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Am I missing something? Looking for Bias AMP/ FX -ish app for microphones

erikb1971erikb1971
in General App Discussion

HI all

I have been looking around but it either seems not to be there or I missed it:
Here's my work flow: I am working mainly on Ableton Live on my pc. My Ipad is in a Focusrite iTrack Dock and with audio out connected to the audio in on my soundcard. With Link, I ad sometimes some stuff from patterning, or I am playing synthparts from the M1, Wavestation or Odyssei. I plug my guitar in the iPad and with Bias Fx and Amp, I record great guitar sounds into Ableton. Just like the old days, record the finished sound, no endless messing with sounds afterwards, maybe some EQ-ing to make it fit the mix. Now I want to record some vocals. The focusrite pre amp is ok, but what would be great is an app like Bias, with some nice pre amp simulations, some eq, an LA2A, a 1176 compressor.. stuff like that. And then record that audio straight into Ableton.
Is something like that available.. or?

Cheers

Erik

Comments

  • TheVimFuegoTheVimFuego
    edited January 2018

    Mic Room? I have no experience of it but it's free with IAPs

    https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/mic-room-free/id998481842?mt=8

    (Edit, another Mic Swap)
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/micswap-microphone-emulator/id895157889?mt=8

  • richardyotrichardyot

    Maybe something like VocalLive could do the job you are looking for, but I don't think it's really possible to knock up a tone for vocals in the same way as you can for guitars.

    Firstly the tone of a guitar amp has a profound impact on the final sound, and the modelling tech we have is pretty good. The impact a pre-amp has on the tone of a recorded vocal is infinitely more subtle, I doubt many people can really tell one pre-amp from another. Microphones however do really affect the sound (much more so than pre-amps), but I don't think the modelling tech we have on iOS is likely to be able to really convincingly emulate a U87 when a cheap condenser was the actual real source. FWIW I have MicSwap Pro but never end up using it because it just never seems to really improve the sound of the vocals.

    With vocals I think the best approach is to design your own signal chain, every voice is unique and I don't think you can really make a catch-all recipe that would fit different voices. Some mild compression, and some reverb and/or delay is often all you need - a 1176 emulation is unlikely to really improve things IMO, and generally I avoid EQ unless there's some kind of problem. I don't know if there's a really decent LA2A emulation on iOS, but any compressor with a slow attack should achieve a similar-ish result.

  • TelefunkyTelefunky

    unless you're into autotuned disco/club vocals there isn't much but to set up a proper vocal chain (room, mic, preamp, converter).
    Unfortunately the better this gets on the gear side, the more it will reveal voice flaws.
    (and who has a 'perfect' voice anyway?)
    A microphone modeller (similiar to those guitar amp sims) adds significant blur to the recorded sound - which kind of helps with the majority of cheap condensor mics.
    Which comes at the expense of sound definition - the tone is less harsh, but less pronounced, too.
    Don't even think to come close to the 'emulated' hardware counterpart in IOS or classic VST land.

    Pretending he does at least partly tells the truth, the Steven Slate microphone system uses a very clear condensor mic which is then (heavily) postprocessed according to certain mic characteristics. Afaik it's a low 4-figure investment - just to illustrate costs when you're serious about such stuff.

    As Richard mentioned above all this gear talk won't help you with finding your own 'matching' vocal setup. Not everybody sounds great on C12 or U47, and if recorded in an acoustically low quality environment even those famous originals will (definitely) fail. ;)

  • erikb1971erikb1971

    @TheVimFuego said:
    Mic Room? I have no experience of it but it's free with IAPs

    https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/mic-room-free/id998481842?mt=8

    (Edit, another Mic Swap)
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/micswap-microphone-emulator/id895157889?mt=8

    tnx, will look into them

  • erikb1971erikb1971

    @richardyot said:
    Maybe something like VocalLive could do the job you are looking for, but I don't think it's really possible to knock up a tone for vocals in the same way as you can for guitars.

    Firstly the tone of a guitar amp has a profound impact on the final sound, and the modelling tech we have is pretty good. The impact a pre-amp has on the tone of a recorded vocal is infinitely more subtle, I doubt many people can really tell one pre-amp from another. Microphones however do really affect the sound (much more so than pre-amps), but I don't think the modelling tech we have on iOS is likely to be able to really convincingly emulate a U87 when a cheap condenser was the actual real source. FWIW I have MicSwap Pro but never end up using it because it just never seems to really improve the sound of the vocals.

    With vocals I think the best approach is to design your own signal chain, every voice is unique and I don't think you can really make a catch-all recipe that would fit different voices. Some mild compression, and some reverb and/or delay is often all you need - a 1176 emulation is unlikely to really improve things IMO, and generally I avoid EQ unless there's some kind of problem. I don't know if there's a really decent LA2A emulation on iOS, but any compressor with a slow attack should achieve a similar-ish result.

    it looks like you're right.. thanks a lot for your input!

  • erikb1971erikb1971

    @Telefunky said:
    unless you're into autotuned disco/club vocals there isn't much but to set up a proper vocal chain (room, mic, preamp, converter).
    Unfortunately the better this gets on the gear side, the more it will reveal voice flaws.
    (and who has a 'perfect' voice anyway?)
    A microphone modeller (similiar to those guitar amp sims) adds significant blur to the recorded sound - which kind of helps with the majority of cheap condensor mics.
    Which comes at the expense of sound definition - the tone is less harsh, but less pronounced, too.
    Don't even think to come close to the 'emulated' hardware counterpart in IOS or classic VST land.

    Pretending he does at least partly tells the truth, the Steven Slate microphone system uses a very clear condensor mic which is then (heavily) postprocessed according to certain mic characteristics. Afaik it's a low 4-figure investment - just to illustrate costs when you're serious about such stuff.

    As Richard mentioned above all this gear talk won't help you with finding your own 'matching' vocal setup. Not everybody sounds great on C12 or U47, and if recorded in an acoustically low quality environment even those famous originals will (definitely) fail. ;)

    and you also thnaks for confirming what I in the back of my head already knew... ! Always good to have it come out again every now and then

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