AKARSH SHEKHAR
How to
Record
Awesome
Lead Vocals
Like a Pro
When it comes to recording most
styles of music, there’s nothing
more critical than the lead vocals.
They hold the spotlight for most
songs. So how do you coax the
best performance from a singer?
How do you put a singer at ease?
Here are six techniques that you
can use to get the best out of your
lead vocalist:
Make the studio comfortable
For lots of singers, the studio is
a clinical place where they are
put under a microscope. Singing
alone in a room with headphones
is something they never do
anywhere else. Here’s a way I put
one singer at ease: In the middle
of a big, wide-open studio. You
can add a plush rug, some floor
lamps, a leather recliner, a potted
plant, and a side table for snacks
as well. There was a mic there
too. A setting like that will make
vocalist comfortable and avoid
the performance pressure.
Consider dropping the headphones
If you have a singer who is
having trouble emoting or is
pitchy when they’re singing
in headphones, then lose
the headphones. You can
use speakers to create
a foldback system for
playing the music.
Set up two speakers
at eye level that
are behind the
vocal mic, use a
cardioid pattern
—at 45 degrees,
equidistant from
the mic. Send a
mono signal to
both speakers
and then reverse
the polarity on
one of the speakers.
That way, the signals
arriving at the mic
will pretty much cancel
out. The singer can hear
the track and sing along
like they are onstage without
headphones. However, this
technique may not work if you
have to do extreme vocal tuning,
due to track bleed.
with hundreds or thousands
of adoring fans cheering their
every vocal phrase. In the studio,
they have an audience of two or
three people who are critiquing
every syllable. Having those
people staring at them from the
other side of a glass can make
them feel like zoo animals in a
cage. Turn down the lights in the
studio, so they don’t feel like you
are staring at them. Music stand
lights can help with reading the
lyrics.
Drop the Mic Stand
If your best mic is a vintage tube
mic on a huge stand, but your
singer is uncomfortable standing
in front of it, then don't it. The
emotion in the performance
counts more than the fidelity.
Hand the singer a good old ’58 and
get a great take.
Make a great headphone mix
Far too often, headphone mixes
can be somewhere between
average and horrible. Don’t
create a headphone mix while
listening to speakers in the
control room. And don’t expect
that your mix is what’s best
for the singer. Get a set of
headphones and listen to what
the singer is hearing. If the singer
isn’t an experienced professional,
then don’t expect them to come
up with a good mix on your fancy
multichannel headphone box.
Give them a 2-channel mix of
what they need, with control over
their voice level and a separate
knob for “sauce” that has delays
and reverb on it. But check what
they’re listening to by going out
in the studio and putting on their
headphones. If they go overboard
with the effects, then their pitch
may go out the window. Give
them what they need to do their
best possible work in the studio,
no matter what that requires.
Avoid Private Conversations
Don’t talk about the singer
without having the talkback mic
on. Private discussions about the
singers can make them insecure.
Eliminate the Fish Bowl Effect
A studio is a very unnatural
place for singers who are
accustomed to being onstage
The
Score Magazine
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