questions about vocal recording

T

tre2004

New member
Ok,
first off I would like to say the music I would be making would be hip hop music. I will name off some of the software that I have, and that I could be using.

Cool edit Pro
Fruity Loops 6 (for beat making & RECORDING VOCALS???)
Reason 3 (for beat making)
Cubase sx 3
Sonar 5
Sony Acid Pro 5
Antares microphone modeler & Autotune


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Hardware:
-A Audigy 2 ZS soundcard,
-A Yamaha portable grand dgx-205 keyboard w/ midi
-A BOSS DR. Sample SP-303 Sampler
-A Decent Microphone, It is a radio Shack UNIDIRECTIONAL DYNAMIC MICROPHONE 50-14000Hz frequency response ensures crips and vibrant vocals, sensitivity: -72dB +3dB

[I do not have a set of MONITORS yet, that is what I am getting next]

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I have made allot of beats with with FL STUDIO, and Reason, and some with FL STUDIO REWIRED with reason. I have been doing my vocals IN FL STUDIO, but now that I have Cubase I was wondering if it would be better to do the vocals in Cubase. I have
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I am new to this kind of thing, and I don't understand allot of it. When laying down the vocals, do I want to have any effects, like referb, compression, de esser or whatever, EQ
OR do you record your vocals DRY, and then add what you need to add afterward? Keep in mind that this is hip hop music, I mean it won't be singing or anything like that. I would like to get it to sound as clean, as professional as I can. Should I use Antares microphone modeler or anything like that when I record?

Another thing, I read that you want to get stuff as close to 0dB as possible, but in the recording phase, I also read that you should get everything around 6db or someting like that, and then when you make the mixdown that you are suppose to normalise the track to about -0.5 dB, this question might be for the mixing part of the forum, but the reason I ask here, when recording vocals I have been using a deesser and a compressor and trying to get my vocals as close to 0dB as possible, is that what I need to do?

As you can prolly see, I'm new to mixing and compression and all of that stuff. I am just now getting into it, before I always used to record my vocals in COOL EDIT PRO, and save it and that was that. But, I'm trying to make a demo cd to put out in my area to compete with an OLD FRIEND who put out a demo, he made his own little studio, and thinks that he knows everything. MY beats I have made already beat his, but the mixing and making the FINAL mix of the beat is what I don't understand. What I should add compression too.. blah blah blah.. but I guess that is for another thread, unless there is someone out there that would be kind enough to go over some of this stuff with me to try to get me to understand it.
I know that I need to get me a set of Monitors, and I am going to do that as soon as possible, I think that will help out allot. I will make a final beat that will sound good on the computer, but out in the car is sounds like crap.
some stuff is tooo loud, some stuff is too low, sounds wayyyy in the back of everything.
The vocals I have been doing don't sound right at all. They either STAND WAY OUT in front of the beat, or gets drowned out by the beat..

Could anyone help me out. What effects if any should I add WHEN recording, After recording what are some basic things I need to do, or add like compression and EQ AFTER, OR before I record..
Do you think I should record in FL STUDIO, or CUBASE? I know that I will need to experiment and see what sounds good, but I would like to know the basics of what to do WHILE recording, and what NOT to do... just to get started.. You know what I mean.. If I'm doing the wrong thing when recording, no matter what I do to it after it has been recorded it will never sound right.

Thank you sooo much for any info you can give me.
 
Well, I'm afraid you may have opened up a big can of worms (the fact that you own some very expensive software, but are using a radio shack mic is suspicious), so I'm going to say what I have to say and get out before the shells drop.

1. You need to read as much as you can. Then, you need to practice. There is no substitute for experience. This BBS has lots of great info available via the search feature and here are a few more places to check:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1818497,00.asp
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

2. Monitors are important. Get some. Also, you'll probably want to upgrade your microphone, preamp, and soundcard. Acoustic treatment for your recording space is a good idea. If your software is legit, sell some of it to fund these purchases.

3. There is cheap and/or free software available for recording (Kristal, Audacity, Reaper, etc.) that you might look into.

Good luck.
 
Here are some tips:

1 Don't get carried away with complexity straight away. Don't worry about gimmicks such as mike modellers and autotune. Let the quality of your performance speak for itself.

2 Record everything dry.If you mess around with it on its way in, you will find it hard, if not impossible, to recover from processing mistakes.

3 Do some research on compression, EQ, and other recording techniques. Those fields are too big to be dealt with in a simple post here.

4 Concentrate very much on the sound of what you are putting together. Compare it to tracks that you respect and admire. What's the difference? Where is yours lacking?

5 You maybe competing with an old friend. Resist that urge because it is the wrong motivation (in my opinion only). It may spur you on, but it won't necessarily help you get the best results. The right motivation is the desire to produce the best you possibly can.

6 Learn how to listen to your mixes. I should have included this in point 4 above. We can easily be fooled by mixes because we want to hear certain things and ignore other things. One way to develop this is to play your music in one room and listen to it in another (like, through the door or something). This doesn't give you any detail, but it does remove some intimacy from the mix and allows you to hear what's sticking out (or what isn't).
 
scrubs said:
Well, I'm afraid you may have opened up a big can of worms (the fact that you own some very expensive software, but are using a radio shack mic is suspicious), so I'm going to say what I have to say and get out before the shells drop.

1. You need to read as much as you can. Then, you need to practice. There is no substitute for experience. This BBS has lots of great info available via the search feature and here are a few more places to check:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1818497,00.asp
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

2. Monitors are important. Get some. Also, you'll probably want to upgrade your microphone, preamp, and soundcard. Acoustic treatment for your recording space is a good idea. If your software is legit, sell some of it to fund these purchases.

3. There is cheap and/or free software available for recording (Kristal, Audacity, Reaper, etc.) that you might look into.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Hey,
with so many questions, and the urgency to learn I didn't explain everything the best. The only software that I have is Cool edit, & fruityLoops. I have access to All of the others, I can see your point of suspecting something with all of that software and only a radio shack mic. :)
It took me forever to save up to get the new FL Studio, that is why I don't have monitors yet, and a better mic.
I have a zzsounds.com catalog, and there is a mic I was thinking about getting, if anyone knows of it, i would appreciate it if someone could tell me if it would be a good buy, keeping in mind that i'm just going to be recording hip hop, not singing.. it is a
Autio-Technia AT3035, it is $199.95,
also, about a set of monitor speakers... I have read some people say that it is best to get ones that have their own power source.. if someone can point me in the right direction to a decent set of monitor speakers in the 200-300 dollar range, that have their own power source I would really appreciate it.

Also, another question that might not necessarily be for this forum, but since I'm here, thought I would ask. If I was to send out my music to be mixed professionaly, where would I send it, and what price am I looking at? And what would be the best way to do it? I mean, lets say I make a beat in FL STUDIO, and I do the vocals in there also, First off, Should I record it DRY? Then when i'm done, would I export it to a mp3, or wave? Or save it as a FL STUDIO file, where it saves the samples and all of that. That way they would have access to ALL of the different INSTRUMENTS?

Scrubs & gecko zzed, thank you for your replies, and for the information. I will read up on that stuff.
I am so mad at myself for ordering the Audigy 2 zs sound card, it is too late to send it back now. Since ordering it I have found out about the m-audio for example... the external ones, they have sooooo many more inputs, the audigy that I got doesn't have hardly any hook ups. I didn't do good enough research when ordering it. I can't even hook up a good mic to it, I have to run my mics through that sampler that I have.. which works great, but it would be nice to be able to actually use the soundcard that I spent $200 or so on. I might put it on Ebay or something, it is only like 3 months old...

But, thanx again for the info. I will follow those links and read up on that stuff.. if anyone else has some links to some good information on recording, mixing, eq'ing, compression... pretty much the basic :) I would appreciate the help.

Thanx
Chris
 
go easy with the software dude... thats a lot of stuff. i get the feeling im not the only one suspicious of a limewire/ peer2peer supporter... sonar and cubase may be a lil advanced for you but go ahead... plus, if you dont have the right hardware, they work crappy. CEP is a great simple programs with a lot of features. first off, you really should think about a decent mic. radioshack doesnt make great mics at all. you can get a decent mic for 100 bucks. record two tracks, one clean and one with compression, eq etc. if you want to. just assign the same input to both tracks and put your plugins on only one. i like to do this with guitar, because i can hear the right effects in my headphones but i can always change it later with the use of the clean track.

i have a coupla friends who rap and i record them clean usually, but its your choice.
 
Guys!
I am very new in music field. I am using Fl studio with sound card audigy2 zs (Creative Sound Blaster), when recording vocal I am hearing my own vocal after 1 second, like delay effect. if I use ASIO4ALL driver, sound comes correctly but I cannot record the vocal using front mic which is clipped with Aduigy sound card. could someone help me to make the correct audio settings.
 
Radioshack mics are good just to record but not quality recordings. Audio Technica mics are good. I used AT2035 which is quite good in comparison to other same priced mics. For lower end mics you can use Shure SM58 and SM57 too which are dynamic mics. And for the interface I prefer Focusrite Scarlett for the low price series. Nowadays Guitar center is offering a good discounts in these stuff. I never recorded vocals in FL Studio. I think Cubase will be better to record the vocals. Plus the Focusrite come with effect plugin bundle which include its compressor, EQ and Reverb which are pretty much decent.
Good luck pal!
 
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