Those of us that enjoy recording go to a lot of effort in creating pieces that we can be really proud of. Home recording equipment has become really powerful and high quality. You don’t need to have a full sound studio to get your recording done in a really professional way.
The editing tools that we use have also become better and more advanced. There are many great tools that we can use to make our vocals sound better and as clear as possible.
But since the recording tools are so great, they can pick up on each little sound that gets recorded. And not all of them advance the sound of your vocals. Some might even break them down. A vocal that is thin can really distract from the quality of your song or even your podcast.
There are a few reasons that your voice can sound thin after recording but it is possible to make your vocals fuller, including quality and also audio recording resolution. Some tricks with your editing hardware and software can get your vocals sounding a lot fuller and much clearer.
You work hard on our recording projects, whatever they are, and you want them to sound the best that they can possibly sound. That means full, warm vocals that are clear and soothing. Read on to learn more how you can make thin vocals sound fuller, without distorting them so much that they stop sounding like you.
One of the best things about many of our favorite artists is how unique they sound. We don’t want to lose that unique quality in our own voices either. We still want to sound like ourselves, just better. And this article can help you to achieve that.
Can You Make Thin Vocals Full?
It is very possible to make your vocals sound a lot fuller than they did when you first recorded them. There are many reasons why the recording can start to sound thin or flat. Your microphone could pick up nasal qualities, it might lack enough warmth or some of the elements might just need to be enhanced a little bit to make it all sound better. Sound intensity could also affect your vocals.
Even some of the best vocalist and recording artists in the world can at times sound a bit thin and might need vocal enhancements to make them sound on top form. Vocal tools can make you sound your best too.
These tools can help when you are singing, rapping or even when you are doing vocals for a podcast. It doesn’t matter what the type of recordings are that you are doing. You wouldn’t want your vocals to be flat. Playing with these tips will allow you to always be on top of your game and ensure that your voice sounds the best that it can sound.
7 Tips On How to Make Your Voice Fuller
There are a few different things you can do to make your voice sound a lot fuller after you have recorded it. Let’s go through them one by one.
1. Get a Quality Recording
One of the first things to do when trying to make vocals sound fuller is to make sure there are no nasal tones that are making it sound flat. You can also remove a few other flat tones that will make the vocals sound off and won’t bring out the best in your voice.
The nasal tones are caused by vibrations in the nose and nasal cavity. A microphone can be very sensitive and they easily pick up these noises when you are recording. They can significantly influence your sound and make it sound flat. Removing these tones will already make it better.
The best way to avoid these sounds is to improve your vocal performance, the second best way is to make sure you have a quality microphone and a good recording environment, and the last resort is to use EQ.
If you dip around 700 Hz you can get rid of these nasal tones. You can use an EQ to make the sounds more dynamic and better. You can also use a high pass filter to reduce the plosives. After doing that you can use a higher Q bell filter to dip the sibilance in the high range.
This could fill out the vocals enough and you might not even need to do anything after that. Or you might want to try a few more things to get the effect that you want.
2. Controlling Vocal Dynamics (Compressor)
The next trick that you can try will be done by the use of a compressor. Using this tool, you can balance the vocal dynamics. You do need to make sure that you retain enough details and information to ensure that the vocals don’t start to sound like they have pieces missing.
To ensure this you can use a quick attack and a moderate release. You can also hold the start and that will assist you even more. This can be done a few times changing the threshold slightly until you get the result you want. But you don’t want to change the timber of the voice too much and completely change your sound.
3. Use Short Reverb and Delay
A vocal that is as powerful as possible sounds full and is really impressive. One way to enhance this is by using short reflections or delays to fill out the sound.
This technique works well into tricking our ears and minds into hearing a more powerful sound. If you create a few short delays and reflections you might expect to hear a bunch of different voices singing in unison or possibly even delayed voices, but that is not how it works out.
Since the sound is so short it won’t register on the ears as different vocals but instead as one powerful sound that is really strong and pleasant to the ear.
4. Use EQ to Add Clarity and Warmth
A full vocal is also a really warm vocal that has clarity. You want to ensure that it sounds warm. One way to do this is by using an EQ. With this tool you can look at different areas of your vocals and it will allow you to amplify some of the things that make it all sound colder. At around the 200Hz range you can find the voice’s fundamentals and then you can amplify that.
Boosting the fundamentals will allow you to add warmth to your voice and allows it to sound a lot more full. You know your voice and if it has a higher pitch, you might find the fundamental at a higher level, and for a lower voice the fundamental will also be lower.
And then after the fundamental has been boosted you can also find the higher-ordered harmonic and amplify that. This combination will make it all sound a whole lot better.
5. Adding Saturation to Your Vocals
Sometimes the reason that your vocals might sound a little bit flat could be because there are some gaps in the mid frequency that do not have enough fullness to contribute to the overall sound of the vocals.
If you very slightly distort or saturate your vocals it will add some harmonics. This builds a stronger building block for the fundamental frequency. If you use a transformer saturator this will also give you a good low-end amplification that will make all of your vocals sound a lot better.
6. Optional Limiting on Vocal
This one is great when your vocals aren’t as much for singing as they are for things like podcasts or for rap where you want to start mixing vocals. In these cases, you want to make sure that the vocals are as clean as possible. Using a clean limiter will help to keep your voice clear. Distorted vocals can easily sound thin, and you want to avoid that.
You could also need to add harmonics on vocals, for example when recording rap, then you might want to do that after you have limited the vocals, to ensure that it stays full.
7. Use an Exciter with an Air EQ
If you feel like the missing element in your performance is the tone, then you can easily create a bright and clear vocal with this next trick. This does sound just a little bit strange so you don’t want to use it in a dialogue like a podcast.
But it can make the vocals on a song sound really great and also really full. You will first use the exciter and with it create some high ordered harmonics. Then you need to insert an EQ that has an airband. With this tool you will amplify the high frequencies.
The only thing that you need to consider is that the sound can be taken too far. It can end up having too much sibilance. You can solve this problem with a de-esser.
How To Create the Best Full Vocals for Your Voice
You will need to play with these different tips to get the perfect combination for your vocals. Each voice is unique and to get the perfect combination with your voice could take some time. But the end results are really worth it. Plus, it is really fun to play with these elements until they get a really pleasing result.
You might even find something that could be weird but slightly wonderful and makes a whole new sound that could be great too. Never be afraid to experiment with your vocals and make it better.
Everyone is a bit different. If you have a low voice like me you could need to combine the tips differently or to add a different sound from someone who has a higher voice. But these tips will allow you to get a full sound despite the type of voice that you have.
Besides the times that you want to try and create a new sound, you will probably still want to sound like yourself. You don’t want to lose the unique thing that makes your voice special. Or have someone hear you in real life and you sound completely different.
Getting that delicate balance to changing what you need but not overdoing it, is key and will allow you to get the perfect full sound.
Why Would You Want to Create Fuller Vocals?
We all want to sound the best when we create music or other vocal projects. And for me that would mean giving my vocals a little bit of help. When I listen to my vocals after recording them, they always sound a little bit thin or flat. I know for many of us our voice in our head does not sound the same as when you hear them recorded.
That is because the sound and vibrations in our head are enhanced by our bones and tissue, and normally your voice sounds fuller and even a little bit deeper when we speak versus when we hear a recording of our voice. That is the case for me too. But as someone who loves sound it also means that I would prefer to get my vocals to sound closer to what I hear in my mind.
It is one of the reasons why I started to look for great ways to make the vocals sound better, without making my voice sound weird. I still want to sound like me, just a whole lot better. And with the tips that I will share with you today that is exactly what I can accomplish. And you can do the same thing.
Some of the best recording artists in the business can sound a little bit flatter when you hear them singing live. Meaning we all need a little bit of help sometimes, even a sample rate can affect sound quality. It is nothing to be ashamed of and there are ways to get your vocals sounding a lot better.
And even if you aren’t a singer or a rapper you could still need some help with your vocals. A podcast is another way that many people currently use their voice. If you want people to keep listening, you don’t want to annoy them with a thin voice that can become tiring after a while.
A full, warm voice will allow you to keep your listeners entertained without tiring them and they will keep on coming back for those soothing vocals that you provide them.
