# Know Lots About Recording Vocals:



## Chris

Full List: Here.

Ripped from: soundonsound.com

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A great lead vocal sound can make all the difference between an average demo and a potential single. The lead vocal inevitably generates the largest number of vocal-related reader queries, and rightly so  many tracks have been transformed into hits simply by an inspired vocal. It is in recognition of the importance of the lead vocal that top producers often spend such a large amount of time and money working on this one element of a finished track.

*Q* I'm currently using a dynamic mic for recording vocals, but I've heard that capacitor mics are better. What difference would I notice if I bought one?

*A*For a start, capacitor (or condenser) mics are generally more sensitive than dynamic mics, which means you'll need less preamp gain to get the same signal level. However, when close miking lead vocals there is seldom a problem in getting sufficient signal level. The main difference you're likely to notice moving from a dynamic to a capacitor mic is that the capacitor mic reproduces high frequencies more faithfully, producing a more open sound than a dynamic model with much more clarity and definition.

*Q* Do I need a shockmount or are they just for posers?

*A*A suspension shockmount of the type normally seen on large-diaphragm condenser mics isn't just for show  it can be extremely effective in reducing the levels of unwanted noise recorded. A studio mic can be very sensitive to mechanical vibrations, so the elasticated suspension is used to isolate it from the stand, reducing the degree to which stand-borne vibrations can reach the capsule.

If you're overdubbing vocals in a quiet room with a solid floor, then you can get away without a shockmount  provided that you're not in the habit of tapping your feet! But a shockmount can be very important in studios with wooden floors, or where several musicians are playing together in the same room.

*Q* Q What polar pattern should I use?

*A* Most engineers will use a cardioid pattern, which is more sensitive to sounds arriving from the front than from the back and sides, as this avoids capturing much in the way of ambient sound. However, cardioid designs colour the sound in a variety of ways. The most obvious of these is that they exhibit the 'proximity effect', whereby low frequencies become more pronounced the closer you move to the mic. However, the sound will also change if the singer moves off axis  in fact, even if the singer remains in front of the mic, any reflected sound arriving at the sides or rear of the mic capsule will still be subject to tonal change.

Some recording engineers occasionally use omni-pattern mics instead, which pick up sound equally from every direction. While this can often result in a more transparent sound, it is at the expense of a higher level of recorded ambience.

*Q* My mic comes with a foam pop shield. Should I use this when recording vocals?

*A* Foam pop shields are actually not very effective in reducing popping and their presence can also compromise the high-frequency performance of the microphone. A fine mesh pop shield mounted midway between the mic and the singer will work much better, and it ought not to significantly affect the sound. You can either buy such a pop shield (which often comes with an attachment to clip it onto the mic stand) or you can improvise your own using a wooden hoop or wire frame with a piece of nylon stocking material stretched over it. You can even use the fine wire-mesh splash guards used to cover frying pans, as these also work perfectly well.

*Q* How far should I be from the microphone when I sing?

*A* There is some leeway here, but between six and eight inches (15 to 20cm) is generally alright. If you get too close when using a cardioid mic, the bass boost caused by the proximity effect will increase, though this is sometimes the effect which is desired. The important thing is to try to keep the distance between the singer and the mic constant if you want to keep the tonal balance consistent  even slight movements can dramatically alter the sound if the mic is at all directional.

*Q* Where's the best place in the room to put the microphone?

*A* Most of the time when recording vocals it's best to keep the effect of the room on the sound to a minimum, so keeping well away from the walls is a good idea. In particular, try not to have a reflective wall directly behind the singer. Another thing to avoid is recording in the exact centre of a room, as any standing waves will be in phase at this point, and this will tend to exaggerate the room resonances in the recording. Balancing these two considerations means that you're likely to wish to record close to, but not directly at, the centre of the room.

If you're still getting a boxy sound, no matter how you position things in the room, the first thing to try is working a little closer to the mic  it is usually the nature of the recording room's ambience which causes boxiness. Obviously, the proximity effect may often limit you a little here, and so four inches (10cm) is probably a sensible minimum distance  this will still improve the direct-to-reflected sound ratio. The other thing you can do is ensure that there's something non-reflective behind the singer. Use curtains or hang up drapes, duvets or sleeping bags to soak up the reflections. If the sound is still boxy then it may be that the room is simply too small or too badly behaved and that you should try a different room. However, this is a rare occurrence, except in the case of poorly designed vocal booths.

*Q* Should I EQ vocals as I record?

*A* My approach is not to use any EQ when recording, as this gives me more scope for adjustment when mixing. In any event, a good mic in front of a good vocalist should sound 90 percent of the way there before you add compression or EQ. Furthermore, you can never really tell what EQ is needed until you hear a sound in context with the other elements of the mix. However, some engineers prefer to EQ as they record, particularly if they wish to take advantage of analogue equalisation before recording onto a digital medium. If you'd like to work this way, be sparing with the processing you do  you won't necessarily be able to remedy any problems later. My recommendation would be to start working without EQ at the recording stage, but if after a period of time you find yourself repeatedly adding similar EQ at the mixing stage, then try using this during recording instead.

*Q* What do people mean when they talk about using EQ to add 'air' to vocals?

*A* A broad-band, high-frequency EQ can often be useful to enhance the sense of clarity of a sound, and such processing is often referred to as 'adding air' to a recording. Typically, this is achieved using a parametric equaliser set to a fairly wide bandwidth and with a centre frequency of between 14 and 16kHz. In fact, it is because analogue equalisers can often do this without introducing harshness that many engineers prefer to add at least this EQ while they record.

*Q* Should I compress vocals on the way to the recorder?

*A* If you have an analogue compressor, perhaps as part of a voice channel, then adding a little compression during recording is a good idea, helping to even out the signal levels and also maintaining a good signal-to-noise ratio by using up more of the available recording headroom more of the time. A compressor can also prevent the singer from overloading the input of your recorder, and this is particularly important with digital recorders which can produce ugly distortion if their A-D converters are clipped. Nevertheless, remember that it's not easy to reverse the effects of overcompression, so err on the side of undercompressing  you can always add more in the mix if you need to.

If you're using a digital recording system then any compression you do during recording should be carried out in the analogue domain in order to get the best out of your A-D converters. Compressing in the digital domain during recording will have no audible benefits over doing this same processing during mix down, so it is probably best left until then.


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## Digital Black

Wow..Great stuff..


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## sethh

Heia heia, cool stuff - I'm gonna work with this when I get my new condenser soon! But just one thing - How 'bout recording screaming? I'm not sure if you dig hard vocals but still I'd appreciate very much if you have ideas! I also have a cheapish dynamic Carol mic, but the condenser's going to be an AKG Perception 200 w/ CAD pop-filter. Fire (extreme metal screaming), heat (screaming with a melodic rasp) in your voice and every kind of extremeity that can exit my throat could be too much for a delicate thing like a condenser? Hmm.. . ... . . What to do, how to do please?!


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## Buzz762

An audio production class I took spent a full semester covering pretty much everything you just said in one neat little post.


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## Vince

I follow this guy's advice religiously, more great stuff from soundonsound.com:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar04/articles/computervocals.htm


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## eaeolian

Wow, that's cool - his approach is almost exactly what I used when recording the demo vocals. I'll be doing something similar for the album. Good stuff.


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## Varjo

Any quick hints on reducing the hissing s's in vocals? I'm having somewhat of a problem with it...


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## TreWatson

Varjo said:


> Any quick hints on reducing the hissing s's in vocals? I'm having somewhat of a problem with it...



this is kinda old and i don't know if you ever check this anymore, Varjo, but that Hissing is something called Sibilance, and Sibilance can be reduced by either in your EQing turning down the high bands or using what's called a De-esser, which, for all rights and purposes, does what i just said.


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## Alexdeliverance

yeah a de-esser is basically a multiband compressor with a band around 6k for guys and 7 k for girls, You can use a multiband-compressor and make a preset for de-essing out of it, and also plosives can occur even with a pop filter, so if you forgot to re-do the take, well you can still turn the plosives down with selecting it the beginning of the P waveform , and turning its volume down a bit via automation or whatever, eq some of the bass out, and that should cut it,

usually i roll off lots of bass in the eq for lead vocals since they tend to sound Crooner-ish if you keep low frequencies too much,


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## Mn3mic

Has any one tried this plug in? I tried it and it's a great de-essing tool - if you have the chance try it out 

Valley People Dyna-mite by Softube


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## Quantum-7

This is a really good tutorial. Never knew there was so much to it! First quadtracking, now vocals... man I've learned a lot these past 2 days, lol.


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## Ambit

My first vocal production :

Ambit- Inverta (Feat. Alex Flagstad) by MikeIsMe on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free


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## 62strat

thanks for sharing


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## RussellNelson

Thanks for the advice. I'm working on building my own studio and this article really helps.


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## ArrowHead

A couple other tips I've recently learned:

1) If you notice take after take that your vocals are consistently flat or out of tune, TURN DOWN THE BASS!!! Turn it off, even. Cranking the mix into your headphones with booming bass is likely causing your problem. The bass frequencies will warp your eardrum, which in turn skews your pitch. Try muting the bass guitar and kick tracks, or even rolling off all the low frequencies before you record your vocals.

2) One ear, two ears, no ears, what gives? We all see it in rock videos - singers with only one earphone on. Sometimes you can try and try, but it's awkward trying to sing along with yourself in the earphones and get a good balance. Even worse when there's latency. By removing one earpiece, or pulling one or both partway off your ears, you can create your own balance between the mix, and hearing yourself in the room naturally.

3) Height matters. If you position your mic a little below your mouth, your voice will sound warmer. If you position the mic slightly above your mouth, it will sound more nasal. The difference can be only an inch or two, so if your singer is bouncing around, make him STOP! And if you find things sounding a bit nasal, try lowering your mic a few inches before adding EQ to counter.


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## Jes Johnson

I just started recording vocals today.  Great stuff.


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## atoragon

a couple of articles i wrote on the topic:

Atoragon's Guitar Nerding Blog: HOW TO RECORD VOCALS (a guide for dummies) PART 1/2

and

Atoragon's Guitar Nerding Blog: HOW TO MIX VOCALS (free Vst Plugins inside)


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## iamjosan

definitely gonna put this into practice when I record vox


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## pittbul

Thanks.Great stuff..


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## Kaickul

This is good stuff! Thanks for sharing!


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## Daniel Vasconcelos

Great info, thanks!


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## thedukewestern

Varjo said:


> Any quick hints on reducing the hissing s's in vocals? I'm having somewhat of a problem with it...


Hello Vario - you can dig a little deeper and uncover other ways to help with over abundant "S" sounds - also known as sibilance. Most Cardiod Pattern condensor microphones have a bit of a peak on the upper mids due tho the nature of how they achieve a cardiod pattern. sometimes really bringing out some of those sounds. If you have a microphone that will run in multuple pickup patterns - try running it in an omni directional mode.. this will allow your singer to get a little closer to the mic. You can use one of those auralex mudgaurds - or similar if you want to tame some room things. If thats not the tonality you are looking for - try using the cardiod pattern and point the center of the mic at the singers ear - so they are just slightly off axis. This may allow you to "De Ess" less.


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## KingAenarion

thedukewestern said:


> Hello Vario - you can dig a little deeper and uncover other ways to help with over abundant "S" sounds - also known as sibilance. Most Cardiod Pattern condensor microphones have a bit of a peak on the upper mids due tho the nature of how they achieve a cardiod pattern. sometimes really bringing out some of those sounds. If you have a microphone that will run in multuple pickup patterns - try running it in an omni directional mode.. this will allow your singer to get a little closer to the mic. You can use one of those auralex mudgaurds - or similar if you want to tame some room things. If thats not the tonality you are looking for - try using the cardiod pattern and point the center of the mic at the singers ear - so they are just slightly off axis. This may allow you to "De Ess" less.



^post is from 2009 so I doubt he's actually going to read it.

Still relevant info though


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