Your juicy secrets for recording killer vocals

[Wave_Junky]

I know every singer and situation is different. But I want to hear some opinions on recording techniques to capture great vocals.

[LazarusLong]

90% vibe of the session, 8% the right mic for the vocalist and 2% a touch of processing, be it compression and or 'verb in the headphones

[drumsound]

If the it seems like the singer is singing too hard send him a feed of the mic without compression. I will sometimes mult the mic and send uncompressed to the singer and compressed to tape.

If there are pitch problems try one headphone on and one off, or even none and track vocals in the control room.

[losthighway]

I was thinking the other day about how much less technique heavy recording great sounding vocals is. Of all the things I do as an engineer it seems to rely most heavily on having a great signal chain.

There is a more involved push pull with gain structure and using any compression going in, or not and having it all in the mix. I find when I do compress to tape on vocal sessions I am always adjusting the threshold so that there is just enough compressing going on. As the volume of the performance changes from song to song I have to keep my eye on my meters, especially on pres that sound good a couple of steps below the clipping point.

I feel like half the people I record lately want me to trash their vocal sound, so we spend ten minutes picking out the right mic, I run it through my favorite preamp and compressor. One week later it's going through a Fender deluxe, or my Fuzz pedal..... why do I try?

[Jay Reynolds]

Learn to sing. Take some vocal coaching. Get a gig that involves some vocals.

[Theo_Karon]

Lately I find myself almost always using a close and room mic for vocals. It adds a nice (and variable) amount of room ambience, but can be especially awesome for really dynamic or shouty singers. With dynamic performances I sometimes like to compress the close mic a good deal and the room mic very little or not at all, so that you get mostly close mic when the singer is quieter, but the room explodes when they get louder. If the pre amplifying the room mic sounds good when it breaks up, it can be cool to set it in such a way that it will start to a little at the louder parts of the performance. Stereo room mics in this application can also be awesome- the sound sort of collapses to mono in the quieter parts and opens up when things get more intense.

Another fun thing. Once you have your take, set up a PA on top of a piano with a contact mic on the soundboard (or even better an electric string piano- we have a CP70 that works great for this.) Figure out every note in the performance and tape or weigh that key down, or just some of them for a weird organic 'reverb' that grabs onto specific notes. You can get some totally crazy resonances if you crank the PA. Can also be cool to just depress the sustain pedal, but it is much wilder- you will get a lot of dissonance, but it sounds like a SPACE, especially if you record the output in stereo. Like a totally real but at the same time totally unimaginable physical space. 20-40 MS pre-delay can help here.

Re-amping through drums can be really cool too. Or cymbals. Have you ever recorded a vocal through a contact-mic'd cymbal? craaaaazy.

In general I love ways of totally mangling a vocal sound that still sound really 'hi-fi,' if that makes sense.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

^^^ good post.

there's been at least a touch of space echo on every vocal i've mixed for the last decade.

run the vocals out to a speaker and use your live room as a chamber.

reamping through the little desktop marshall amp always sounds good.

distressor in parallel is usually your friend.

also, the shure sm7.

[Theo_Karon]

SM57. Totally. I like it in particular for male singers who are deep but also sibilant, though a pop filter is a must. I finished tracking an EP about a month back where I think every single lead vocal was an SM57, although the singer was quite loud and was singing and playing piano at the same time, so I ended up relying a good deal on the piano mics for space. I think the lack of top sometimes makes it hard for people to realize, but that mic actually picks up a very smooth and pretty detailed midrange that can be totally perfect sometimes (probably why it's so popular for electric guitar.)

[MoreSpaceEcho]

nooooooooooooooo! sm seeeeeeeeeeeeeven

[roscoenyc]

if you are in an untreated space set up some packing blankets as baffles and sing
into a ^ of them. Your sheetrock room on that vocal track is only going to sound worse after the inevitable compression gets applied.

A dynamic mic is a great thing for the less experienced singer.

Floor wedge is also a good confidence builder.

[Z-Plane]

Try to always give the singer the option of their own space, be it a booth or a couple of gobos in the corner. Many will perform better with nobody watching them.

Free up as much physical space as you can, get the stand and cables from under their feet, and onto a wall or ceiling.

If they are struggling to pitch a tricky first note, especially on a harmony or punch-in, quickly program or print a piano repeating the correct note two bars before the punch.

If they are working from a lyrics sheet, check how a take sounds with them remembering whatever they can, even if its just two lines at a time.

Another classic - get the singer to do at least two or three guide takes under the impression you are still busy "setting levels", these may have maximum mojo.

The caveat to that booth comment - be *very* wary of DIY booths because most are too small by half. I used to have a place in a complex with dozens of others rented spaces, and there was always a vocal booth being built. They were invariably the size of a phone box, dead above 5k and overflowing with problem frequencies all the way down from there.

[logancircle]

if you are in an untreated space set up some packing blankets as baffles and sing
into a ^ of them.

So what do you use to hold up the blankets? A two-piece folding Japanese paper screen seems like it would work. ?

[drumsound]

if you are in an untreated space set up some packing blankets as baffles and sing
into a ^ of them.

So what do you use to hold up the blankets? A two-piece folding Japanese paper screen seems like it would work. ?

That's a good idea. I use large booms set up in a T.

[kinger]

The packing blankets with the metal eyelets are great if you can find them as you can put hooks in your walls and hang them in strategic areas. Not as good as stands but works well in a small room.

[KennyLusk]

I feel it's possible to put too much pressure on the vocalist by isolating them, setting up a special space, blah blah blah. Such a big deal is made about it all and then they're told to just relax...yeah right, LOL. Relax? There's no vibe in a vocal closet when all eyes and ears are on them IMO. How many singer/songwriters get their best vibe going while sitting in a comfortable chair with their guitar, then they're asked to sing while standing in an iso booth? Know what I mean? Maybe it's just me.

I like the vocals I get for myself from a single 012 w/omni cap through the EHX 12AY7 pre. Lately, the ZED pre's have been making me happy for vox also. That's just me though...and nobody's paying me so...FWIW.