Accuracy of vocal track on playback monitors?

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wetwonder

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Hi, my first post.

I've been recording tracks with my band at a home studio with someone that seems very skilled. Yet I'm having a problem getting my vocal tracks to the quality I want.

For example, the lead vocal tracks I've been putting down - I get to a point where they seem good based on playback in the studio, through the headphones he has or the monitors he uses. A track will sound on key.

But then when I get home and listen to the mp3 of it on my home stereo - which is a very high end Linn system, digitally run out of my computer with a high end DAC - I hear off-key vocal phrases that I didn't hear in the studio.

In fact, two vocals I did came out so bad after I heard them back at home that I almost fell off my chair. I brought this up with the engineer, that something seems to be wrong with the playback at the studio, because the tracks I'm approving there are turning out to be terribly unsatisfactory and have to be redone.

I'm not complaining that I go off key. That happens and I can correct it usually on getting a few extra takes down. The problem is what I'm hearing at the studio, which I use to judge whether or not to approve the tracks, is not the same that I'm hearing at home.

The engineer said this is impossible. He said that qualities of the sound like equalization may not sound as accurate on the studio monitors as they do at my house, but that off key vocals in a track (and I'm talking about slightly off key, not bad enough to vomit over, buy just bad enough to call for another take) would not be heard any clearer on my home stereo than on the monitors he has.

Now my bandmates have seen what I'm claiming first hand and have also experienced vocal tracks seeming fine at the studio, but then realize off-key parts on the better home stereo. So it's not just me. The engineer says that we just aren't trained to listen.

So any opinions out there as to how this all works and if I'm just crazy. I'm talking about finishing up a track at the studio and 4pm and it sounds fine, and then an hour later on first hearing on the home stereo catching a whole bunch of flaws.

Thanks for any insight on this.
 
Two contradictory things happen when you record. You hear things you don't need to hear, and you don't hear things that you should hear. This is not a function of the recording monitoring environment, but your brain.

During tracking, you often make mistakes that you want to fix, and so you spend considerable time on this, when, in the grand scheme of things, no-one will notice (and even you will forget in a week's time when you relisten to it). And while you are focussing on this, you can miss stuff that will be noticed, like singing out of tune, or someone playing a C when it should be a G (or whatever).

When listening to a playback of what you've just tracked, your brain can hijack your ears, convincing you that stuff is ok when it is not, i.e. you hear what you want to hear, not what is actually being played. And if you are listening to playbacks at loud levels, this is worsened, because loud levels generate their own excitement, disguising what otherwise might be revealed.
 
Oh jeez, so how do you make a competent decision on whether the track is usable?
 
Well, for a start, some waywardness in pitching is not necessarily going to be the worst thing in the world, and if you deliver an amazing vocal performance, they won't even be noticed.

Secondly, the best performances are usually captured in the first few takes. There comes a point where you redo stuff to get it right, then end up killing the life and energy of the performance (and probably creating more problems than you are fixing).

Thirdly, if you find it difficult to pick up when you are drifting around the pitch, is there someone who can keep an ear on it? Does the engineer pull you up and say "do you want another go, you went a bit flat in this bit"? Can any of the band members do that?

Fourthly, are you listening to the playbacks at loud levels? Try listening to them at very soft levels. In fact, try anything to break the pattern of what you've been doing.

Fifthly, you might find it a pitching aid to record a temporary keyboard track that follows the melody line, so that you can sing along to it and use it to cue your pitching.
 
You acclimate to your monitors over time. You're probably just more familiar with the home setup and therefor hear things better because you have a known expectation. Like a new pair of boots. You don't break them in, they break you in.

It could be technical things as well. One monitor is phase reversed. Or other room / orientation factors. In theory the only difference should be in the EQ. But... If you have a lot of extreme frequencies that exceed your speakers capabilities (< 100Hz and > 16kHz), your speakers will still "TRY" to generate those sounds. And fail, and likely negatively influence the other content. Not that it'd change content or key. But it could sound odd or muffled. If you have a multiband EQ in there somewhere, put the extreme ends on it completely down, and see how different it sounds. If it sounds better, well, there's your problem.

And other possibilities in flailing gear. Or the studio is so noisy at the monitoring location, that you just can't hear those finer details on site.
 
Well, for a start, some waywardness in pitching is not necessarily going to be the worst thing in the world, and if you deliver an amazing vocal performance, they won't even be noticed.

Secondly, the best performances are usually captured in the first few takes. There comes a point where you redo stuff to get it right, then end up killing the life and energy of the performance (and probably creating more problems than you are fixing).

Thirdly, if you find it difficult to pick up when you are drifting around the pitch, is there someone who can keep an ear on it? Does the engineer pull you up and say "do you want another go, you went a bit flat in this bit"? Can any of the band members do that?

Fourthly, are you listening to the playbacks at loud levels? Try listening to them at very soft levels. In fact, try anything to break the pattern of what you've been doing.

Fifthly, you might find it a pitching aid to record a temporary keyboard track that follows the melody line, so that you can sing along to it and use it to cue your pitching.
Click to expand...

This is excellent advice!
 
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