Recording vocals w/o compression

johneeeveee

johneeeveee

New member
... i've been experimenting with recording vocals w/o compression using the following technique:
i put up a condensor mic on one track running as hot as i can w/o fear of clipping, and i have a dynamic mic next to it, running to a second track. i sing the verses, or quieter passes on the condensor, and when i get to a loud pass, or chorus, i turn slightly and belt on the dynamic. the end result is a stereo vocal track of sorts, where i use just the condensor track for the softer verses, and when i belt on the loud sections or chorus, i get a good level on the dynamic, with a slightly ambient vocal on the condensor track that i can blend in.
i'm wondering if anyone has tried this sort of thing, or has any other ideas in this vein to pass along.
thanks - jv
 
I did the same thing, kinda. Instead of having the singer shift from mic to mic, I just had him record a pass of the soft vocal stuff into a condenser then went back for another pass of the louder stuff on a dynamic. Part of my reasoning was to reduce room ambience since my condenser had a very wide cardiod pattern and picked up a lot of room when the vocalist was loud. The dynamic did a pretty good job of rejecting the room ambience so the vocals could be up front more.

Your method is interesting. I might use it on the next session I have with a dynamic vocalist. That is unless it proves to be too complicated for the vocalist to accomplish! ;)
 
it's a little tricky...

but not too bad, and a tlm 103 seemed to work great in picking up a very useable room sound to blend with the dynamic on the choruses (i used a beta 58). the nice thing about tracking all at once, is that if the verses of the song you're recording tend to "slide" into the choruses, it can come out sounding more natural, if ya know what i mean. i think i got the idea from a daniel lanois article, where he did it with 2 sm57's with different levels set.
please let me know how it works out...always curious.
peace - jv
 
Sounds interesting. Do you find any difference in sound between the two mics? I would think that there would be an audible difference between the two. But if it blends well without sounding as if the verse was recorded seperately, I say go for it!
 
Usually that's done with the same type of mics and you only have one up in the mix at a time. Are you getting any phase problems with both mics up?
 
yeah...

... the two mics do sound different, but the blead into the condenser while i'm on the beta 58 in the choruses keeps it fairly consistent, and sounding punchy and big when the two tracks are mixed together.
i haven't had as much problems with phase as i originally thought... maybe just lucky... or deaf ;)
i have some older examples of vocals done this way online, but they are songclips on a distro site, and i'm not sure if it would look like shameless self promotion to pass them along.
peace- jv
 
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