"Natural" Vocals? (HELP!)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Captain Molotov
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Captain Molotov

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I'm trying to record my tunes and I'm hitting a big huge brick wall with recording vocals.

In a nutshell my problem is that it seems like no matter what I do, the vocals just don't sound "natural" - i.e. they seem blatantly "overdubbed." I've tried various different EQ's and such as well as different volumes to see if it's just not sitting in the mix right, but it sounds so "recorded." Know what I mean?

Here's the chain:

AKG Perception 200 Condenser Mic (and shockmount, and pop filter) ->
ART Tube MP Studio Preamp (with a new tube replacing the stock one) - >
Mackie DFX-6 Mixer ->
M-Audio USB Firewire Solo ->

Apple Macbook laptop. I'm recording in Logic Studio 8.

I'm hoping I don't need any more gear for this because I am incredibly, obscenely broke. (Everything but the computer is borrowed equipment.)

Any help as soon as you can deliver it would be fantastic, I'm pulling my hair out over this. Everything else - my guitars, my (fake but very clever fake) drums, etc. - sound great, it's just the vocals I have trouble with.
 
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Different mic - Different preamp - No mixer (mixer?).

See if you can rent a SM7b or something. Maybe even try the same preamp (but any mic is only as good as the preamp driving it). See if you can rent a Grace 101, maybe a True P-Solo or FMR RNP. Even a M-Audio DMP3 wouldn't be the worst thing to try.

If you're going through that mixer, well... Just get that out of there.

Other than that, experience. There's no shortcut on that one.
 
Not any that's intentional, but I'm doing it largely in a room where there's stuff on every wall - its kind of pre-dampened if you will, so I'm not picking up much echo off the walls, which from what I understand is how I want to do things.
 
"Stuff on the walls" and a lack of high-end reflection doesn't mean "decent treatment" (it usually means precisely the opposite).

I'd argue that what you're recording sounds too natural. But what you hear on the average off-the-shelf CD is anything but "natural" --

The mic is probably picking up the voice and the room as reasonably as it's designed to. It's pretty rare when that's actually what you want to hear though...
 
If by "overdubbed" sounding you mean amplified sounding, like through a PA, get the Tube MP out of the chain. Try the mixer only first, and if that doesn't yield a truer sound, try a DMP3. And also try backing off the mic a bit, if your room sound will allow it.
 
omtayslick said:
And also try backing off the mic a bit, if your room sound will allow it.
Click to expand...
You should definitely experiment like this, but I'll bet you'll get better results by close-miking your vocals rather than backing off. Cut the room out of the track as much as possible with in-your-face miking.

This still won't get you the sound you want, but by adding the right touch of delay and/or reverb at the mixing desk, you might be able to get a little closer to what you're looking for.
 
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