presets for a male live vocals (Indie Acoustic Style) ex: Dashboard Confessional

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Permalink Reply by Art Flanagan on January 22, 2010 at 2:41pm

Use the Smooth Buttery setting. I think it's the fifth setting on the dial.

In all honesty, there is no magical setting in order to achieve the Dashboard Confessional type vocal sound. First, it's the artists voice that is providing most of the smooth buttery goodness. Second, there's probably a nice (and pricey) condenser mic involved, a quality pre-amp, and a compressor (which provides much of the smooth-y-ness).

Let's not forget the mastering artist that tweaks the voice to give it that characteristic sound.

If you're just getting started, play with the compressor and Mic Modeler settings on the AVP. See what works best on your voice. A quality mic (if you don't already have one) is probably the next investment you'll want to make. Finding the right sound is going to take time. You might never be able to achieve that sound if your voice doesn't have quality. You'll just have to discover your own personal style.

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Permalink Reply by anthony valentino on January 22, 2010 at 11:48pm

Thanks Art for you insite and taking the time to talk with me. I prob should of also put in the post that I am 27 years old and have many years and albums under my belt. I have been lucky enough to work with the best in the biz and know all to well how crafting a song takes skill, talent and the know how. :) I pretty much have my voice crafted down as far as the tone pitch and the depth of how I want to express my sound but as far as using the avp-1 for live shows, that a different ball game! I never really dabbled into the tech part of my vocals and how they worked as well as the fundamental side as far as how much gain, compression, and exc.. and where the normal presets tend to be. Its seems that when I turn on any preset other then the autotune it sounds worse then normal and I think that's in part of the presets not being where they should. Im just looking to keep my vocals warm big and to blend well with the acoustic guitar. I use a standard run of the mill sm58 I hope that maybe helps you see what I'm trying to capture. Thanks again for any and all your help!

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