Consonants

[XemoXmoshXpitX]

I was doing a home recording of Good Riddence (Time of your Life) and the vocals are giving me some trouble. This first two lines sounds like this:

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go

Wherever there are bold letters is where my voice seems very exaggerated, kind of like when microphones exaggerate the singer's S's. How can I change this so the recordings don't sound bad?

[KKKKKocaine]

I was doing a home recording of Good Riddence (Time of your Life) and the vocals are giving me some trouble. This first two lines sounds like this:

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go

Wherever there are bold letters is where my voice seems very exaggerated, kind of like when microphones exaggerate the singer's S's. How can I change this so the recordings don't sound bad?

Hold your hand close to your lips.
Say all those trouble letters, then a few none trouble letters such as 'a'.
You will notice that on the B's and P's you expell air much faster and powerfully that hits your hand wheras the 'a' is much more gentle. This extra air goes to the diaphragm and creates a popping or accented sound.

A mesh pop shield will stop this the best, you can make one from a coat hanger and a pair of tights, or you can purchase one. All the mesh does is simply disperse the air so as to limit the popping effect.
The 'S' problems are sibilance and can create harsh tones, you can either get a de-esser, or in some cases cellotaping a pencil on the mic grill that goves up along the middle of the diaphragm can help divert the air to the sides and remove this problem somewhat.
Hope that helped.

[Merkaba]

get a pop filter. Thos consanants can be naturally forceful. Especially in aggresive songs.

[himynameistweek]

yeah, pop filter would help a lot. also just kind of try to just make those sounds more gentle. what i mean by that is like for the B's just barely touch your lips together, stuff like that.

[XemoXmoshXpitX]

Hold your hand close to your lips.
Say all those trouble letters, then a few none trouble letters such as 'a'.
You will notice that on the B's and P's you expell air much faster and powerfully that hits your hand wheras the 'a' is much more gentle. This extra air goes to the diaphragm and creates a popping or accented sound.

A mesh pop shield will stop this the best, you can make one from a coat hanger and a pair of tights, or you can purchase one. All the mesh does is simply disperse the air so as to limit the popping effect.
The 'S' problems are sibilance and can create harsh tones, you can either get a de-esser, or in some cases cellotaping a pencil on the mic grill that goves up along the middle of the diaphragm can help divert the air to the sides and remove this problem somewhat.
Hope that helped.


That helped a lot. Would singing through a PA system help at all, because I was doing vocals without a vocal mic (just singing straight into the computer mic).

[Merkaba]

computer mic? Geez, that thing will greatly increase pop and his. A normal mic will help alot through some kind of mixer ...but it will still pop a bit unless you use some type of filter.

[black_fire_137]

I never have a problem with this... I wonder why? I'm using an EV Cobalt CO5, FYI. Well, every now and then 'p's go bad on me, so... I guess "never" is not the right word. But yeah, computer mics blow. They get you by. Go buy a real mic, and then get an adapter to plug it into your computer -- and it makes an instant difference!

[KKKKKocaine]

computer mic? Geez, that thing will greatly increase pop and his. A normal mic will help alot through some kind of mixer ...but it will still pop a bit unless you use some type of filter.

Yeah, most mics if you take the mesh off the front, contain a small foam pad which reduces popping somewhat but not much, I don't think PC mics have this at all.