A Vocal Recording Checklist

Here's a series of things to check before recording a vocal that I culled from the Recording Engineer's Handbook and The Music Producer's Handbook. They cover everything from mic position to signal path to singer comfort, but you'll find if you following them you should have a pretty good session (providing that you have a great vocalist, of course).

•  Did you select the correct mic for the singer’s voice? Choose a mic with a lot of body for a thin voice and one with enhanced high end for a dark voice. 

• Did you select the correct microphone preamp?  Certain mics come alive when they’re paired with the right preamp. Also, a certain mic/preamp combination can be just the right color for a vocal.  Experiment.

• Did you select the correct microphone pickup pattern? Not every vocal needs to be recorded with a cardioid pattern. An omni pattern will cut down on proximity effect and a figure 8 can help with isolation from speakers or other instruments.

• Is proximity effect wanted or needed? Remember that the closer you get to a cardioid mic, the more the low end will become exaggerated. This could make the vocal too big for the track. Try the mic on omni if you really need to get a close and intimate sound.

• Is the singer the correct distance away? Too far away and you’ll hear more room, which could change the vocal sound or take away the intimacy. Too close and the vocal might sound too big or too close due to the proximity effect of a cardioid mic. If the singer is singing softly and breathy, keep the singer close to the mic. If the singer is shouting, screaming, or just plain loud, back the singer off the mic from two to three feet.

• Is the singer drifting off-axis? Some vocalists drift around the room and off-axis of the mic if they feel it’s too far away.  Put up a dummy mic that they can get close to so they can feel anchored. This also helps when putting up different mics to determine which one works best for the vocalist.

• Is the singer popping the mic? Place the mic at eye level and point it down at the singers mouth, turn the mic slightly off-axis, switch the pattern to omni, back the singer off the mic until the pops disappear or use a pop screen.

• Would a handheld mic work better? Some singers aren’t comfortable unless they feel like they’re on stage. Give them an SM 58 and don’t worry about the sound. A great performance beats a great sound any day (and a 58 isn’t all that bad combined with the right preamp).

• Are you limiting the signal? Just a few dB of limiting can help keep the vocal under control and stop overloading the signal chain. Don’t use software compressor/limiters because of the latency.

• Is the headphone mix at the correct level? The phone mix is crucial to a good performance. If the track is too loud, the vocalist may sing too hard which might not be the sound you want. He may also sing sharp as a result. If the track is too soft, the singer may not sing aggressive enough.

• Is the ambience conducive to a good vocal?  Most singers like the light down low when they sing.

For additional tips and book excerpts go to the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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8 Steps To A Great Vocal Performance

Here's another excerpt from The Music Producer's Handbook, this time outlining the 8 steps that a producer can use to get a great vocal performance from a singer.
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"The easiest way to get a the best performance out of a singer is to make the environment comfortable. Sometimes even a seasoned pro sometimes can’t do her best unless the conditions are just right, so consider some of the following suggestions before and during a vocal session.

1. Ask the vocalist what kind of lighting they prefer. Most singers prefer the lights lower in the studio and control room when performing, but ask them first.

2. Adding a touch of reverb or delay can help the singer feel more comfortable with the headphones mix.

3. If you need to have the singer sing harder, louder or more aggressively, turn down the vocal track in the phones or turn the backing tracks up.

4. If you need to have the singer sing softer or more intimately, turn the singer's track up in the phones or turn down the backing tracks.

5. Keep talking with the artist between takes. Leave the talkback on if possible. Long periods of silence from the control room are a mood killer.

6. Try lowering the lights in the control room so they can't see you. Some people think that you're in there judging them when you might be talking about something completely different.

7. If the take wasn’t good for whatever reason, explain what was wrong in a kind and gentle way. Something like "That was really good, but I think you can do it even better. The pitch was a little sharp." This goes for just about any overdub since players generally like to know what was wrong with the take rather than be given a “Do it again” blanket statement.

8. Keep smiling. Want to put your vocalist at ease? Keep your attitude helpful and positive no matter how badly things might be going."

To read more excerpts from The Music Producer's Handbook and other books, go to bobbyowsinski.com

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Bruce Swedien's Vocal Recording Tips

For anyone who doesn't know already, Bruce Swedien is truly the Godfather of modern day recording. Having been part of the team the produced Michael Jackson's greatest hits is only one of the things he's done over his long and illustrious career. He's also recorded so many of the jazz greats, from Count Basie to Dizzy Gillespie, and pop giants like Barbra Streisand as well.

There's a great article on ProSound Web (which also runs a few of my articles too) that's an excerpt from his great book, "Make Mine Music." Bruce also was kind enough to contribute an interview in one of my books as well - The Mixing Engineer's Handbook.

Below is an excerpt from the article over on Prosoundweb.com, from which I took some of his points about vocal recording.

• "First off, the type of music to be recorded is most important. Pop, jazz, rhythm and blues, country, and classical all require a different approach. The biggest single difference in studio mike technique for vocal recording comes from recording of vocal sound sources in classical music, contrasted with pop vocal sound sources. The first and most important consideration is that I would never mike the vocalist in a classical recording as closely as I would a vocalist in a pop music recording.

• Good choral recorded sound is best achieved by using as few microphones as possible, with the singers placed well back from the microphones. This technique places most of the sound mixing responsibility on the room acoustics and the vocalists. Obviously, this approach requires an excellent studio or a room with extremely good acoustics.

• Extreme equalization is most definitely not the way to achieve a superb vocal recording, though a small amount of EQ may be beneficial. If you find yourself having to apply a great deal of EQ to the mike channel to achieve an acceptable vocal sound, it’s time to try another microphone.

• Your choice of vocal microphone should be made on the basis of the artist’s vocal quality and the sonic personality you want to project – nothing else.

• Stacking, or “doubling,” a lead vocal is helpful. I frequently change the tape speed of the master recorder slightly during the recording of the “double,” or “stack” (or pitch down the cue mix coming from the digital audio workstation) and play that to the vocalists while recording the “double.” During this process, the amount of pitch change used should be very small. The amount of pitching down that I do is usually only 3 or 4 cents in pitch.

• When recording vocal duets, I frequently look for microphones for the vocalists that have an obviously different sonic character. This difference in microphone character adds to the already different timbre of the two voices and makes the resulting sonic picture more fascinating. 

• When mixing a “stack,” or “double,” of a lead vocal track, I frequently keep the “double” at a slightly lower level in the mix than the basic lead vocal track. This serves to add support to the vocal without making it appear to be an obvious trick."

Read the entire article here.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Vocal Recording Checklist

Whether you're a producer or engineer, vocal recording can be one of the most challenging types of sessions you'll have during a project. Here's a checklist to help you keep the vocalist comfortable, get a great sound, and get the best performance possible.

1. Did you select the correct mic for the singer’s voice? Choose a mic with a lot of body for a thin voice and one with enhanced high end for a dark voice.

2. Did you select the correct microphone preamp? Certain mics come alive when they’re paired with the right preamp. Also, a certain mic/preamp combination can be just the right color for a vocal. Experiment.

3. Did you select the correct microphone pickup pattern? Not every vocal needs to be recorded with a cardioid pattern. An omni pattern will cut down on proximity effect and a figure 8 can help with isolation from speakers or other instruments.

4. Is proximity effect wanted or needed? Remember that the closer you get to a cardioid mic, the more the low end will become exaggerated. This could make the vocal too big for the track. Try the mic on omni if you really need to get a close and intimate sound.

5. Is the singer the correct distance away? Too far away and you’ll hear more room, which could change the vocal sound or take away the intimacy. Too close and the vocal might sound too big or too close due to the proximity effect of a cardioid mic. If the singer is singing softly and breathy, keep the singer close to the mic. If the singer is shouting, screaming, or just plain loud, back the singer off the mic from two to three feet.

6. Is the singer drifting off-axis? Some vocalists drift around the room and off-axis of the mic if they feel it’s too far away. Put up a dummy mic that they can get close to so they can feel anchored. This also helps when putting up different mics to determine which one works best for the vocalist.

7. Is the singer popping the mic? Try any of the following:

a) place the mic at eye level and point it down at the singers mouth

b) turn the mic slightly off-axis,

c) switch the pattern to omni

d) back the singer off the mic until the pops disappear

e) use a pop screen.

8. Would a handheld mic work better? Some singers aren’t comfortable unless they feel like they’re on stage. Give them an SM-58 and don’t worry about the sound. A great performance beats a great sound any day (and a 58 isn’t all that bad combined with the right preamp).

9. Are you limiting the signal? Just a few dB of limiting can help keep the vocal under control and stop overloading the signal chain. Don’t use software compressor/limiters because of the latency.

10. Is the headphone mix at the correct level? The phone mix is crucial to a good performance. If the track is too loud, the vocalist may sing too hard which might not be the sound you want. He may also sing sharp as a result. If the track is too soft, the singer may not sing aggressive enough.

11. Is the ambience conducive to a good vocal? Most singers like the light down low when they sing.