Overdubbing with Studio Monitors

[SirDonut]

The artist I am working with insists that we overdub tracks with the backing tracks coming through the studio monitors. He thinks it will feel more 'live' this way.

Now, we're not talking DI overdubbing, but overdubbing live instruments with monitors on.

Anyone got any ideas on the best way to do this? I'm at a loss. All I can think of is phase cancellation and feedback when I think about this technique.

[JWL]

Keep the volume under control, and use the null points of your mics to your advantage. This is actually done fairly often, it can be done well.... A little bleed isn't such a bad thing.

[fossiltooth]

Keep the volume under control, and use the null points of your mics to your advantage. This is actually done fairly often, it can be done well.... A little bleed isn't such a bad thing.

What he said.

Often enough I prefer tracking with monitors going, and it's always the artists that say "won't you get bleed?"

Your answer: "Sure. A little. What's your point?"

You can get less bleed (not to mention better-sounding bleed) with speakers than with headphones that are cranked up beyond belief.

Not that every session can benefit from tracking through speakers instead of cans.... But don't avoid it just because you've been informed that it's supposed to somehow be "wrong".

[Ryan Silva]

You may want to be carefull is you are planing too compress the poop out of your track. A overdriven/compressed track with that kinnda bleed could be trouble in the mix, but if not, no problem.

[tonewoods]

It's actually my preferred way of doing ODs these days......

Love to get a horn section on 3 ribbons with the nulls facing a blasting JBL Eon...

I feels like a gig, communication is much improved compared to headphones (that's a huge one for me), and it's surprising (especially with those ribbons which reject amazingly well) how little bleed winds up on tape....

I like doing vox this way as well....

Luck!

[radical recording]

I used to think this was a bad idea until I tried it in a few sessions. As long as you keep the volume low and watch (that is: listen...) where you place the mics it can greatly enhance the session. A better feel and a little bleed never hurts.

[fossiltooth]

I used to think this was a bad idea until I tried it in a few sessions. As long as you keep the volume low and watch (that is: listen...) where you place the mics it can greatly enhance the session. A better feel and a little bleed never hurts.

Exactly. I'm convinced that the only folks who would bash it are those who haven't tried it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Daniel Lanois works this way quite a bit and that most of the Foo Fighter's vocals are tracked this way as well. I guess that if it's good enough for Lanois and some major label rock stars, it's probably good enough for you too.

That said, I use headphones quite a bit, and I generally prefer to have singers out in the booth either way, because I feel like my pitch reference gets thrown off by having the singer in the same room. When everything is coming through the speakers, I feel more able to offer accurate feedback to the vocalist.

Also keep in mind that it's pretty damn easy to have guitarists overdub siting in the control room with their amp out in the live room or a booth. Having them hear there performance through the monitors in the context of a decent working mix can help the performance sit better in the track, and makes selecting tones easier as well.

[nacho459]

I used to do horn sections and gang vocals this way, primarily because I only had a couple sets of headphones. Like everyone says, it works fine as long as you don't have too much bleed into the mic...

I remember a 18dB rule or something about this, If a sound is 18dB below the music it is basically inaudible.

Think of all the live recordings that are done with 12AM's cranking at 110dB, of corse they use hypercardioid mics. So if the client demands you crank it up a lot, and you have speakers that can handle high SPL you may need to use a hypercardioid dynamic mic on the vocals.

[logancircle]

I heard Beck did all the vocals on Midnight Vultures this way, using an SM58. For real.

[dokushoka]

I heard Beck did all the vocals on Midnight Vultures this way, using an SM58. For real.

Famously, all of Bono's vocals are done this way.

Also, supposedly all the Sigur Ros stuff is done with the monitors cranked and Jonsi singing through the AMS RMX16.

If you are paranoid about bleed, wire one speaker out of phase.

That, are get an SM7 (This is what I do for many vocalist who need lots of coaching).

[SirDonut]

Thanks for the encouragement. I knew I'd somewhere read of people doing this kind of thing, but never really asked about it.