Vocal Processing?

[Arn C.]

Howdy Folks!
    My fiancee who sings in our band has a real full bodied voice.   While she sings, you can slightly hear lower tones besides her regular singing voice.   I was wondering what I could build or buy that I could dial these lower tones in and bring up the volume of them.  They occur naturally, so I don't want a harmonizer.
any suggestions?
Peace!
Arn C.

[Peter Snowberg]

It sounds like you might want to consider a 31 band graphic EQ.

[Marcos - Munky]

Maybe if you use a buffer, split the signal in two outputs, use one output as the "normal" output and wire the outher output to a LP filter with the frequency that you want, then wire the output of the filter to a clean booster, you get what you want. I'm not sure that it will works, but I believe yes.

[Nasse]

A subwoofer for the PA? Different microphones can give varied results and sound different depending the singer´s voice...

[niftydog]

you probably want a good quality mic, and make sure she's using good mic technique.

The closer she gets to the mic without overloading the diaphragm, the louder the low frequencies will be. Also make sure she's on axis with the mic. Most singers sing across the top of the mic rather than into it. Bad technique.  

sub woofer is unlikely to help, vocal range is considered to be between 300Hz and 3kHz.

Although, a boost at around 4kHz accents that nice, breathy sound most good singers have.

A boost around the 300Hz mark will probably bring out those tones you desire.

Also, perhaps a lesson or two with a good singing tutor might help. (not saying she's bad!) The more you use your diaphragm to project, the more character your voice takes on.

[Arn C.]

Thank you all for your replies!
I believe I will try an eq, to bring up the volume of the low end.  
The use of the mic is no roblem and singing is fantastic.  Nice to have a financee with "perfect pitch", so good that I can call out strings of my guitar and tune it to her voice!   One day I will try to get a few of our songs on here.  I need to get one of those cd recorders that you can record directly into.   We only have cassettes-suck!

Again thanks for the input!
Peace!
Arn C.

[chumpito]

How about a compressor?  Wouldn't that bring the lower frequencies up closer to the rest?  The What Compressor and LA-Light have gotten good reviews and are not so complicated.

[niftydog]

Wouldn't that bring the lower frequencies up closer to the rest?

hmm, not really... you can have frequency specific compressors however.

I still think the best way is to invest in a good mic. try out a bunch of mics until you find one with the right bass response.

[travissk]

How much are you willing to spend? Some people here might be able to help you as to specific models, but you could also post at another forum for ideas.

I'm by no means a mic expert; Shure FM57/FM58's have worked well for me and are pretty standard, but I'm not sure how the frequency response is.

Rackmount EQs like Peter suggested are pretty common; you can probably find one somewhere to experiment with, but if not I know Furman, Behringer, and DOD make pretty cheap ones, although there are tons to choose from.

I'm not sure who offers a good frequency-based compressor; if you're in a studio they might have a Waves plugin that is a 4-band compressor. I've used it before, forgot the name (C4?) and it was great. There is also a free LADSPA plugin for Linux that does something similar, and so I'm sure there's one available for other platforms as well. That could do the same thing as an EQ, although since you know you just want to boost those low frequencies without affecting the sound too much, the equalizer is probably cheaper and easier to use, with no side effects.

I have heard some people run vocals through a BBE Sonic Maximizer, Boss EH-2 Enhancer, Behringer enhancer, or similar product. I don't know what they do to voices, but they add some punch to other instruments. Anyone here run vox through one of these?

So long as you have a decent mic, I would agree that the first step is to experiment with an EQ. When properly used, they do wonders for any instrument. Here's a quick sampling of what's available:

http://www.zzounds.com/prodsearch?form=prodsearch&q=31-band

[Peter Snowberg]

http://www.zzounds.com/item--DODSR831QXVLR

This one looks nice because it's 2 spaces high so you get better detail in adjusting the sliders.

I'm sure you could open it up and replace the opamps and any of the other cheap components in the signal path you wanted to get lower noise and less distortion.

[toneman]

a couple parametrics could dial the "best" in.
along with a good mic , of course.
a parametric with a compressor might work also.
for something already made, check out the
stuff from Aphex.
afn
tone