Need some assistance recording a really loud vocalist

J

JLM

New member
Hey guys.

I'll be recording a friend's vocals tomorrow and would really appreciate some tips on how to tame them a little during the tracking. He obviously doesn't have very good mic control. Here's what I'll probably do and chain I'll be doing it with...

pop guard --> AKG C414B-ULS mic --> DBX 266XL compressor --> Spirit Folio SX --> MOTU 1224 --> computer

Do I have the compressor in the right place in my chain or should it go after the Spirit? What type of ratio would be best at simply knocking down the peaks (limiter I guess is what I'm trying to say)? I don't want to overdo it any at this stage.

Or would it be best to just hold off on the compression/limiting until mixing?

Thanks.
 
Use the compressor in the mixers inserts. You need to preamp the mic signal before running into the compressor or it will not reach the threshold level to begin limiting or compressing.
You want to use the compressor in tracking to control the volume into the recorder but it needs to be after the mic pre.
 
What Jake said...Also use your pop filter a boundery..That way he can't jump on top of the mic and blast it on you...or if you have to use the pad on the mic and let him back in a bit {move the pop back to the mic a bit}..Experiment and Good luck, have fun



Don
 
Cool thanks for the info jake and Henri. I'll definitely use what you guys say and will do some more experimenting with that pop guard. Is there a general ratio setting that I could use to get started? I'll experiment with it after that.
 
Hi JLM! Try to convince the singer, that he leans back from the mic a little bit, when the loudest parts of the vocal are comming. It sounds funny and it looks funny. But this technique is old as the earth, and always works better than ower-compression.

Im a singer too and I smiled, when technician in studio said me to do so, but now in my homestudio, I use this. And it works.
 
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