# An article on how to record vocals (By me)



## UntilTheAftermath (Dec 13, 2011)

*How to properly record vocals and/or screaming/growling vocals. (Digital)*

*- First of all, get yourself a quality microphone. (you know what they say: ''If you put shit in, the result still remains shit no matter what you do).*
*- Second, use proper cables, preferably gold-tipped (for best results).*
*- Third, use a decent pre-amp/mixer/interface, as this will help you in getting a really clean sound to work with, instead of useless crap added to the signal.*

This is your starting point! Remember, if you have these three things sorted out, you'll have a tremendous starting point, for actually, recording any kind of vocal.
The ''magic'' part however, lies within four basic things. You really need to understand these things well (do some research or something like it).

*I'll list these four things here:*

*Gating: *Eventhough, you might think you have quite a clean signal going in, it never hurts to clean it up some more, using noise reduction/gate pedals or vsts.
Most people make abuse of this handy tool, gating their sound to shit. I always do the ''breath and whisper test'' (This is my method for setting up proper gating, lolz). What does this method mean? It's really simple. When you want to set up your noise gate, just whisper from fairly loud to really really soft, and just when you notice, that these things are gated ''out'', turn it up a bit, do it again, and notice that now, your whispers are properly recorded/heard. This is the same for breathing sounds. I'm just writing this out of my own experience with recording stuff, so feel free to fill in some parts when it's incorrect.

*Compression:* This is the most important thing to learn and master. Since this is a really crucial part, I will explain some basic things about this.
While recording, my personal preference goes to at least a ratio of 2:1 with a soft knee and a relatively fast attack, with slow release. This keeps the dynamics and compression going, without squashing it too much. Also, record screaming vocals almost to the level of where they start to naturally distort, so when you notice that your vocals start to naturally distort, turn it back a small notch. (DON'T DO THIS WITH CLEAN VOCALS! Since this kind of distortion is impossible to remove!). These settings don't work for a lot of other styles of music, it's all material dependent. Just play around with it, and see what you like.

*EQ-ing: *Another important part, is the use of EQ. The art of EQ-ing is to not overdo it. Since the results most of the time suck, when overdone.
Okay, I'm not gonna tell you which EQ you should or shouldn't use, because it's all a personal thing. I'll just explain some basics here.
First part is, roll everything off between 60Hz with a High-Pass Filter. This range doesn't have anything useful as far as any vocals are concerned, and can only add more ''dirt'' to your overall (vocal) mix. Also play around with the 2.5Khz - 4Khz frequencies, since these can be used to either create harshness or softness. Also apply a gentle boost around 6Khz with a wideband bandpass filter and use the sweep control to get the frequencies right. Cut between 1Khz - 2Khz to smoothen out your vocals and finally bring up the bass somewhere between 180Hz - 600Hz. These are the basic frequencies in ''sculpting'' your sound. But again, don't overdo it! A useful tip for you guys: Never boost any frequencies, unless absolutely nescesary! Boosting frequencies results in adding ''dirt'' most of the time. Cutting is preferable. I explained this part, as if it were for clean vocals, but these things are also very usable for scream vocals, the only difference is, that scream vocals love to be distorted. (distortion can be added to liking, or doesn't have to be added at all, it's all about personal preference).
Also, not every EQ setting is usable in different styles of music, so listen carefully to the material you're working on.

*Reverb: *Another cool part, that I always make use of (who wouldn't?), is reverberation, otherwise known as reverb. Reverb is what music engineers and musicians alike call, ''the glue'' that holds everything together. When there is no reverb on any of the vocals in the song, it will sound really flat and dry, and besides it will annoy the heck out of you, (at least it does to me). So I always(!) ''wetten'' up my tracks using this lovely thing called reverb.

*I'll explain the different kind of (digital) reverbs that are currently available:*

- Room Reverb: The word says it all, this means that this kind of reverb simulates as if the vocals were recorded in a room. This could be any kind of room (ex. bedroom, bathroom, drumroom, living room, classroom etc etc.). This kind of reverb simulates smaller rooms mostly.

- Hall Reverb: This kind of reverb simulates as if the vocals were recorded in a hall. (this could be anything from a small hall to an opera hall).

- Convolution Reverb: Basically, this reverb is the best for digital studio use. It makes use of the more and more used ''Impulse Responses''. An Impulse Response is an actual recording of an existing room (or other kinds of things, ex. guitar speakers). These Impulse Responses are then sent to a VST effects plugin, which is capable of ''playing'' these things. Because the VST is an effect, it adds a nice and realistic reverb to the signal.

- Simulated Spring Reverb: Nice for vintage kind of reverbs. This is the same reverb as on a lot of guitar amps. Nothing special here really..

- Simulated Plate Reverb: A normal plate reverb, is a metal plate, which vibrates back and forth, these vibrations are sent as an audio signal to your channel in your DAW. However, there are also simulated versions of them (thus not requiring any hardware). These kind of reverbs are wonderful for any kind of vocals.

- Gated Reverb: This is pretty cool, but a bit unknown to me, so excuse me if I fill things in incorrectly. A gated reverb is a kind of reverb where you patch your effects processor (loaded with reverb etc.) to a noisegate and sidechain it. This way, when you sing, there is reverb, but when you stop singing, the reverb gets gated ''out''. (Kings of Leon used this technique, as from what I've heard).

Don't be afraid of mixing reverbs on the same source, as this can give some pretty neat results. For instruments, it could be useful to sometimes use as little reverb as possible, since this can put an instrument more to the front, I prefer not to though.

*About recording and mixing (vocals) in general:*
It's important for you to ALWAYS watch your soundlevels. Turning shit up too hard can really fuck up your ears for the rest of your life! Always monitor at low levels, because not only can you stay longer in the recording session without your ears tiring (Yes, ears do tire from listening), you will also not fuck them up this way, though it's still no quarantee.

Another tip I have for you guys is: Record vocals in mono, this way they are much more centred in the mix, which is very nice! And use pitch correction/auto-tune software, not because you can't sing, but just to smoothen out things a bit. (Or you could be wanting the T-Pain sound on purpose, in that case, fuck you!) Or you could use it if you really can't sing.

Another thing I wanted to tell you guys is: When you're planning to sing and record a long session, always warm up your voice doing exercises, and sing responsibly. (You don't want to be having to have surgeon on your vocal cords now do you?). Eventhough I'm not all that good of a singer, I got some exercises from my best friend, who sings, and they always work for me. Just get some vocal coaching if you need/want to, or just watch videos on Youtube about singing. I'll be the one stubborn bastard, singing til my lungs collapse, so you don't have to, lolzzzz!
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*Author:* Mark van Gool.

*You can contact me through:* [email protected]

My previous account was Quantum-7, so I'm not a complete noob on this forum, or maybe I am, who cares lol.
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## Mr. Big Noodles (Dec 16, 2011)

A good read, and very nicely organized. For those who are interested in more vocal recording stuff on the cheap, this is a good thread:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/re...eres-how-make-portable-desktop-vox-booth.html

On a sidenote, I went by Eindhoven when I was going to Amsterdam. Was driving from Brussels, got on the A67 instead of the A2 and almost ended up going to Germany. Damn your European roadways.


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## Tobi (Dec 16, 2011)

SchecterWhore said:


> A good read, and very nicely organized. For those who are interested in more vocal recording stuff on the cheap, this is a good thread:
> 
> http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/re...eres-how-make-portable-desktop-vox-booth.html
> 
> On a sidenote, I went by Eindhoven when I was going to Amsterdam. Was driving from Brussels, got on the A67 instead of the A2 and almost ended up going to Germany. Damn your European roadways.



well, Eindhoven is damn close to the German Border you know  if you miss an exit you are pretty much in Germany 


Anyway, I agree, good read, I was actually looking for something like that atm, so good timing


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## UntilTheAftermath (Dec 17, 2011)

Tobi said:


> well, Eindhoven is damn close to the German Border you know  if you miss an exit you are pretty much in Germany
> 
> 
> Anyway, I agree, good read, I was actually looking for something like that atm, so good timing


Haha, Eindhoven is damn close to the Belgium and German border, it's kind of cool, because the booze is much cheaper in Germany! Anyway, no problem at all, if you have some questions remaining feel free to ask. Ofcourse, some things are also new/unknown to me, so I probably can't answer all your questions, but I try to!

Mark,


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## UntilTheAftermath (Dec 17, 2011)

SchecterWhore said:


> A good read, and very nicely organized. For those who are interested in more vocal recording stuff on the cheap, this is a good thread:
> 
> http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/re...eres-how-make-portable-desktop-vox-booth.html
> 
> On a sidenote, I went by Eindhoven when I was going to Amsterdam. Was driving from Brussels, got on the A67 instead of the A2 and almost ended up going to Germany. Damn your European roadways.


Rofl, yeah our roadways are kind of weird and everchanging (Eindhoven is under construction almost all the time, lolz). 

I'm building a vocal reflection filter/booth tomorrow too , will post a thread about this soon, when it's done. (with pictures). I'm doing quite some research on it, but it's still a trial and error kind of thing (since I'm not a sound tech, I only know the basic stuff about acoustics, but I think that's enough to make it right).

Mark,


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