Especially after a vocal take. What effects or what can specifically be done in Sonar or X1 to get the vocals sounding warm?

I personally like my vocals cold....but for warm vocals have the singer sing close to the mic, use a ribbon mic, and don't use a HPF when recording. After a vocal take? Use a gentle LPF and some kind of Tape Simulator VST to create that warm BLANKET vibe. I honestly never have this problem, I'm always trying to remove low frequency from my vocals, I guess this is due to my MANLY voice.....lol

syntheticpop


Especially after a vocal take. What effects or what can specifically be done in Sonar or X1 to get the vocals sounding warm?

The first thing to sort out is to define the word "warm" in your opinion. It means so many different things to people, it's good to know what you consider "warm" to mean to you. That word is actually banned on another site I frequent due to how people take it and use it so differently.
 
To me it means "no harsh, biting high end with just the right amount of mids". To get this out of a vocal, you have a few options.
 
1. Select a mic that has a sound that doesn't come off as harsh or abrasive.
 
2. Low pass from 8-10k on up and then sweep the frequencies until you hear the right amount of air in the high end. Warm just means "no harsh highs" really.
 
3. Use a tube mic pre-amp for tube warmth and natural tube saturation.
 
Not to go against what mt said above, but I've not heard anything in these tape/tube simulators that actually "warms" anything. They add a bit of grit to the sound over actual warmth in my humble opinion. You're better off using an eq and just taking out the frequencies that may be harsh, offensive or abrasive.
 
4. De-esser's remove the harsh S or T sounds and can warm things up a bit as well.
 
5. The right compressor AFTER an eq can also warm things up while keeping transients in check.
 
The only two simulators I can recommend for actual warming would be the Waves Tape sim and the UAD Studer 800. Anything else I've tried has left me shaking my head due to sounding way too synthetic and not warming anything at all. That's just me though...other people have different results. Good luck. :)
 
-Danny

Have Paul McCartney sing it. If that doesn't work out, as Danny says, define for yourself what makes it not warm. And, as Danny says, it's usually frequency dependant. sweep thru the highs with a tite Q and big boost and listen for the freq(s) that you don't like. When you find it/them, cut it/them. Or use a multiband compressor dialed in to the offending freqs. Or, get a really nice mic.

I sing close to the mic....and insert a distortion/tape saturation plug and adjust that one to taste. Less is more in this area. 

timidi


Have Paul McCartney sing it.

As long as he doesn't have to sing past Middle C. Love the guy, but anything high and his voice goes to pot (!).

jamesyoyo

timidi


Have Paul McCartney sing it.

As long as he doesn't have to sing past Middle C. Love the guy, but anything high and his voice goes to pot (!).

hmm. Never noticed that. 

Some good ideas on this thread....

Per Danny,

My vocs have to be *warm-colored* as they are a bit uni-dimensional.

A tube pre goes a long way (with Russian tubes or other vintage tubes) ... and gets it 'warm' at the source ... (I'm pretty sure Bat and others would agree with getting it warm at the source with a condensor mic usually)

else your stuck with VSTs and UAD Tube-emulators or the PSP Vintage Warmer (which I don't have yet).  If you're rich and/or savy (I'm not) ... you can run it to an outboard tube pre, EQ, comp, or even your Avalon or such.

This is probably unconventional and some may say it is “wrong”, but I've really developed a love of multiband compression when mixing vocals.
 
I've done recording for some singers who have very dynamic voices where the tone of their voice changes quite a bit depending on the register they are singing in. Some parts are harsh and some are nice and warm already.

Usually when they get more into their "head voice" I guess you'd call it, they can sometimes get a little harsh and need some warmth. This could be done with some EQ, taming the upper mids around 3-4K or so depending on their voice. But unless you use some automation, using EQ on the whole track to bring down the upper mids doesn't just affect their higher register, it affects the whole vocal track. There may be parts of their lower register or more breathy parts that you don’t want to lower those upper mids and actually lowering them may make them too muddy or have some other undesired effect.
 
By using multiband compression, I can adjust a band so that it is focused down on just that frequency range where the harshness is residing. Then through experimentation I figure out where to set the threshold / ratio so that when they hit that part of their vocal range, it will tame down the harshness, but will leave the other parts intact. The overall affect can be to help create a more balanced/warm tone.
 
This may not work for every voice, but I’ve had good results with it so it might be something to try!