Ok...so I lied.

J

JesusFreak

New member
I do have another question...:)

When recording vocals. If you have recording all other instruments and are only left with vocals, how do you record them? I know it sounds stupid but this is what I mean.

If you record vocals while playing back thru the monitors, you get mic bleed. If you record them through headphones, you really aren't getting a GOOD representation of the music through them and the vocals may not turn out that great.

So how do you all record your vocals. Any tips would be great.

Thanks and God Bless!
 
Ah yes - the dilemma.

Gotta go the headphone route, but . . .

This is how I'm doing it (it's my first 'project' so we'll see :eek: ):

Record a 'work track'.
Me and the vocalist record a basic structure of the tune.

I put down midi rhythm tracks (drums, bass, pianos etc etc)

I put down guitar track (s)

Vocalist comes back and does 'real' vocal

Dump the work track

Put in finishing touches (drum fills, guitar solo etc etc)

I'm going to have to wait and see if this actually works and i get something I like.

Hope this helps,

foo
 
Hey Thanks Foo,

I kind of figured the headphone route would be the way to go...I'm just going to have to invest in some good ones that will minimize the bleed. I'll just have to get over the fact that I'm going to sound like an idiot to anyone else that comes in and see's me rocking out and singing to....nothing...(as far as they are concerned anyway)...hehe...:)

Thanks man...and I hope that everything goes well for you during your project. God Bless!
 
90% of all tracking is probably done with headphones. They are fine to use for listening to a monitor mix just don't make any EQ or mixing decisions based on them.
 
Thanks Tex...that's great...do you have any particular type of headphones that you use during tracking?? Just curious.

Thanks again...God Bless..
 
I recommend making a "headphone mix". Sure everyone says not to mix on headphones because it wont translate well to other systems, but we're talking for the sole purpose of getting the vocalist into the song. Have him/her/yourself put the headphones on and let them/you adjust all the levels to where they can hear everything clearly and the mix sounds great to them at the level they will have their phones at. Bounce this mix to a single stereo track (if you wish) and you can have a simple mix to work with. the vocals and the music. If they want more music and less vocals, or vice versa, you only have to mess with two faders. after youre down tracking you can scrap that heaphone mix and mix everything together the way that will sound best to everyone (not just the vocalist.)

Remember, the better it sounds to the performer, the more theyre going to get into it, and therefore (hopefully) a better performance will result.
 
I haven't done a lot of vocal recording, but the last lot I did I forgot my headphones. I ended up hooking up a PA speaker, and pointed that the singers. They faced the speaker, and the mics therefore faced away from it. I ended up with only the smallest amount of bleed, which really didn't interfere with the rest of the mix.
 
The headphones are your friend, JC freak. Get good quality closed headphones that are comfortable for you to wear. Make sure they are fitted tight around your ears to minimize bleed, and get an extension cable so you can be where you need to be. I use Sennheiser HD280 Pros, and they have worked very well for me. about $100. If you're tracking alone, a headphone mix is peobably not necessary, but when you are tracking someone else, it's a benefit, so the tracking engineer can hear whats going to the hard drive, and the singer can hear what they need to hear to sing well. Alone, I just set the vocals and match the other tracks so I can hear myself, and the other tracks.
If you get into multiple headphones, a headphone distribution amp will become necessary, I use a Rolls RA62, and it works fine for me. Sometimes, you need to record the vocals dry to add reverb later, and you can insert reverb into the monitor chain without recording it, to make the vocalist feel at home. I just track dry and deal with it. Reverb, etc., will be added by the nice mixing engineer.- Isn't the learning curve fun?-Richie
 
There's no reason why a headphone mix should necessarily sound "inferior" or less-inspirational to what you hear on speakers. It may even sound "better"!

I know my Yamaha S-90 keyboard always sounds better through the headphone jack than through my Genelecs!
 
I use headphones when doing a vocal. Too much mic bleed to do it thought the monitors.

The mix actually does sound better through the phones than the monitors, but I don't make any decisions about the mix based on what I'm hearing.

I don't usually have to adjust anything to do a vocal using the phones. Whatever I heard on the monitors sounds fine. I might have to raise my volume a bit, but that's it.
 
Just would like to say "Thanks" to all those who have taken the time to respond to my thread.

I have since recorded some vocals and the headphone route is definately the way to go. I'm using Octava MK-319's for vocals and they seem to pick up everything. I first tried singing with the monitors turned way down to minimize the bleed and it sounded horrible. I was about a half an octave off on everything because what was coming out of the monitors was so low, I wasn't getting a accurate representation. So I bought a pair of AKG headphone's...cranked them and sang and got zero bleed and it sounded great. So headphones it is.

Thanks again guys for helping me to make a good decision. You are all fantastic. God Bless!
 
I read a nice idea that is TOTALLY different but have to admit that I have not tried it: use a pair of matched cardioid mics. Place them in something like 5ft distance looking the same direction. Play back through monitors. The singer sings into ONE of the mics. Invert the phase of the other and blend in a way that the bleed is minimized... (Don't know if your D1600 can do phase switching, though...) If you do it that way with a mixer, you might even be able to monitor the voice quite loud...

I haven't tried this but read from some guys that it worked great... I work with cans...

aXel
 
after recording for the last few weeks with cans, must say that they are working great. Thanks for the idea though...I just think that my brain would go dead half way into that one...sounds complicated...hehe...

God Bless!
 
FWIW: I head the story of Bono recording vocals for the last U2 album in the control room with monitors at full blast, bleed and all...

On the other hand: a band I play in is recording a CD and I was in the studio this morning finishing my last tracks, and saw the vocalists (3) doing their thing. All singing into great mics (U87, some big blue CAD and a Braun) with great AKG phones WITH bleed, but there was no one to worry about it.


Herwig
 
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