RECORDING
KILLER VOCAL
AT HOME
Vocal recordings are always a challenge in any studio. Many of us think it’s a very complex thing to do
because the brain tends to focus too much on the Vocal as the main subject. But remember, there are
other tracks in your session to give importance in the mix! Here are quite a few tips I follow my own
recording sessions for producing great vocal recordings.
Setting the Atmosphere
Creating good ambience is the key secret to any recording
session. It’s not about your mic or Preamp to look at first.
This does not mean you should record with a bad preamp or
microphone! The room has to be clean in the first place and
if there are any cables cluttering up then please do clear it up
and lay them very neatly so that it looks comfortable from the
artist point of view. Keep a good reading stand for the vocalist
to hold their lyrics, and provide adequate light, don’t keep it
too dark! Place the microphone and pop filter so that it does not
cover the Lyrics for the artiste.
Setting your Gains
Ask your artist to first sing free like a live stage show for you
to adjust the levels on your preamp. This will give us a good
reference level and also their throat will get warmed up. Now
just play the music track and find the loudest level of the vocal
part and adjust the gain according to that. Usually, I set a
gain level of -15db when the sing loud. This will give you a lot
of headroom for your post processing using your plugins. It
doesn’t matter if they sing the soft part at low level. Since its
digital audio, our golden rule is not to clip the audio.
Setting the Headphone mix or Cue Mix
Give a good headphone mix for the artiste, this is very
important for vocalist. Ask them until they are satisfied with
the levels. I usually set and High Pass filter HPF of around
80-100Hz to remove any low end rumble and also insert a good
Vocal Plate reverb to give the artiste a good feel of ambience.
Then if they agree i insert a delay plug-in with a Medium delay
with a quarter not delay 1/4th using the D-Verb which is my
stock plug-in or H-Delay by Waves. This will surely give a good
vibe to the artistes.
Setting your Compressor
After you have recorded your vocal sessions, it’s time to
add some compressor to make it sound even on your whole
mix. First, solo the vocal track and then insert your stock
compressor which comes with your DAW. Set the Threshold
about -15db or -20 db depending on your source! I am just giving
you a general idea, but there is no rule in audio as you know
you can be creative and have your best setting. Next, set the
ratio to 2:1 or 3:1 for a good reduction to control on the peaks
of the vocal tracks. Now adjust the attack to medium so that it
does not sound harsh on your ears. Finally set the release to
medium for keeping it natural. But it’s up to you how you want
it to sound in context with your mix.
These small tips would help you produce great vocals at your
home recording studio. Please feel free to try out different
settings which suit your artist’s needs and do not hesitate to
tweak your setting in your plugins. Once you find the best
setting, save them as pre-sets in your plugins. So that the recall
would be faster for your upcoming vocal sessions.
Author: Baba.L.Prasad. He is the owner and chief Sound/Mix and Mastering Engineer at Digi Sound Studio. He also teaches Sound Engineering
and Music Production courses. For more details, visit www.digisoundacademy.com
42
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Score Magazine
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