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Dear All,

I have a task of mixing a female voice to make it sound "Goddess"-like and "Angel"-like and warm and soft and high-endy.

Those are pretty much the producer's words.

Any tips or hints or any past experiences you guys have? EQ, compression, reverb, effects?

I was going to make it very bright and airy and soft. Add a large maybe church reverb.

However, I don't know if a chorus effect or flange effect is proper for this type of thing.

It is narration - not dialogue of a character on screen, so at least I have a lot of lee-way to work with if I want.

I also can't think of any good examples of something like this I can reference to.

I have to get this done tonight for airing tomorrow (it airs at 12 noon tomorrow and it's about 11PM now where I am, might be a long night...)

Any advice is much appreciated!!!

  • Ryan
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Hence the topic about not making a deadline, it all makes sense now :) – Justin Huss Jul 21 2010 at 6:34
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 Tell me about it... Never done an angel voice before - didn't know where to start. Birdhouse saved my _ – Utopia Jul 21 2010 at 6:38
Wow, that last comment brought back a weird memory from a while back. youtube.com/watch?v=zOUzDGwX4kA – Matt Cavanaugh Jul 21 2010 at 6:45
umm…I don't have the words to describe what I have just seen… – Jay Jennings♦ Jul 21 2010 at 7:18
ROFLMAO! All I have to say after that is youtube.com/watch?v=rH9giCg3Nro. – NoiseJockey Jul 21 2010 at 14:59

1 Answer

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Try this:

  1. Duplicate the original read twice.
  2. Roll-off most of the high end and boost some lows on one file, in an effort to make it "warm".
  3. Roll-off everything below 6-8kHz on the other file in an effort to make it sound "whispery".
  4. Layer these two elements.
  5. Duplicate the "whispery" read and process it through a multi-tap delay.
  6. Process the delayed "whispery" read through a soft, wide reverb like an infinite or cathedral, making the signal 100% wet.
  7. Layer this new element with the 1st two.

See how far you get with that. Personally I would avoid flanging and phasing, but a very light chorus on one of the elements might sound nifty.

PS> For an extra-coolness boost, you could try a reverse reverb technique on the whispery read so that the words "suck in" on themselves, a la Poltergeist. Use with care, though, as it could sound scary or menacing.

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@birdhousesound Thank you. You're an angel. Hah! I'm going to do this immediately. Thank you so much for the rapid reply!!! Will make my time here shorter. – Utopia Jul 21 2010 at 6:15
Good luck and happy experimenting! I hope that my advice leads you to some cool, creative places. Above all, make sure you retain the clarity of the dialog. – Jay Jennings♦ Jul 21 2010 at 6:22
@birdhousesound Hey I hope you're still up. Can't seem to get a good delay happening the way I want I think it should be. Any tips on parameters? I've tried all up and down about 100 milliseconds to about 1 second... – Utopia Jul 21 2010 at 6:56
Yup, you caught me just in time. I would try Waves Super-tap (waves.com/Content.aspx?id=273), preset "analog delay". Also look at the presets in Waves H-Delay (waves.com/Content.aspx?id=9112). – Jay Jennings♦ Jul 21 2010 at 7:14
@birdhousesound So I finished at 7:30AM this morning. Thanks for the help. It worked out great - did pretty much everything you suggested. The executive producers loved the voice and are now playing it around like mad. Success!!! – Utopia Jul 21 2010 at 19:26
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