Vocal Track Research Paper

The reason why engineer’s might bring in effects to a vocal track is mostly to create an aural space or even to add excitement. Many engineers describe effects as something that can make the vocal track sound deeper, wider or even bigger. “Everything has to be bigger always. Effects are makeup. It’s cosmetic surgery. I can take a very great song by a very great band and mix it with no effects on it at all, and it’ll sound good, and I can take the same song and mix it with effects and it’ll sound fantastic!” - Lee DeCarlo (The mixing engineer’s handbook Pg 77s). This statement by Lee DeCarlo really struck me because its really true in real life. At times, even different genres depends on the effects engineers use. Time based effects such as the delay, reverb, flanging, chorus etc are more often used in vocal tracks in order to fatten the tone or to increase the interest in the track. It is often recommended not to have any reverb when recording because once you print an effect …show more content…
He has also made a statement that we have to get that point in the mix where it is going to capture the listeners attention. In the days before the digital world, the music producer used to stand next to the engineer and explain the scene and make the engineer understand where the critical part of the song was, whereas in the digital world the engineers just get a digital file from any other part of the world and then the engineer has to decide about the critical part of the listener. Another Engineer George Massenburg says he just looks at the feel of the song; because adding effects and eqing all depends on the feel. Whereas the famous Engineer Bob Bullock, an engineer should have a vision of how the song should be, or a vision about the emotion of the song. If an engineer does not have a vision he will be just going on in circles not knowing how it should