"Music Industry Chat"

Vocal Recording Techniques

For the most part, recording a vocalist is not much different from tracking any other instrument.  My general rule is to keep about 6-8” between the microphone and the pop filter and about 6-8” between the pop filter and the performers mouth.  (Of course this could change if a more intimate result was desired)  This really supports a medium to upfront vocal and does a great job of breaking up any plosives.  In my personal experience the first note one should make is that a singer’s voice can deteriorate under too much stress.  By knowing this you should move quickly to get your initial levels and compression settings so as to not wear out the performer before getting the job done!   

If possible, have a few microphone choices available and set them up in your vocal room with the capsules of the mic’s as close as possible.  Doing it this way allows you to audition various types of microphones at the same time during the level setting phase.  Currently I have a few “go to” mic’s but in reality I never know which one will match my singers voice.  Some of my favorites are the Neumann TLM 103, The Shure SM7B and the AKG 414 XLS.  (A good singer, room, mic & preamp is almost 100% necessary)

The genre of music highly dictates how I approach getting the vocal sound that I might be after.  For example, if it’s a heavy rock tune I may want the end result to be a controlled voice that sits neatly into the mix (not on top).  I may not really be that interested in the “breathiness” either.  By outlining what I want the end result to be, I have now created a road map of sorts.  Let’s break it down:

Assuming that we have a good vocal pre amp level with the performer approximately 12-16” from the microphone I will begin to dial in the compressor with the above “road map” in mind.  Although high ratio’s will yield more control, I will go for a lower ratio with a bit more gain reduction.  The lower ratio will give me a bigger vocal.  For this I might try a 3:1 ratio, most likely not any higher (at least for the tracking).  As far as the compression attack, I will lean more towards a faster attack.  The faster attack will grab the loud peaks quickly and push them down while gently controlling our vocal so that it will sit neatly in our mix.  The faster attack setting will also shave off a little bit of the transient which will also support pushing it back a little bit into the mix.  Think of the transient as the detail.  If the vocalist is surrounded by this big rock band, in reality you are not going to hear the subtleties in his voice and the faster attack setting will help you achieve this. 

To assure that I don’t get too much of the breathiness of the singers performance, I would now adjust the release setting on the compressor to a slightly longer release.  Doing this will push down more of the vocal while being compressed, once again supporting the control that we initially desired and also deemphasizing the breaths.    It’s important to listen for any audible pumping effects from the compressor.  I would go for a medium or slightly longer release and do my best to get it to sound consistent.   At this point I should be hearing something close to the result I was looking for, lastly set your threshold for about 4-6db of gain reduction in the loudest vocal passages and top off your make up gain.

For Back Ground Vocals (BGV), I almost always go for a more controlled, darker sound.  This can be achieved with the right distance between the performer and mic as we as the compression settings.  I look at it this way, if I want something to sound farther back then I record it at a distance so with playback it will already have this important spatial cue.  Aside from this I may even use a different microphone for textural reasons (helps separate the lead and BGV more).  With the correct placement out of the way I will get my preamp levels as usual.   I can’t even begin to stress how important a good healthy signal is.  My compressor “Road Map for BGV” would be this:  Because these are BGV, they should be in the back ground and not up front.  This means a lot less detail should be present versus than the lead vocals.  I also don’t want the BGV to get lost or buried in mix (big guitars and drums can take up a lot of space).   Let’s get started with the ratio, a higher ratio will give us the control we need and also slimming down the size making it sound smaller or farther back.  As with the attack, I would go fairly close to an ultra fast attack setting.  This will shave off a little bit more of the transient (detail) and help to support (yet again) pushing the BGV to the back.  Following the attack my road map calls for lots of control so let’s adjust the release to a longer release setting.  Doing this, will ensure that we have a smooth BGV that is unmoving (and never lost) while sitting in the back of our mix.

That’s my general approach, but as I know you’ve heard before… there are no rules.

Tim Smith

Recording | Mixing Engineer

The Soundscape Recording Studio