Vocal Recording

[john]

Hi

I'm recording some new vocals where I need to get a vocal that uses a wide dynamic range. I like the vocal tone I get from close-ish miking, and I don't want to capture too much of the sound of the environment. I have a fair idea about how I would do it. What I wondered is how YOU would do it...

Ideas in a post(card) please:)

Cheers

John

[davlan]

Try a room made of mattresses.

[Guest]

During my work as a DJ I have experimented a lot with different miking techniques for the voice.  (Spoken Word only)  One of the techniques I like experimenting with was a multiple condenser mic approach allowing me to attain different attributes of different mikes and blend them together to achieve some interesting results.

[Guest]

Well....

Close-miking with heavy comp/limiter is really the "way-of-the-world" in this day and age, (IF you like those breathing sssssfffffhhhh-sounds...)..... BUT if you want a more "lively"-sounding recording You need a LARGE room with some ambience, the overdose of which CAN be controlled with, say, a noise-gate and some compression.... but no need to sound TOO industrial!

After all.... the best vocal sounds from the 50's to the 90's have mostly been made with tools inferior to what we have right now at our disposal... exept, of course,  the use of exxxpensive high-quality-microphones, like Neumann....

THINK about the fact that "Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (for ONE...) was made with 4-track-equipment!!! It's HARD to beat that!

Anyway.... it's not so much about all the gear you CAN use, but HOW You use them... and squeezing all performance out of the stuff You have.... and some creative insanity, too....

Anyway.... the vocals are one of the most difficult things to capture "on tape" ... it requires at least ONE high-quality mike....preferably a large-diaphgram-condencer with or without a pre-amp.... and a good-quality compressor-limiter, and maybe even a de-esser (IF the "victim" that You're recording has trouble with those sibilant sounds....) BUTT.... You CAN get there with Your gig-mike as well using EQ and some advanced and creative "hit-and-miss" technology...

Plus that "creative craziness"....

IF You are trying to produce something of professional CD-quality... Neumanns, and even MORE Neumanns....

OR AKGs are called for and .... that is going to run into some £££ or .... but anything for a good sound! Right?

Anyway.... keep in mind that the Neumanns and S*** like that are used professionally FOR A REASON.

Let's see IF You can figure out what that reason might BE?

Any answers?

Any at all....?

Well, think about that for a little while!

And..... I'll be BAK!

H.H.  

[john]

Hi

A decent mike will hear a pin drop. A Neumann will pick up the whooshing disturbance it makes as it falls through the air. So the rule of thumb is, if you want to get a decent vocal recording, get a decent mike. If you want whooshy air sounds too, get a Neumann:). Can you tell I can't afford one?

Cheers

John

[Didier]

Hi John,

I like playing with close-miking (for some of the words), and then moving away for more "singing".

I'm quite happy with my setup so far to achieve this. I use a dynamic (Shure PE86, similar to SM58) and a tiny bit of compression, to compensate for the change in distance between mouth and mike.

The environment where I record this is "reasonably dead". I mean, not totally dead, but not a cathedral either.

Didier

[Guest]

Well.... IF it works... no prob, Bob!

Anyway... why wouldn't it work?

I have a dynamic Sennheiser  MD-431 mark II vocalist mike, and a condencer Sony.... and both work very well.. I really can't say a bad word about either one....

SHURE mics are very familiar to me, also.... allthough I prefer SM-57 .... even though it has a VERY poor POP-filter.... it sounds MUCH better than that SM-58 which has an enourmous "presence-peak" in the upper middles-area.... just TRY to get an even response off THAT one.... needs HEAVY EQ to sound as flat as the Sennheiser.... which may be good or bad, depending on what kind of vocal touch you are after....

Well.... all this is academic at best.... the best sound any gear at all produces really lies between your EARS.

So.... use those personal listening-devices allways when you're not sure if what you're doing is "kosher".... your ears WILL tell you which way to go... or NOT go....

Well ... everyone goes for his/her own tastes... so:

Bye, Boyze!

H.H-.  

[Rudi]

I read about using a pair of tights stretched in front of a mic as a pop filter.

I guess whoever does this does not have a wife around. I cant believe that any woman would ever believe this. Its much easier to think of you as a pervert.  

[Steve]

Rude, when ever I sing, I think of you as a pervert...

:-*

[Rudi]

Rude, when ever I sing, I think of you as a pervert...

Hmmm, not sure you have the most helpful motivational image there Steve.

Rudi

(puts a disturbing slant on some  :-X lyrics too!)

 

[Rudi]

ooooh look! That last post was good enough to get me promoted to 4 star General!

Cant wait to tell the family. Im nearly up there with Great Uncle Fred who was a Field Marshal in the Salvation Army, or even Great Uncle Norman who had his own Civil Defence Bunker for 30 years and never paid a phone bill.

Does my duck get a braided hat now?

[Steve]

Does my duck get a braided hat now?

Why has your duck got cotton wool in it's ears?

[Rudi]

Why has your duck got cotton wool in it's ears?

dunno, hes been doing that ever since we discussed singing into gussets.

[Steve]

dunno, hes been doing that ever since we discussed singing into gussets. !

Would that be close quarter gusset humming? Or long range vocal thrubbing?

[Rudi]

Would that be close quarter gusset humming?

No no! Its vitally important to launder them first.

(or are you on about the Womens Formation Skydiving again?)

Anyway this technique doesnt work. I used it to re-mix the `Birdie Song' this morning, and it sounds as sickly commercial as it ever did.