Today’s singers
Amazing technology; has replaced human intervention in
singing nowadays.
All we require today is a few lyric that has to be rendered
by a male or female voice sample. Rest is technology.
Let us analyze the process.
Compression and
expansion:
We have pre and post compression processors that are
outboard or plugged into software.
With this, while recording the voice itself, one can process
the peaks and dips in the voice of a singer and even out the unwanted
variations. Many recording engineers do not prefer doing Pre mode corrections if they are unsure of
what the final mix demands. In this situation they process the voice during mix
using the post mode. The post mode helps in tweaking on the flat signal that is
recorded live. So, what does a compressor do? In simple language compressor is
just like the voltage stabilizer. It helps in correcting the sudden thrust of
vocal energy and stabilizes the signal to give a soothing and even effect even
if the singer does not even understand, what happened to his or her voice. They think, they have done the job themselves.
Expansion is just the opposite process that opens up the
throw of the voice. For a person having more comprehensive knowledge on sound
processing these tips might help:
The
threshold decides on the input levels, The ratio controls the amount of
compression you need to apply, The attack varies the throw of the voice,
holding the signal decides on how long the process applies and release of the
notes can help in decay time. For sounds like the base drum kick we have to
increase the attack and decrease the release to make the signal very tight.
This is how the voice is controlled by breaking the signal into various
segments.
Equalization:
The frequency enhancement or reduction is done using
spectrum Equalizers. In simple terms it is Boldness, sharpness and huskiness of
the voice that can be controlled. Have you wondered why the voice used to sound
more natural in olden days recordings? It used to sound as if it was sund
before us. On the face, is more appropriate as the band width of voice control
used to be only effective between 100 hertz to 9000 hertz. The analogue and
optical technology permitted frequency control in this bandwidth and therefore
the voice was treated for corrections only in the range of the mid frequency
between 1 Kilo hertz to 3 Kilo hertz making it sound prominently over
orchestration.
With software intervention, people are experimenting to
tweak the voice even at frequencies above 12 Kilohertz adding air like sounding
to get that whispering tones and enigmatic effects.
Helpful tips: For those who
are into home recordings, to avoid external noises and pop sounds and blows,
give a deep cut for frequencies below 100 Hertz as shown in the image above by
the descending red line.
Now comes the most interesting part. The Autotune Plugin.
Just apply this gadget to the recorded voice, do a couple of required settings
and you transform a non singer into a singing sensation. Many a times, we have
saved several professional singers on the mixing table by correcting the flats
and sharps in their voices. There are specialists who are musicians, who offer
services of pitch correction using the software. Their job is to remove all
wrong notes in the voice and pitch it perfectly to the scale of the song and
return the wave for mixing. So how
does this amazing thing work? As you can see in the image, the green line
indicates the original singers recorded wave, the red line is reconstructed new
pitch. You could actually alter the notation of the song and the software helps
in giving you a new tune without the singer having to sing again. You must have
often observed listening to songs with a sudden variation of the singers tone
especially on higher notes that starts to sound as if the voice is morphed with
a wah wah effect. This happens if the tweaking is too high on the auto tune.
We have only discussed some of the basic stuff and many more
such processors help in creating singers today.
These processors existed even before the software decoded them
onto easy to use desktop versions. They used to be known as outboard processors
which used to be stacked up by the side of the Mixing console in the studios.
They existed right from when recording technology evolved. But for certain
latest plug ins like the auto tune. Only experienced Recording engineers used
to use such devices in olden days, because in a live recording they had to
control signals from a 100 piece orchestra and that is a 100 people’s job.
So, is it the same even in live performances today? Are
singers getting away with their flats and sharps? Processors like EQ,
compression etc are common in all Live Gigs. These certainly help them sound
like Ultra Pro. But auto tune is not effective in live situations yet.
This is not to claim that all singers of today have to use
software to be what they are. But mediocre singers are also able to survive
because of software, which was not the situation earlier.
A new crop of Human machine mutant software singer has
definitely evolved.
No wonder even if techies come out with Mohd. Rafi software,
Kishore Kumar software and so on. A five year old, might sing into the
microphone to sound like Mohd. Rafi ????
Just as there is a code of not cloning living beings, there
should be an ethical law that can prevent to stop technology freaking with
throats.
