Perfectly centered vocal?

[Golf]

Which song recording would be your choice if it's all about a perfectly centered vocal performance you want to hear? Joni Mitchells »Blue Motel Room«, maybe?

 

[Steve356]

Jennifer Warnes - Ballad of the Runaway Horse

 

[DVDdoug]

I don't know but Audacity has a Vocal Remover effect that works by subtracting left from right. If the vocals are identical and in-phase in both channels they will be removed completely. (Usually there are some remaining background vocals and/or vocal reverb). That should help you find some "perfect" songs.

I believe the "best" setting in Audacity is "for this is "Remove Center to Mono". Set it for no filtering (low cut to minimum and high-cut to maximum). ...The filters are there so you can keep the bass and the highs while subtracting the vocals but for this purpose it's better to subtract everything.

 

[Golf]

I believe the "best" setting in Audacity is "for this is "Remove Center to Mono"

Will try to follow this using Adobe Audition.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Convert a track with a vocal you like to mono. Everything is centered then.

 

[Dunring]

Fleetwood Mac "Sarah" is a good example or Lorde "Royals". Her lead sounds centered, though her backup vocals are to each side.

 

[Geert]

If lead vocals often doesn't sound centered then you have an issue with your setup I think. Better ask for the exceptions where the lead vocal is not centered.

Reasons why a vocal might not sound centered include an asymmetric setup or room where reflections or room modes have different effect on both stereo channels, and speakers which are not matched.

 

[dualazmak]

My post series here and thereafter would be of your reference and interests, especially these three posts;

[Part-06] Female Vocal in Jazz and Popular Music, and One Male Vocal Track for Comparison: #596
[Part-07] Female Vocal and Counter Tenor in Early Classical Music: #639
[Part-08] (Smooth?) Jazz Trio: #640 (especially the first sample "I Fall in Love Too Easily" which is trumpet solo, though)

As shared/summarized here and here, please simply PM me writing your wish if you would be seriously interested in all the intact "music sampler tracks" I shared through the post series.

 

[fpitas]

If lead vocals often doesn't sound centered then you have an issue with your setup I think. Better ask for the exceptions where the lead vocal is not centered.

Reasons why a vocal might not sound centered include an asymmetric setup or room where reflections or room modes have different effect on both stereo channels, and speakers which are not matched.

Or, dare I say, your ears aren't identical. I've discovered earwax problems that way.

 

[Golf]

Reasons why a vocal might not sound centered include an asymmetric setup or room where reflections or room modes have different effect on both stereo channels, and speakers which are not matched.

Yes, the »acoustic conditions« of my listening room are far from satisfying. For instance the location of the two speakers is such that the left one has to »fíll« a much larger part of the room than the right one. I believe that I did manage to match the speakers by using MathAudio Room EQ as good as possible, but all the same it seems to me that the stereo balance is a more crucial point now than it was before. I know that sounds a bit weird, but I can’t help it