Frustration Recording My Vocals

[borntoplease]

okay... so im having trouble recording my vocal tracks. im good when i sing more quiet nuanced stuff... i crank the pre and get up close on my mic (ADK Vienna) and through on some compression and i get a nice "up close" vox track that really has some presence. but, when i go louder, i cant get it right. im not screaming or yelling, just REALLY singing, putting some stomach into it. and i cant get a good sound. i dont know how far away i should be from my mic, should i roll off.. the ADK has an 18dB pad on it. it just seems that i have to keep the level so low as not to peak that i loose a lot of the presence. it sounds like im just singing loud in a room.

so, should used the pad? should i keep the pre low and get up close on the mic? or back off the mic and keep the pre hot? i've tried everything and i cant get the presence i want out of the louder parts... what should i do???

[PhilGood]

It's very common to track loud and soft parts seperately. The usual problem is on loud parts, you can saturate the transformer or tube if it's a tube mic. The pad reduces the voltage from the capsule to the head amp in the mic and keeps it from clipping. That in turn keeps your preamp from being hit too hard.

[borntoplease]

Originally Posted by PhilGood

It's very common to track loud and soft parts seperately. The usual problem is on loud parts, you can saturate the transformer or tube if it's a tube mic. The pad reduces the voltage of the head amp in the mic and keeps it from clipping. That in turn keeps your preamp from being hit too hard.

i do track them seperately. how hard is it to actually distort an LDC? do you recomend closer with more pre, or further back with less pre? i just want presence out of my vox...

[PhilGood]

It's very easy to distort it. My wife can drive mine to fuzz. The best thing is to turn the pad on for the loud parts. A -15dB pad makes the mic capable of 150dB. That's WAY louder than any human voice can hit. Use the pad and up the pre to the level you need at the loudest part. You can be about 8-10 inches away, but play with it. Compression on tracking helps too.

[artCROSS]

This may not work for you, but here's what works great for me.

I always sing right up against the pop filter, so my nose it literally touching it, as loud as I usually sing. I also compress on the way in; not too much, but just enough to prevent clipping. Then I turn my pre up til it's in the yellow. I get a nice track every time.

[scrubs]

You may be distorting the pre, compressor, or converters. Turn down the pre. Get up close (4-6") for intimate parts, and back off (12-18" or more) for louder parts. It takes practice and experimentation.

There is a formula for how much the level drops for each inch further you get from the mic, but I can't remember it off the top of my head. Perhaps that, in conjunction with an SPL meter would get you in the ballpark.

[tradivoro]

This works very well.. I tried it with a mic that I similarly was not getting good results when singing loud parts and now, the mic sounds great.. Thanks for the tip...

Originally Posted by PhilGood

It's very easy to distort it. My wife can drive mine to fuzz. The best thing is to turn the pad on for the loud parts. A -15dB pad makes the mic capable of 150dB. That's WAY louder than any human voice can hit. Use the pad and up the pre to the level you need at the loudest part. You can be about 8-10 inches away, but play with it. Compression on tracking helps too.

[reshp1]

Originally Posted by borntoplease

it sounds like im just singing loud in a room.

Sounds like a problem with the acoustics of your room. Quick fix may be to hanging some thick comforters/blankets on a boom mic stand directly behind your mic, make a U shape around the back of the mic if you have an extra stand.

[Brent Casey]

Originally Posted by borntoplease

i do track them seperately. how hard is it to actually distort an LDC? do you recomend closer with more pre, or further back with less pre? i just want presence out of my vox...

If you are using a mic that begins to show nonlinearities between 90-100dB and has 22% THD at 130dB from a 1kHz tone, then the answer to your question is: it's very easy to distort.

Brent Casey

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by borntoplease

it just seems that i have to keep the level so low as not to peak that i loose a lot of the presence. it sounds like im just singing loud in a room.

Yep, acoustics problem. Ever see the clips of pros recording in studios? When they are belting out loud parts, they are a foot or more from the mic. That's sort of the point with condensers; they are sensitive enough that you don't have to eat the mic.

But as you discover, as you move farther from a mic, then the room volume is proportionally louder to the source volume at the mic. This is why pros record in good sounding rooms, and homereccers build vocal booths . . .

You might find a dynamic mic more to your liking.