Need feedback on vocal recording

R

randumbdots...

New member
Hi,

Here's the vocal recording (my first!) I'd like (technical) feedback on:
http://ccmixter.org/file/randumbdots.../1

I finally got my gear set up and recorded something. The gear: year-old laptop, Echo Indigo I/O pcmcia sound card, M-Audio Audio Buddy mic pre, Studio Projects B1 mic. Recorded using Audacity (freeware) in the corner furthest from mechanicals in my unfinished basement between air conditioner cycles (wife and kids asleep upstairs, so had to isolate myself). As far as bit rate, Audacity says 32-bit float, so I'm assuming it's recorded at the default I set up (24-bit / 44.1), and then that is sampled up to 32-bit for plug-ins (not sure).

I didn't do any processing of any kind on this test track - it's just voice to mic to mic pre to A/D converter in the Echo to the hard drive. I did need to convert to mp3 for the site I uploaded to, so that will probably impact it somewhat, but I'm hoping enough of what I recorded remains for some kind folks to provide some tips on how I can improve (i.e. is there too much noise, do I desparately need some form of processing, is my voice well-matched for this mic, etc..).

Thanks in advance.

Chris
 
Well, you have a nice voice, which always helps. :) I also commend you for posting a raw vocal track. That takes chutzpah.

My impression is that you are probably getting about as much out of that mic and pre combination as you can. The clip is in line with other vocal clips I've heard of the B1. Are you using a pop filter? If not, that would be a good addition. It sounds like you are right up on the mic grill (lots of lip sound and other random mouth noises). Those would be less noticeable in the context of a mix, so don't worry so much about them. Just experiment a little with different distances from the mic to find out what will work for each song.

As for processing, most vocals will benefit from at least a little reverb and possibly some compression. Reverb will add some "space" back to the sound to make is seem like it was recorded in a nice ambient room. Compression evens out the volume levels some (not really needed on this sample). Use both of these effects sparingly.
 
i like it.

its better than what i'm getting out of my B1 anyway :)

... but i can't sing hehe.

i can't really comment that well on the frequency nonsense ( :rolleyes: :D ) though...

Andy.
 
I agree with these two guys. Sounds pretty good. Very clean and clear, and nice voice.
Ed
 
Thanks for the responses. It seems pretty clean to me too, but I don't have experienced ears for recordings yet, so I wanted to put something out there to confirm I'm not missing something glaring. I have questions about software reverb/compression vs. hardware, but I KNOW there must be plenty out there already accessible via search, so I'll start there. Thanks again....Chris
 
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