to do with the language it's basically let it go in bulagrian.

     

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 2, 2021

    I downloaded the track and yes, it sounds muffled, and no, it's not a brilliant vocal recording - well I don't think it is anyway. But... it's not that bad. So I put your 12dB at 8k back, but rather more importantly normalized the track back to -1dB because it was clipping quite badly - for all I know that could easily have accounted for your harsh sound. Anyway, on some very fussy Neumann monitors in an acoustically controlled environment, I get no harshness on 'ooo' sounds at all. And believe me, if there was, I'd hear it...

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