This may seem obvious to some, but I just had to explain it to a client who brought their own vocal tracks in.
25. DO NOT apply any EQ or effects during vocal tracking! (especially if you are tracking multiple sessions over any length of time). You will never get them to match up.
Keep it flat and natural for tracking. If the talent complains or is annoyed by it, EQ the headphone mix for them, but not the track being laid down.
Get ALL of your takes down first.
Then compile one master take for the mix. Save this as the Comp Master. No EQ. No effects. Just naked.
Copy from that, then adjust the EQ and effects on those copied tracks to taste.
Humans are hyper-critical of vocal frequencies and bad EQ on vocals is like a slap in the face. It is nearly impossible to get all things considered back exactly where they were from previous sessions. You can't piece it together and have it sound natural.
This is really obvious on voiceover and narration where you cannot easily hide things with gates, compressors, verbs, choruses, delays or masking with other elements.
If you use a quality mic and preamp in a decent room with someone who knows how to speak or sing into it properly, you shouldn't have to use ANY EQ on the vocals.
If I am feeling lazy or tracking myself with no one else around, the only thing I would use is a SMALL amount of compression or even less of limiter if the levels are in danger of distorting.
Otherwise, ride the faders and keep it clean for the tracking.
Remember, the less you add now means the more you can add (of anything) later.
Save yourself the headache and keep it simple until the mix. Screw it up in the mix and you can always go back to the Comp Master and start over from the beginning.
If someone is bringing in tracks, require them to bring in at least one "naked" vocal track that you can use to fix or replace any other tracks they may have brought in.
26) Work out the mood of the song and get your artiste to sing in different positions, for instance if the verse is very laid back ask them to sit down to track the verses ,or even lay them back "experiment" if the chorus is up in your face stand them up. mic placement isnt the only thing to experiment with.
8th_note Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Jan 10, 2006
Posts: 15
Location: Vancouver, WA
This applies particularly to hardcore where the singer's vocal cords get shredded pretty fast.
27) Space out the vocals so the singer doesn't have to do them all at once. If the session is typical overdub do one or two scratch guitar tracks with the drums so you've got the basics of the song. Then have the singer (I use the term loosely) do a vocal take every hour or two as you're laying down tracks.
mark_van_j Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Oct 28, 2005
Posts: 153
Location: Montreal, Canada
28. Create an ambience in the studio or vocal booth that will make the singer comfortable.
This includes, dimming lights, candles, insense, flowers, posters, pictures. See if working out the ambience according to the song mood affects the singer. If it's a darker, mellower song, try to create a dark and mellow mood. If the song is upbeat and happy, try to reflect it in the ambience.
lessthanwill22 Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Feb 17, 2005
Posts: 36
Location: Southern Massachussets
Me and my friend were thinking. Even though my studio is not complete what I would like to try is to double track vocals. Have one track digital and one track going to a reel to reel recorder. I don't know how it would sound mixed together but I'm hoping it will sound pretty cool. Has anyone here ever done that before? If you have that would be really sweet if you tell me how it comes out. I understand that it also depends on mics and preamps.
29 - reverb. don't print it, but send it to the singer ears in a way he-she can feel the song working, like finished. Obviously ALL other instruments should be in place for this time. You should look at the takes without reverb, to see posible problems. But wen the star is singing, it'll make he-she feel comfortable.
30 - jaramago. I don' t know the english name, but this herb makes miracles with the voice.
31 - Keep all these rules out of singer's knowledge...
If I may add from a singer’s/ wanna be engineer point of view,
I’ve been singing and playing guitar for a living for almost 20 years as a blue collar musician in pubs, clubs, cruise ships, weddings etc… mostly as a one man band. Currently I do in between 5 to 10, 4 hour gigs a week.
32. Referring to # 31, what makes you think “singers” won’t read this
33. Pet peeve, don’t give the singer a crap reverb to track with. I guess some don’t care but I’ve had to ask to have verb dramatically turned down because it was driving me nuts
34. Try and pace the singer by starting with the easier song or having singer warm up. I’ve learned this the hard way years ago by waking up and rehearsing a challenging song 1st thing in the morning (well crack of noon) later in the day or especially by the end of the gig that night that challenging song is more difficult if not impossible.
35. Things that can be consumed to help a vocalist:
a. Previously said ginger, more specific ginger root. It’s available at the veggie section of a decent size grocery store. It can be cut up and sucked on (real zingy) or made into a tea. Singer will feel it in the back of throat.
b. Product called Singer’s Saving Grace, throat spray. It’s available at some Organic/Natural Health food stores and online. One main ingredient is ginger root.
c. Water room temp or warmer. Cold water contracts the vocal chords. I disagree with previous statement against warm or hot liquids because of my own experiences. I’d compare to a shower where the hot water relaxes you... AND taking a shower before singing is always great for me, I’m sure it’s the humidity and warm temp.
d. Hot tea with lemon I am not a fan of but…
e. I think every experienced singer has tried some sort of concoction to help the pipes so be willing to accommodate.
f. My personal list of weird things: Cigarettes (yes, especially for raspy vocals and to calm nerves of nicotine fit), Coca Cola (goes against hydration but covers throat), Potato Chips & My favorite Excedrin Tension Headache medicine.
g. Things to avoid (my list): espresso (things that de-hidrate), milk (or anything that will cover throat to much) & having full but not over filled stomach.
36. In my reality all of #35 only goes so far (except for Excedrin tension headache). If I’ve stressed my vocal way to much the only thing that’s going to really fix it is rest, maybe an hour or maybe a whole day, till I feel 100% again. At best “Singer’s saving grace” or ginger root will get me through 2 or 3 songs (live performance, straight through) and then I’m back to where I started. What I do then is sing easier songs or play some instrumentals but you can’t do that in a recording session. Frank Sinatra “The Voice” used to show up to a recording session in the 40’a (one take, one track for whole song) and if he felt like his vocal was not up to it that day he would send every body home, that’s an entire orchestra and recording staff.
37. If it was me standing in front of you, and you thought I sounded like crap singing something, I would want to know it. So be honest, just not brutally honest. For sure this would be a case by case call for how honest you are with a paying client, but if it’s your friend/client please find a tactful way to make the right suggestion. For sure we do not all listen to the same thing, the same way.
Marc
_________________ Stupid questions are ones not asked.
16- I've heard that mic should always be placed higher than the mouth of the vocalist, reason being... That it makes it so that singers head is facing on an upward slant, opening the vocal cords, resulting in a clearer and more efficient vocal clearity..
this is probably a "we all know this already..." .. but i thought for the noob that walks in here.. might find it useful.
This is actually a MAJOR fallacy. NEVER have a singer lift their chin. It actually does the opposite, by closing off the throat, and makes it harder for them to reach the pitch on higher notes. It is actually better for them to slightly drop their head, which will open the throat and actually make it easier for the singer to reach the pitch. I've had to work with many a singer to get them to stop singing "up" to the mic. They are always amazed at how much better it sounds and how much less effort it is to sing when their head is dropped. This is from years of experience as a singer, a vocal coach, and an engineer.
38 - Track with 2 mics the whole time. Have one mic upside down, and one rightside up. With the capsules close to each other (but not touching) in the sweet spot. Choose your two favorite mics for the vocalist, maybe even ask the vocalist what they like. When mixing choose one of the two for the project after you've made each mic sound as good as possible (after mic pre/ compression/ EQ). then choose what one actually sounds best, blindfold if need be. That way during mixing you're not pondering what the other mic might have sounded like, you'll be more confident that the vocal mic choice was good.
39 - Talk with the vocalist days/weeks before tracking about harmonies, and note carrying.
Sometimes a group with (1) vocalist never really thinks of harmonies, or the fact that he/she can carry notes longer than possible live (crossfade or counterpoint vocal parts).
give them ample time to come up with parts. Too much writing in the studio will slow things down, and can turn out not as good as if they had more time to work on it.
I work in a Voiceover studio where recording vocals is the majority of the work. We work on commercials, adaptations, radio TV...
We have a lot of work coming in also form agencies aborad, where thez send us the VO and we mix it. Normaly it takes half an hour or so, just to get it breathing again, really the quality of some studio sensding the material in is below comment...
Either they are too compressed, too boomy or just plain weak...
I hope some of the engineers in those studio around europe is reading this thread, because it has soem very good stuff and ideas. Some i will not hesitate to use in 1 hour when i leave for work...
My 2 cents, mostly about getting read of essing sound, which is very difficult to getrid of in the mix...
39: For voices with strong "s", try pointing the mic upward so it will capture the part of the vocls coming out of the upper side of mouth/lip.
Try not to use Vacuum tube mic for it, and a pre that doesnt color the sound...
ANd the most important one "again", dont ever tell your singer he/she sucks!
Actually believe it or not a engineer friend of mine just showed me a really cool technique. He actually uses 2 mics to record vocals...a condenser and a dynamic right next to each other. Just be careful of phase. The session we were in we actually used a AT 4040 and a Sennheiser 421. The vocals sounded phenomenal. The dynamic mic just completely opens up spectrum.
40. ALWAYS record the first take. Even if you're setting levels. Sometimes you get the best take when the singer thinks it's just a run-through.
Also keep all guide vocals from tracking sesssions for little nuggets of unpressurised gold!
41. Bear in mind that if a singer is ready to sing, the last thing they want is to be part of an engineering experiment.
Whenever possible try to do your mic auditions and tinkering and then don't do the vocal session.
Leave it set up for them to walk straight in the next day and sing.
42. Ask the singer if there's a specific microphone they usually use.
Some singers are happy to try new ideas, but some are set in their ways and will be freaked out if they're faced with a strange mic when they've used a different one for "all their hits".
If you try a different mic and they're singing well you will be the genius who introduced them to a fantastic new sound, or if they're not singing well it will be your fault for using the 'wrong' mic.
RemyRAD Moderator
Joined: Sep 26, 2005
Posts: 3114
Location: Washington DC Virginia suburbs
For those special rock and roll vocals, you might want to suggest a fifth of Jack Daniels and a pack of Chesterfield's?? It certainly helps for voiceovers to attain that "Clanging Brass Balls" sound. Perhaps copious amounts of white powder not laced with Manitol, as it can make for accidents on high notes.
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