Vocal Techniques

R

RyanHubris

New member
hey, my bands been working on some songs, and now its finnally time for the dreaded vocals. I have a SM57, and a B1 and am curious the best way to use one of the these. The style is pretty laid back, low range. Similar to Pavement, Modest Mouse. No intense screaming or anything.

Also, what should I add to the vocals once recorded? I'm using sonar and have messed around with EQ and compression, but don't really know much about them. The vocalist isnt exactly the most skilled, so how can we maximize the sound? thanks a bunch!
 
I'm not sure about the B1, however before I got my condensor I did quite a bit of work with an SM57, and my personal favorite position for it is pointing up towards the mouth, generally around 6" or so away. However I probably have a different voice than your singer, so your mileage may vary. Pick a spot and move it around, see what sounds the best. Also remember good singing techniques for mics: for those lows get up close, and the louder he gets make sure he moves away from the mic some more. Since I don't think you have any outboard compression, this makes it pretty imperative unless you've got some equipment with a really high cieling going into Sonar.

The mood of the song and a lot of other factors come into play when you're deciding what to add to the vocals--I generally like a drier mix (no John Fogerty Stuff), but I think it goes without saying that your vox will need at least some reverb. The easiest way to find the best reverb, I think, is to adjust all the settings when the mix is 100% wet so you hear almost no attack. When they're set like that, change your decay time, density, high/low cutoffs, etc, and then when you think you have what you like, adjust the wet/dry mix again until you find what you're looking for. Some more imperatives are usually at least a little compression/limiting (though depending on the song, you may be able to eek by without them if you have to), some gating (or you could just hand-delete all of the pauses between stanzas/verses/etc), and of course the EQ. Since you're mixing these into a full band, keep in mind that you want to minimize any extra sound from the tracks from frequencies you don't need--try enveloping the vocals below 80-100hz and it should mix better. You said you don't know much about compression--some googling will help you with that in no time. Just remember that too much compression can absolutely kill a track--I've lived and learned that one, as I'm sure most everyone here has. Just enough compression is what you're after. Another tip with the reverb now that I think about it is to make it sound more natural, if there's more than one vocal track, put the effect on an auxilary bus and route it through there, as opposed to directly into the fx bay of the track.

Maximizing the sound is a pretty broad question--just screw around with everything until it sounds good to you. Hell, even throw away everything I just typed if you need to. Just get it done, and have fun.
 
The B1 will be much better for vocals. What pre are you using? Put the condenser at forehead level, aim it at the mouth. Pop screen 2" away from mic, start singer at 12" and move in as much as you care to while listening for the "sound" you like. Compress ay 4:1 with fast attack and slow release. That is all for starters. For EQ, it depends so much on the rest of your set up. Start by taking out some mids (250 - 500 , maybe a little higher)
Push some highs 5K and 10 - 12 K (unless your mic does that already)
Play around with those and see where it fits in the mix. You probably want to pan your stuff a bit so it doesn't all try to cram into the same "place"
 
Ryan, how important is this project to you?

The more important it is, the more you'd want to consider any recording done on your own as "preparation" to routine material for the main event.

Meaning going into a good pro studio.

Although the B1 will be generally quite a good vocal mic (exceptional sometimes IMHO), make sure to try both out on different material.

I'm one of "those" singers where the Shure Unidyne series will lead to a VERY high quality recorded vocal, this includes the SM57 and 545 series-not just the SM7. In fact one certain model (548) has the fastest ease of use vs.
EQing a SM7. YMMV.

You may also want to use BOTH mics at the same time, just be careful of
possible phase issues where they'll cancel out some frequencies.
If you put the SM7 close up, and the B1 about 9-10" away or so you should be fine.

Chris
 
chessparov said:
Ryan, how important is this project to you?

The more important it is, the more you'd want to consider any recording done on your own as "preparation" to routine material for the main event.

Meaning going into a good pro studio.

Although the B1 will be generally quite a good vocal mic (exceptional sometimes IMHO), make sure to try both out on different material.

I'm one of "those" singers where the Shure Unidyne series will lead to a VERY high quality recorded vocal, this includes the SM57 and 545 series-not just the SM7. In fact one certain model (548) has the fastest ease of use vs.
EQing a SM7. YMMV.

You may also want to use BOTH mics at the same time, just be careful of
possible phase issues where they'll cancel out some frequencies.
If you put the SM7 close up, and the B1 about 9-10" away or so you should be fine.

Chris
Click to expand...
Its not terribly important in the sense that we are trying to impress people with our good songs, not the amazing recording quality. But the reason I ask is because I wanna get the most out of the stuff I have. And am obviously pretty clueless :).

I've heard many not amazing singers sound pretty good and am just looking for techniques. For pres I'm just using a Yamaha Mixer going into a Delta 1010. The only effects I'm using are in Sonar after I've recorded. Thanks again..
 
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