A Pocket Guide to Recording Vocals

Posted by Arlo on 3 August 2011

Hey Juicers,

There’s a dying art in recording music these days, it’s called ‘using a microphone’. Thanks to sequencing and midi, there’s less and less, actual recording to be done. One thing that must be miked up is; vocals. So I thought I’d give you a little insight into recording vocals, or at least the way I see it.

There are 3 key factors Hardware (microphone/ preamps etc), Space (room or booth and mic distance), Takes (the number, quality & variety of performances). Each of these subjects could fill a novel, but here’s a brief run down of things you should consider.

Selecting a microphone and a preamp is a luxury not many of us have. Most of us have a single type of preamp and rarely more than one vocal mic. If you have a choice, consider the ‘brightness’ of the microphone. Recording a female vocal with a very toppy mic can be a recipe for disaster. You’ll spend all you time trying to fight the ‘essing’ and you will loose a lot of detail. By the same token, if you use a dull microphone, on a male with a deep voice, you’ll have trouble making it sound clear and fit in the mix. Same with Preamps; if you have a harsh bright sounding pre, it might work well with someone who has a smooth voice and a dull warm pre might be better, for someone with a higher tone. It’s much better to get the tone right on the way in. Lead vocals will probably need more clarity and presence, so a good vocal condenser is essential. However, when recording backing vocals a dynamic mic will sit further back in the mix with ease.
You can also try putting a T-Shirt over the mic to soften the sound. I’ve also used cling wrap, wrapped tightly around the mic. It worked a treat.

As for space, It’s worth considering how close the singer is to the microphone and what the room you are recording in, sounds like.
If you’re going for a big rock sound, a bit of distance between the singer and the mic is not a bad sound. But for most vocals 30cm distance from the mic is probably your maximum. If you find this gives you a lot of ‘pops’ try a pop shield or try turning the mic on an angle, so the singer is not blowing directly against the diaphragm. If your room is to “Live” meaning you are getting a lot of reverb, in the mic or even if there is to much background noise, try letting the vocalist hold the mic in their hand and covering them with a quilt. This seems pretty punk, but it’s very effective for blocking out other noise. You can also try shoving the vocalist into a wardrobe if they’re not claustrophobic.
Finally, probably the most important factor is the takes. There’s no point having the best sound in the world, if you can’t capture a decent vocal take.

So it’s important to know what you’re looking for. I generally do five passes of the main vocal part. Re-recording any dud takes. So you end up with five perfectly good takes. I’ll then go though and pull out the best example of each line, piecing them together to build the main vocal. You can also do this with the backing vocals as well. It assures that you’ve always got a good alternative and you never have to settle for a less than perfect performance.

Now that’s your clean vocal. But for a bit more flavour; try a texture track. This is a highly coloured vocal part that sits low in the mix. It can be a simple as a whisper track or even a screaming track mic’d from a distance. I’ve also run other takes through my guitar amp (I love that thing) and bumped them right down in the mix. The subtle warm distortion gave a vintage flavour to the vocals. With the texture track you can EQ most of the bass right out, because all the overtone information is all in the high frequencies.

So the guiding principle is to be methodical. Set out with a plan in mind. Record the takes and then edit and mix them. It’d be a real shame to be halfway through the mix and realise that you are missing a harmony. Or perhaps wish you’d gotten a more aggressive or a sexier performance. Take a lead, most vocalists respond well to encouragement and instruction. Don’t be afraid to show the vocalist examples of the kind of performance you want. At the end of the day, it’s going to sound like them, no matter how much they impersonate someone else.

Once you know what you are looking for, it’s much easier to get on with the job. Record first: ask questions later.

Peace out.

Arlo. 

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