Forging Reverie Vocal Chain

i never got around to posting about the chain we picked for Tye’s vocal.

Tye’s vocal setup

it was the RODE NT2, really close, like six inches off his mouth, just below, on axis.  this is a really tough distance to get right, i wouldn’t recommend it for singers that move around a lot, but Tye is really stable when he wants to be and we liked the close sound.

so straight into the Aphex 107 tube pre.  i was expecting to like the Golden Age pre73 but the sibilance was a little more harsh than i wanted and the Aphex was softer, and did some really great things with “eff”s.  fuzzy fuzzy effs….  so then i double compress to tape!  (not for the faint of heart)  first side of the ART PRO VLA tube compressor has a high threshold, high ratio, fast attack, fast release.  grabbing the big peaks.  then into the other side of the same unit doing around 2-4 db of reduction on 4:1, slow attack, fast release to bring up the bottom and smooth it all.  

this isn’t the sort of thing you teach a beginner, when you’re doing this much damage so close to the mike before tape, you better know what sound you’re going for.  a few parts we moved back to the 24” range to get a bit more distant sound but most of the record is done this way.  

….there isn’t a whole lot left to do here :)