Hello guys I am listening a lot of James Blake this year and i am trying to make the vocals of my music sounds like this.

Of course he sings very good and he has knowledge about what he is doing. But do anyone have any ideia for help me to " hear " this better.
What do you think he used to get this clean, bright and expressive vocal?

Thanks for your attention

 

A good microphone, good preamp and a dead booth/room.
Maybe a large diaphragm condenser with a popfilter. Singing with normal voice as well as falsetto. Added some reverb, filtered (highpassed and lowpassed) before reverb, AKA "The Abbey Road trick".

 

I am not very familiar with any of his other songs but this that you posted. He has a great voice and he knows how to use it. When trying to decide which live microphone to buy for myself in the unlikely event that I perform outside again, had come across the fact that he uses great quality DPA microphones live, and to keep everything under control uses "Empirical Labs Lil Freq and a Distressor. For vocal effects he uses a Meris Mercury 7 as his main reverb because he likes its sense of body and character and its meatier sound. He also uses other processing effects for specific songs." And as Baxter said, cuts at least the high frequencies of the verb just so you hear the meat.

This vocal in this video, again as Baxter states, is a quality microphone and pre. It is not a clean recording, lots of color going on, and is either something like a Neve or other colored pre. As he pushes it it is gets kind of nasty.

 

I was pushing eight Neve 1073LB the other day (on drums), but I couldn't make them sound nasty.

 

I should have explained myself better, you got me. I hear what I can only describe as a slight sheeny buzz on his vocal which I attributed to to pushing the gain on a transformer amp like a Neve, or in the family like a Great River, Vintech or Brent Averill. But I am almost certainly wrong about it, as it is a well known fact that Baxter has Greater Wax Moths in his family, and those guys can hear really, really well, up to 300khz. Never mess with a Wax Moth.

 

Can't add, but, nice track

 

Thanks for your help guys.
Thanks very much for your help.
If anyone has more ideas is welcome.

 

i say the tools make the tune...research and find who did the mix and then find what's in their studio or ask em what they used for the lead vocals.

 

Cool, I'd never heard of that before. Just watched a very interesting video on the subject for anyone else who is unfamiliar:

 

What you hear is not a "clean" vocal, there's a lot of reverb... But that's a common question I get asked ("how to get a vocal as clean as this" when really referring to the shimmer provided by the reverb). It's simple, a well recorded vocal, compression to level the dinamics (Important to achieve this), substractive eq to get rid of the mud, additive eq in the "airy" frequencies (5k to 10k, somewhere between) and bass enhancement if it is not already bassy. Reverb on a bus to adjust to taste and blend in parallel to the track (you can compress and eq the reverb too, in fact, It's recommended)

 

By my experience air and sheen is 10kHz and above, but that's just me. 5-10 is more like presence, clarity and intelligibility.

 

I agree, I always find it closer to 10, but I added 5-10 to be generous. Most likely in background vocals or choirs I find in 8 to 10 the "hhhh" sound and some other tuneables harmonics above 10 (which could be called "air" more properly than the "hhh" sound)

Maybe I should have referred it "breath" more than "air"

 

Stuff like this is recorded in some off the best studios in the world ! You never be able to afford or mimic Sry

 

Guess we'll be seeing many engineers with their wax moth pets in the studio then in the near future...

 

Don´t forget DRP Waves Plugin. Love it . Just start with the Vocal Preset and scrub around.

 

In any debate, if you "own" the definition you will easily champion your opposite, and in Baxter's case, he could easily be a kick ass litigator.

Like canaries in a coal mine.

 

Now, that's not a healthy mindset. Pro tip - try the opposite (and more positive) outlook. I promise it will work (as I have daily access to a studio like that).
Also, it's usually not in the gear but in the performance. ;)

 

Guys
do you have a good alternative to Mercury7 reverb?