The "getting a pro vocal at home" thread

[xoxos]

This is not a tip, but I wouldn't couldn't without my popfilter. And yes, it's worth the money to buy an "official" one. K&M does a decent popfilter for a reasonable price.

Somebody once told me to use nylon stockings worn thin, but I think they take too much of the clarity at the top.

My $0.02

shadecloth makes an excellent pop screen. i recommend buying a pack of little alligator clips to attach it to your coathanger/frame. they make handy roach clips.

[Sepheritoh]

I did some similar research over the summer and typed this up during my summer holiday (how sad is that)

Not a million miles from what you said.

http://www.hairthieves.com/tip/rec/vocals.htm

Rollasoc
http://www.hairthieves.com

Thanks for those tips.

[Sleek Month]

Hmmm...

I don't use a preamp at all, (aside from the one on my board...), no compressor, no pop screen...

Just a Rode NT1. It makes me happy.

The trick I've found is to know your microphone, and "play" it like you would an instrument.

Get in tight for the proximity effect on more intimate things, get further away for clarity when singing louder...

The only thing I really like fx-wise is tempo synced delay, which I use on everything.

Use the DB tempodelay, half note on one side and a full note on the other. Roll off the top end so the delay doesn't catch sibillances.

...sometimes I'll use a bit of chorus on ye vox for stereo imaging, and just a bit of verb.

That's it.

-S.

[Lady J]

Like this??
http://homepage.mac.com/silenceaintanop ... mistry.mp3

A subject I haven't seen discussed much around here, as a matter of fact I have found it difficult to get all the dirty tips and tricks on the internet.
I have checked proweb, soundonsound, The project studio handbook site, the usual forums etc.

Now I'm particularly interested in that heavily processed pop, RnB sort of vocal. It might not be a choice for purists, who like it all to be done in one great take, with no doubletracking, autotune etc. But I like my vocals like my synths: polished and everything chiselled to perfection. I know this might not be everyones cuppa but that's taking the vocal to the extreme. If you want less polished vocals, just skip a few points

Let me point out that I'm far from an expert and I'm just as much looking for tips and tricks as well as providing them. As a matter of fact feel free to correct me if I'm completely wrong. Do hold back a bit though

The way to pro vocals (very briefly):
Recording:
1. Get a good singer. This is the hard part.
2. A good condensor mic and good pre-amp, each can be bought in a reasonable quality for about £150.
3. If recording home, which a lot of us do you need some sort of vocal booth to kill the reflections of the room. Hanging duvets/sleeping bags from the ceiling in a circle around the vocalist will do a decent job.
4. Compress a little while recording but only a little, maybe a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. Remember you can't uncompress once it's recorded.
5. Record at least 3 or 4 times (possibly 20 or 30) so you have a few choices.

Now, you can find much more detailed articles on the internet regarding recording so as mentioned, it was very brief.

Processing:
Now many will probably just compress the recorded vocal and slap a reverb on it and call it a day. But that's not really a pro vocal.

This is where my search begins to lack.
Ok, these are some possible (necessary?) steps:
1. De-ess the vocal to get rid of the nasty t's and s's. Even better do it manually changing the actual waveform by hand. Takes much longer time but gives a better result.
2. Noise-gate. Same as above, use a noise gate or better, do it manually. Most of the time it shouldn't be necessary to do it manually as the noisefloor *should* be a lot lower than the vocal.
3. Reverb. Contrary to common belief reverb is not always the best choice. Why? It can bring the vocal further back but more importantly, the long tails can make the mix more muddy. A delay with a high pass filter is often a better choice as it's not as dense as a reverb.
4. Pitch correction, even Mariah Carrey uses it. Probably been on 95% of all Top 40 singles the last 5 years. You all know what it does. Use if you like it, if not don't. Wanna do Top 40, use it. Simple as that.
5. Double/triple etc. tracking. A great way to make a phatter vocal.
One way is to e.g do three tracks, pan one dead centre. One left and one right. The panned tracks should be played at around 30-50% volume. Now delay the left track by 20 ms. and on the right make it come 20 ms. before the centre vocal. That will give a much more "chorused" vocal.

Another trick is to just have one vocal track and duplicate it using autotune on only one of the track and therefore getting a pitch variation. That will also phatten up your vocal.

6. Compression: To make your vocal upfront try and compress the panned tracks very, I mean VERY hard, say 8:1 ratio, threshold 30-40 dB and compress the centre vocal normally. Keeping the panned track low in the mix, at least 6 dB lower than the lead will insure you get a compressed-in-your-face sound, while still maintaining dynamic. Woohoo

7. Chopping /further editing. I know that a lot of pro's will go as far as cutting out cyllabels to get a perfect vocal. So the word "extraordinairy" if sung, could be chopped up quite a bit
Personally I'm not really bothered to go to this extreme.

Of course this is all subjective, so feel free to add/subtract.

I'd be very interested in knowing other tips etc.

[You™]

Thanks for starting this Armadillo. In the time I took to write this, Sleek and Lady J have posted, so I admit up front I'm not the world's best singer, but I can say that a hard plastic or metal seems to work far better than a cloth pop-screen. Not only did the sock I used to use muffle some of the higher frequency transient sounds but it just looked plain silly on my mic...

Also be careful with de-essing and noise-gating. It really depends on the material with which you're mixing the vocals but you can really flatten and dull the vocals by being too picky about the performance. Donks mentioned harmonies, I agree. Even bad harmonies liven up things. Harmony is just melody sung out of tune.

A lot of the amateur computer-based music I hear that has vocals suffers in these ways:

The vocal isn't nearly as well recorded or "produced" as the rest of the instrumentation. This is easy to spot but hard to fix. It's not always as simple as massively multitracking the vocals or applying loads of compression, EQ or effects but all those help. I've found that judicious EQ can work wonders with vocals - even so much as de-emphasizing bum notes if you have a good enough EQ (...such as Elemental Audio's Eqium or Firium. Product Placement Alert - I won those plug-ins here on KvR based on a vocal song that desperately needed them ). Some people who tend toward a clean synthetic electronic sound may have dull, muddy vocals that just don't sound as polished as the rest of the music. EQing down the bottom and mids helps. Sometimes in dense mixes, I EQ out all but a narrow band of the main frequency of my vocals and then shift that range slightly until the vocals sit on the mix. EQ is also good for changing the tone of background vocals just enough so they don't sound exactly like the lead. I agree with what paul_is_dead said about a great sounding voice. I hate the sound of my voice (almost as much as anyone who's heard me sing) but I keep thinking there's hope. A lot of my favorite vocal music is sung by people with seemingly modest abilities. You don't have to show off to be a successful singer.

The vocal part doesn't have a unique or dedicated path within the song arrangement. Every great vocal song has an interesting part for the singer to play. The vocal parts may be whispered, screamed, cooed, crooned, or hiccuped but the way they fit in with the rest of the music makes some kind of sense. They aren't redundant notes rendered as words nor are they some loose riff that has no relationship to the music. Sometimes I write words before a song and sometimes after, but either way, as the music is coming along I look for ways (within my limited singing abilities) to make not only my words say something but the phrasing and pitch be interesting too. Needless to say, I'm not always successful.

The singer isn't singing in a comfortable range or shys from the material. Sometimes I have to change the key of a song so that it's in a range I can at least partially hit. It's really easy to do with a good sequencer, but it's often an overlooked way to simplify the task of getting your vocal pitch in tune. A few people mentioned drinks and humidifiers and stuff. Don't discount how important the singer's comfort or lack thereof plays in getting a good performance. Whatever it takes to get comfortable (I need about 4 beers) do it and sing as loud as you are comfortable. Then go back, compress and add gain until that vocal track is hot! You want to be able to turn down the vocal rather than have to turn it up to make it sound clear in the mix.

[topaz]

yeh maybe

who said de-sser



dont think the producer knows they exissssssssssst.

Like this??
http://homepage.mac.com/silenceaintanop ... mistry.mp3

[Armadillo]

Thank you You for the tips and tricks. Some good ideas.

Lady J: yes, I've heard that one before. Very cool vocals. The drums could groove a bit more imo but apart from that it's a very nice tune.

Topaz: you really thought it was very ssssss. I didn't. Maybe my tinnitus at 7k doesn't help either.

[opiadream]

what about fluids?
say your singer gets thirsty in those 2 hours or 20 takes
i heard milk is bad for the voice
a little water with lemon?
just water?

Code Red Mountain Dew?
seems like alcohol would be prohibited given possible intake over 2 hours could degrade the process (unless one was extensively conditioned)
southern comfort or triple distilled vodka?

my friend who has a recording studio in his basement is constantly buying and selling and trading microphones. seems like their the vsti of the audio realm.
he provides his singer with cranberry juice

newcastle brown
a couple of tokes
yell at the neighbors
cough up some questionable looking fluid

and

SING

[freeztar]

Even bad harmonies liven up things. Harmony is just melody sung out of tune.

That is well put. I think I found my sig of the week .

Don't discount how important the singer's comfort or lack thereof plays in getting a good performance.

So true, oh so true.
It's all in the mood.

newcastle brown
a couple of tokes
yell at the neighbors
cough up some questionable looking fluid

and

SING

That should be a song!


In all seriousness, this is a good thread and there's some good info here.
The one thing that rang unclear was this:

I try to avoid the 'sss' problem by singing a bit over the mic.

This is interesting because I usually sing a little under the mic. If you hold out your hand in front of your mouth while singing, you will notice that most of the airflow is concentrated center and center-down (at least that's how it is with me and my southern USA accent ). So to me it has always made sense to sing a little below the mic. That being said, my vocal technique, both in singing and recording, is far from fair . So it would be nice to hear another theory on this.

[opiadream]

ok ok
sometimes I sung a bit off to the side of the mic
but never directly at it
microphones are skittish and will attack if they feel provoked


maybe I should try singing under the mic

note to self....

[You™]

Even bad harmonies liven up things. Harmony is just melody sung out of tune.

That is well put. I think I found my sig of the week .

I wish I could take credit, but I believe I heard the Smothers Brothers say that on TV many many years ago.

[TVD]

Like this??
http://homepage.mac.com/silenceaintanop ... mistry.mp3

This is a perfect example of vocals vs. the instruments. So much is going on in just one song.

But as long as the beats are good, the kids will buy it or bootleg it.

[Kim Lajoie]

My only mic is an SM57, so everything it hears comes out sounding really warm and fat (too much! )... so I always use radical EQ to make it sound more "pop" - cut the lows, drop the mids, BOOST the highs.

I always position the mic so it's on one side, pointing to the space about 5cm from the singer's mouth. I think that's called "off-axis" in some circles. Basically, if the singer steps back, s/he can see the mic from the side. they sing into the position about 5cm in front of where the mic is pointing... hope that makes sense. This means that most of the sillibance and plosives just shoot right past the mic, and all that's recorded is the tone. Depending on the singer, the level is usually pretty even too, which means I don't have to compress as much.

Post processing. Gating is a must - because compression brings up all those silly mouth noises and background crap. I've boon doing pop music lately, so not much reverb. Mainly tempo delay. Background vocals get multitracked and hardpanned.

Not much more to add here. Great thread.

Forever,




Kim.

[fractrix]

maybe I should try singing under the mic

...as long as you doesn't try to sing too much under the tune ...

[rollasoc]

[quote="cptgone
maybe your holiday ended abruptly?

"33. Spooky vocals. Send the vocal t" (sic)[/quote]

Oops it seems some of the page didn't make it up from the PC onto the site... (Makes note to fix that)

Rollasoc
http://www.hairthieves.com