hey guys,

so i got a session this weekend with a band which singer has a really nasal voice. here's a sample from the bands demo so you can hear what i'm talking about:
http://hem.bredband.net/b108258/mp3/Track03.mp3
so i was wondering if you slutz have any tricks for minimizing this, maybe mic angling, eqsettings etc.?? what would you do with this singer...
thanks

/mike

Speaking (or singing) as a somewhat "nasal" sounding vocalist
when not following reasonably proper technique...
That's where the key issue is-technique.

Would the singer be open to some coaching to improve?
That would get you much further than studio trickery IMHO.
("trickery" meant in the best sense of the word!)

Chris

Should have added that if the singer would record themself,
then practice to lessen the nasality, that'd help lots too.

Chris

Afrin and a Brauner.

At certain times, either of these have helped tremendously with a nasally singer. Just don't kill your self trying to make them sound like somebody they aren't.

Sometimes an EQ is a necessary evil. I had a guy in here who was really nasal doing some old school punk rock type stuff. It wasn't aggressive, but he had a pinch at 1.5k that was really annyoning. Used a Millennia NEQ-2, notched it out with a really narrow band, and the track sounded really great. This was after trying about 6 mics on the guy, nothing worked only made it worse.

Habanero peppers and breath easy strips might buy you 20 minutes!

thanks for the tips,

i've never met the guy so we dont have a "working realationship" yet, but i hope i can get him to trust me coaching him. im not expecting miracles here but hopefully i can work something out that works on his voice.
i'll post a mp3 sample next weekyuktyy


thanks
mike

Give him a Green Bullet and put it through a Pignose.
Play to his tonal strengths. heh

1. Vocal coach
2. Albas Oil
3. Eq
4. Riding the vocal more than compressing
5. A big sign on the wall which reads 'NASAL'
6. Taking lots of short breaks and saying 'RELAX'
7. Some singers go 'through' the nasal zone. After some time singing they will relax naturally as their voice warms up, and you get a window of about 20 minutes where things aren't so nasal. The time to record everything.
8. Do 7 above over a period of days.
9. Play back a take/section immediately the 'nasal' thing has appeared again so the singer can hear for themselves what they are doing wrong. I haven't met many singers who like hearing how nasal they are or who can't tell the difference between a particularly good section and a nasally section.
10. Getting the singer to sing closer to the mic and very quietly.
11. A session singer.

There are some things you can't control, so to try and fix them would be useless, or take too long, it's not your job. In Karate we're taught to use our weaknesses as strengths (strategy).
Who's asking you to fix this problem? Do you have to make him sound like Jeffrey Osbourne?
Make a sound for this group featuring this lead singer, with the songs they made with him in mind. Do it BALLS OUT!! or you won't come out of it like a pro. You'll just **** it up.
Think of the old geezers who had to record Johnny Rotten, what would they have done? U67-1066-LA2A-tape.
If you don't have these, use something else.

I'm with you!
I like unik voices. You could tell the band by just hear the first little bit of the vocal track!
He sounds a bit like the singer of "Placebo", and they did sell some records!heh

If you want a good laugh, read Placebo's lyrics.

Maybe put the main vocal mic up higher so he has to stretch upwards to sing through it..usually this 'opens' the voice up some...put another mic at chest level to grab some of the resonance in this area....if this doesnt work try to get him to understand the difference between singing through his eyeballs and singing through the other set...uhhh...if that doesnt work have the band and a big roadie hold him down and use a small round wire brush and clean out those passages........

You can't really fix this unless the singer is will ing to sing the song some what lower without having him sing it intentionally less nasal. Does the sing sound nasal when he talks? If not he can learn to sing differently.

well....they havent ask me to do anything about it, just my first reaction when i heard his voice that it was maybe a little to nasal, and that they would benefit from trying get the nasalness under control.
Placebo is a really good reference, on the first record Brian Molko sound soooo nasal, but on the second " Without you im nothing" he sounds so much better....he's probably worked alot on his technique, much more "chesty" sound.

cheers
/mike

Someone by the name of Bob Dylan got pretty far with a nasal sounding voice.

Antaren

Why do "engineers" always feel like they've got to fix something? Maybe it's what he and his band and fans like? Maybe that's him? It's what makes him unique. I'm not sure if I'd be working on "fixing" his sound until you've discovered (after meeting with him) that he wants it fixed. For the life of me I can't understand what makes people like Axl Rose's voice, but they do (in millions) and I wouldn't want to have been the one to have "fixed" his voice. It's more about attitude and heart than getting it to sound "right"!

i'm interested to this thread, there are some singers who sounds nasal and they can't do nothing about techniques because their voice is nasal when they talks.. and how to fix it in a way that fits the mix.. giving more space to guitars in that range, for example..

Dang... the mp3 for the nasal voiced guy is gone... and only 5-1/2 years later... gone like snow on the water.


But, seriously folks, I was just sitting with a couple of 3DW recording buddies earlier today talking about nasal singers (we got on that tangent because we'd been talking about a track one of them produced with me singing heh ).

Anyhow, I shared my take on what goes on with a singer like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty or, well, me...

It's not that a guy like Dylan actually sings a true monotone -- you can detect the melody in his singing, even though it doesn't sound particularly differentiated.

Why?

Because, unlike 'classically' trained singers he is not manipulating his vocal mechanism to change his resonance for different part of the melody... his voice box is generating pitch variation -- but his whole system vocal apparatus remains sort of like a fixed, complex filter system, imprinting a more or less steady state sonic imprint on everything that goes through it.

At least, that's my take...

Solution A: Try placing the mic slightly higher than mouth or nose-level and aim it downward to pick up chest tones. Don't let the singer tilt their head upwards towards the mic — keep them level (use the pop filter as a target). A mic underneath the nose will pick up the tones coming out of the nostrils. Solution B: Learn to love nasal singers.

-B-

A properly placed notch will get you part of the way there, but if the singer just has a nasal voice there isn't much you can do. If the song permits you can add a gated distortion to the vocal to give it more edge.

Right now i'm working with an amazing singer that just flat out has a nasal sounding voice. Tilting the mic, some eq notches, and a bit of dirt via a tube plugin helped quite a bit. I also noticed that getting this particular singer right on top of the mic (2 inches) got more presence and bass out of him which reduced his particular nasal tone a bit more. Unfortunately i haven't found a magic bullet for this either, so in the end you have to just plan your mix around it more than you'd like.

-slope