TIPS ON Recording Vocals
If you've got a storming vocal on tape you're halfway towards a great
production. PAUL WHITE offers some tips on perfecting this most important of
recording skills. Even if all the music you make is created via MIDI, the chances are that at some time or other you'll
have to record vocals using the traditional tools of a singer and a microphone.
The vocal line is invariably the focal point of a song, so it has to be good,
and because the human voice is the natural sound with which we are most
familiar, any flaws in a vocal recording are immediately evident. Fortunately,
providing you have a vocalist who can sing in tune, getting a good vocal sound
isn't rocket science -- you just need to follow a few basic guidelines, and
perhaps take advantage of a few tricks of the trade to help you get a
professionally produced vocal sound.
Make
sure the singer is well rehearsed, physically comfortable, and under no
psychological pressure. Most singers perform best standing up in a room that has
a comfortable but not over-warm temperature. If they are distracted by other
members of the band or by hangers-on, send everyone but the engineer (and
producer, if you have one) out of the studio.
Take
time to get the vocalist's headphone mix right, and give them a little reverb
to help them sing more confidently. If you can rig up a system which allows
vocalists to adjust their own monitor level, it will make life a lot easier. A
good headphone mix really helps to encourage a good performance.
Always use a pop shield between the singer and
the microphone. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in unnatural
'pops' on plosive 'b' and 'p' sounds that can't be fixed afterwards. The pop
shield may be a commercial model or a DIY job comprising stocking material over
a wire coathanger frame (one such design was explained in the Cheap Tricks
article in SOS February '95), or even a fine metal or plastic sieve or chip-pan
splash guard. Any of these will do the job without affecting the tone of the
mic. Foam wind shields are
virtually useless in combating pops.
Use a
good microphone: it doesn't have to be anything too special, but you should
avoid low-cost 'bargain' models or those designed for use with home stereos or
portable cassette recorders. Professional studios generally use capacitor
microphones, but in the project studio a good back-electret mic or even a good
dynamic vocal mic can produce excellent results. For more on these different
types of mic, see April's SOS.
Pick
a mic to suit the singer. Singers with thin or excessively bright voices may
actually sound better with a dynamic mic, such as the ubiquitous Shure SM58,
while those needing more of an open sound would benefit from a capacitor or
back-electret mic. If you have several mic models to choose from, try a test
recording with each and see which is most flattering to the vocalist.
Use
the right mic pickup pattern: most project studio vocal recordings are made
using a cardioid or unidirectional mic, as these pick up less sound from the
sides and rear. However, an omni mic of a similar quality generally imparts a
more natural, open sound and that can be useful if you're working with a singer
who tends to sound nasal or boxy. If you work a couple of inches closer to an
omni mic, you'll get close to the same 'direct sound to room sound' ratio you'd
achieve with a cardioid.
Put the mic at the right distance, because if you get too close to it
you'll increase the risk of popping and the level will change noticeably every
time the singer moves slightly. Cardioid mics also exhibit a bass-boost
'proximity effect' that varies as the singer's mic distance varies. On the
other hand, if the singer is too far away from the mic the room reflections
will colour the sound, making it seem remote and boxy. As a rule, a mic
distance of around six to nine inches (15-24 centimeters) is ideal.
Minimize the room's influence on your sound. The mic picks up both
direct sound from the singer and reflected sound from the room. Reduce the
room's contribution by keeping away from the walls and by improvising screens
using sleeping bags or duvets behind and to the sides of the singer.
Use mic technique to help control level: if the singer can be persuaded
to pull back from the mic slightly when singing louder notes, there's less risk
of overloading the recorder or mic preamp, and you won't need to use so much
compression to even things up. An experienced singer may also lean into the mic
on quieter, more intimate passages to exploit the proximity effect. However, to
prevent an inexperienced singer getting too close to the mic, position the pop
shield about three inches (7.5 centimeters) from the mic.
Where possible, mount the microphone on a stand. Only let the singer
hold the mic if to do otherwise would compromise their musical performance.
When the singer is hand-holding a mic, particularly if it's a cardioid model,
make sure they keep their hand clear of the rear of the basket, as obstructing
this area can change both the directional and tonal characteristics of the mic.
Don't settle for anything less than the best vocal performance you can
get, and don't expect to get it all perfect in one take. More often than not
you'll have to punch in and out around phrases that need re-doing, but if you
have enough tracks, get the singer to do the whole song several times and then
compile a track from the best parts of each take. You can do this on tape by
bouncing the required parts to a spare track, but hard disk editing is much
more flexible in this respect.
Use suitable compression -- even well-disciplined vocalists tend to
sound uneven against the very controlled dynamics of a pop mix, so it helps to
apply a little compression while recording. Err on the side of using less
compression than you think you will finally need, and use a compressor that has
a reasonably neutral characteristic. Aim to achieve 5-8dB of gain reduction on
the loudest signal peaks, and if the compressor has an auto mode, use it.
Don't be afraid to use more compression on the vocal track once it has
been recorded. When the performance is in the bag you can try both subtle and
heavy compression to see which works best with the track, though if you're
using a lot of compression you may need to gate the vocal track first. This
will prevent noise build-up in the pauses between phrases. It's at the mixing
stage that a compressor with an obvious character can be used to make a vocal
seem larger than life.
Don't gate the vocal while recording. A badly set-up gate can ruin an
otherwise perfect take, so save gating until the mixing stage. Use the gate
before any further compression, but don't gate so hard that you remove all the
breath noises preceding words, as these are part of the character of a vocal
performance, and the recording will sound unnatural without them.
Don't
run amok with the EQ: on most budget desks the EQ only sounds decent when used
sparingly or to cut unwanted frequencies. Mid-range boosting usually results in
a nasal or phasey sound, so use as little EQ as you can. If you've picked the
right mic, and taken the time to fine-tune its position during recording, you
shouldn't need much corrective EQ anyway. Of course, there are times when EQ is
used for creative purposes, and at such times it's best to use a good-quality
outboard equalizer, because the difference between a budget EQ and a really
good one is immense. Resist the temptation to pile on too much high-end boost,
as this will enhance sibilance, bring up background noise and may make the end
result fatiguing to listen to.
Use reverb sparingly: vocals recorded in a dry
acoustic environment need reverb to give them a sense of space and reality, but
don't use more than the song really needs. As a general rule, busy songs need
less reverb and slower ballads with lots of space in the arrangement can afford
to use more. Listen to
some commercial records in a similar style to your own and see what reverb
techniques the producer has used.
If the vocals are very brightly recorded, they may cause any added
reverb to sound sibilant. Instead of de-essing the vocals (which often sounds
unnatural), try instead de-essing just the feed to the reverb unit. You can
also experiment with the reverb type and tonality to minimize sibilance and
spitting.
If you do have to de-ess the vocals, try to use a split-band de-esser
rather than the simpler compressor with an equalizer in the side-chain, as the
split-band approach produces fewer undesirable side effects. It's always best
to try to avoid sibilance by moving the mic slightly or by using a different
mic, rather than trying to fix it afterwards. Pointing the mic slightly above
or below the singer's mouth sometimes helps.
When you're using prominent echo or delay effects on a vocal, try to
get them in time with the song, either by calculating the delay needed to match
the tempo or by using the tap-tempo facility if one is provided. For a less
obviously rhythmic echo, try a multi-tap delay with irregular tap spacings.
To ensure that the vocal is mixed at the right level in the song,
listen to the mix from outside the room and see if the song has the same
balance as something you might hear on the radio. The vocals are the most
important part of the song and so must be well forward, but not so far forward
that they sound 'stuck on' to the backing.
