Effective Vocal Recording?

R

RageD

New member
Hey everyone,

I'm using Pro Tools LE 8 and very new to the whole recording scene. I was wondering the best way to record vocals and get a good sound. Obviously mixing would be probably help but haven't gotten so great at that yet. But here's what I'm doing right now:

I'm recording with an MXL 990 (yeah, cheap but eh) or MXL 991 Condenser mic (I think I get a better sound with this so I use it more but its pencil shape reminds me more of an instrument mic. e.g.: my shure SM57)

I try to keep it around the mid-way point (on the input levels) at my loudest peaks to minimize background noise, etc.

Now, I'm not sure what to do from here. Sounds edgy to me so I compress on the preset "Vocal Leveler" compression setting.

From here I still feel I'm getting a very blah tone. The style of singing is closer to something you would hear from The Devil Wears Prada.

A completely untouched vocals from me can be found here and I use that style of voice when I sing. However, I was sick in that video and it is about 4 months old so everything comes out much clearer than that.

So basically it's a matter of what should I do with it after I have it recorded and compressed to make it go from sounding "good" to "great"!

Thanks a lot!

-RageD
 
First off I'd presume -you grab around the mic like that because you want it to sound like that? If you wanted it different' I guess that'd be the first place to look.
 
RageD said:
From here I still feel I'm getting a very blah tone.
...
So basically it's a matter of what should I do with it after I have it recorded and compressed to make it go from sounding "good" to "great"!
Click to expand...
By then it's pretty much too late. If it doesn't sound "great" going in, it'll probably never sound great after that.

Your biggest problem is that you're expecting to get champagne results out of a beer-budget microphone. The MXLs have their uses, but let's face facts, here; you're not going to get much of a quality sound on vocals or acoustic instruments out of an entry-level budget microphone like the 990 or 991.

Second, but also important, is you mention throttling your gain in order to reduce background noise. You want to try to work it so that the room is an asset, not a liability. Get rid of the sources of background noise you have and record the vocals in a good-sounding space (try the kitchen for something live or a large walk-in closet for something dead, etc.)

Third; you don't mention the type of preamp/interface you're using to record to the computer. Do NOT use the computer's built-in sound card's microphone preamp; if you're doing that, you'll never get a quality sound.

G.
 
Thanks for the responses.

In regards to the first response, that is not the actual mic I use to record. When I sing live it's with a guitar so I don't hold the mic and when I record it's actually in a mic stand as well.

To the second response, I'm using Digidesign's mbox2 interface as an input.

-RageD
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top