Help! Mastering 4-part Acappella Vocals, Mastering Options

[eyeMAJIC]

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this... 4-part close harmony vocals, unaccompanied.
I'm having trouble getting a good, full sound from the unusual frequency distribution of the raw recording without making it sound "contrived".

Any tips on EQ/compression or post processing? I would much appreciate it! The plug ins I have availabe are listed below; recommendations on other suitable ones would be great.
The vocal parts are just recorded straight into PT with a little compression using a RODE NT1, then processed with very mild use of AutoTune.

Many thanks!

eM.

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TiBook 800 OS 9.2.2
Digi 002
Maxtor 7200 1394 audio drive
Protools LE 5.3.2
Digi Maxim
Waves Gold bundle
Autotune 3
AltiVerb
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[lepetitmartien]

How is the place you use for recording?
Maybe some things in the accoustic are messing the whole stuff. Are there hard flat surfaces near ?

Is the mic used at a consistent distance? Or are some take far from it, other close to?

Are you sure the mic is the best for the peculiar voice(s) you are recording? The NT1 is a good mic in its class, but it may not be the right one.

[cathode]

I have a suggestion for your problem!
One thing about auto tune is that it can make things too perfect.
There are, even in a group of highly skilled vocalists, subtle intonation anomalies.
By removing these, you can end up with a bit of "plastic" in your performance.
You might try correcting the flubs by enabling auto tune only when needed and with, as you say light intensity.
You also might try panning the voices a bit so that you have low and high harmonies mixed on sides rather than like pitches grouped in your space. Also, by adding a slight delay, perhaps 8-15 Ms, to one of each of the panned voices you will create distance between the two voices. This is a fantastic way to create depth to a soundstage and in fact, in the old days, when I had to work with those crummy Neve comsoles and AMS delays and reverbs we were forced to use these archaic devices. Just think, a $7000 plug in that only did one thing at a time. What a shame!!
However, nothing like grabbing a big, fat bakelite knob and twiddling the sound in!
I hope this helps a bit.
Oh BTW you might try some reverb on only one voice per side or even only one centered voice.
This gives the impression of space but makes the other voices sound like they are licking your ear, or as one producer asked me to create... "make it sound like she's licking the mike"!

[eyeMAJIC]

Thankyou for the suggestions!

lepetitmartian: You're dead right about the mic, & even more so about the location. Having a Tibook & digi 002, I'm going to try out some different locations this week, as the acoustics in my home studio need a lot to be desired. Should have thought of that already.
I've also managed to borrow a U87i from a good friend who is worried about me looking after it! All my takes so far have all been quite "boomy"; presumably due to proximity (miking at about 4-5 inches with popshield), so I'll try playing around with miking distance.

cathode: Thankyou for your many comments! Even before I read your post, I had started moving things around a little in the stereo field, and have been amazed with the different results possible with just small placement changes.
I'm now about to try your suggested delay and reverb tactics; I was previously only using individual EQ inserts with reverb on the master only.
I just hope my G4 800 is up to handling more than one AltiVerb insert at 24/96 !! Fingers crossed.

Thanks again for the help!

eM.