Advice for recording vocals?

[nomsans]

This is basically the best i can do so far (i am a noob):

www.myspace.com/jojostesprit

it is really frusterating and it takes hours and hours to do...yet all of my songs have multiple harmonies etc.

is there a guide or a standard set thing i could follow?

i dont have my own studio either. all i have are guitars, a mic and a computer with tons of software. i usually use cool edit pro with all of the plug ins.

i have to resort to using crappy ipod earphones as well...and i have a hard time hearing myself through the earphones while i am recording...and it affects my pitch etc.

is there any way that i could hear myself better? also...is there a way that i can get my vocals to sound better than what they do? or am i just stuck because i am a poor man. lol

any advice would be incredibly appreciated!

-joe

 

[ssscientist]

it is really frusterating and it takes hours and hours to do...

No shit.

Everything worthwhile in this life is hard.

There are some things that can make the process easier. One is a good vocal microphone. See the microphone forum for opinions, but the one that's good for my nice round baritone is this one. Run it thru this board and into this soundcard. Finally, filter out your plosives with one of these pop screens.

You'll also do much better replacing your Ipod headphones with a closed-cup set like this.

Save up $350, buy the stuff above and you'll be well on your way to making multi-tracking vocals as easy as it ever gets.

I checked out your stuff and from what I could make out you sing well and have a good ear for harmony.


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[nomsans]

thank you so much for your advice! that pretty much sums up everythign i was inquiring about.

the links to the soundcard and the board were not valid links. i would really apprciate it if you could point me in the right direction as far as that goes...because i use a standard soundcard and no (physical) board at all. so any info on boards and soundcards would be greatly greatly appreciated.

also...thank you for your compliments....yes, i do specialize in vocal harmonies as well as time signatures. i could write vocal harmonies all day. i have acapellas even written and recorded. there is justs oemthign about vocal harmonies that i just love. its soothing. blame it on the beatles, or alice in chains, or simon and garfunkle, or pink floyd, or veruca salt...but i just love them harmonies.

 

[MessianicDreams]

i'm listening on crappy laptop speakers so i can't really discuss recording quality. what is it you are unhappy with with your vocals? recording vocals can take a very long time. read this thread on the two major approaches to recording vocals (one take, comping, punches). there is no right or wrong, just whatever suits you the best.

remember your voice will get tired after a while. it is important to know when you're voice is getting tired, and to stop. there's no point continuing once your voice has tired as you will no longer get optimal performances.

it's really important that you can hear yourself properly, unless you're an incredible singer, otherwise its very hard to pitch properly. if you can't get enough of your vocals coming through yer earphones, then try taking an earphone out to hear yourself better. if you're using your earphones and it sounds weird, trying putting your voice thru a bit of reverb before sending it back to yer phones.


so what exactly is it you want to improve?

 

[ssscientist]

the links to the soundcard and the board were not valid links

Let's try a different online music store.

The board in question is the Yamaha MG10 and the soundcard is an MAudio 2496.

Good luck.


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[peopleperson]

I think is sounds pretty damn good. I think the MG10/2 suggestion is good as well. Whatever bitrate you're encoding the final mix as, use a higher one because the download itself could probably sound better.

If I'm hearing correctly, you're getting some heavy artifacts in places from the Auto Tune on the vocals. Is there auto tune on the vocals?

That having been said, I must say I'm impressed with the little melody/chord shifts. I think there's some pretty untypical choices made in there. Nice work.

 

[peopleperson]

Nevermind, the song is 7 minutes long. You'll never have the upload room to get a higher bitrate.

 

[VSpaceBoy]

I agree with everything said but one.

You want to get OPEN back not CLOSED back for recording vocals. It will allow you to hear yourself better.

 

[nomsans]

I think is sounds pretty damn good. I think the MG10/2 suggestion is good as well. Whatever bitrate you're encoding the final mix as, use a higher one because the download itself could probably sound better.

If I'm hearing correctly, you're getting some heavy artifacts in places from the Auto Tune on the vocals. Is there auto tune on the vocals?

That having been said, I must say I'm impressed with the little melody/chord shifts. I think there's some pretty untypical choices made in there. Nice work.

thx man...i am an untypical songwriter i guess...i love me some time signatures and harmonies. but yeah...the vocals arent perfect and i am re-doing alot of it because id ont like the inflections in the voice that autotune sometimes leaves...i dont like to use atutune...but my stuff has such layered harmonies, i need to be as perfectly in key as i possibly can. though, personally, i hate autotune. thank you again...for yoru complimentas. means alot.

-joe

 

[nomsans]

I agree with everything said but one.

You want to get OPEN back not CLOSED back for recording vocals. It will allow you to hear yourself better.

open back? as in open back head phones?

 

[travelin travis]

open back headphones bleed quite a bit. i never use open back for tracking vocals. i can hear myself in the phones.

 

[RAMI]

OK, I wasn't sure if he was talking about headphones, so I waited until someone else responded to that. Personally, I think closed headphones are better for recording vocals for the obvious reason that open backs will ruin your tracks by bleeding into the mic, especially a condenser.

 

[MessianicDreams]

I agree with everything said but one.

You want to get OPEN back not CLOSED back for recording vocals. It will allow you to hear yourself better.

i dunno dude, i think i'd disagree pretty strongly with that. open back headphones will bleed strongly into the mic, whereas as close phones won't bleed anywhere near as much - especially if you get ones that clamp quite strongly around your head. i use Beyerdynamic DT770 for tracking, and they're great. if you get the 250ohm version they are very easy to drive (so go quite loud). they're super comfortable to wear (no sore ears!) and bleed very little, as well as isolate you well from external sounds (important if yer a drummer or standing next to a blaring amp). they also happen to sound pretty damn good

 

[travelin travis]

i use a pair of sony's that fit pretty loose but don't bleed much at all due to be closed back. my old open backs bleed tons.

 

[VSpaceBoy]

Well imo its harder to pitch when you can't hear yourself. Thats why you'll see singers often hanging a can off the side of their head. I don't usually have much problem with bleed from my open backs.

 

[RAMI]

What does having open or closed back headphones have to do with hearing yourself???? That's weird. Turn yourself up and/or the music down in the headphones to hear yourself. That's what proper monitoring is all about. I guarantee you most singers use closed-backs to record vocals, mainly because of leakage.

 

[VSpaceBoy]

Well I guess my experience is different than most.. of course, I'm not much of a vocalist to begin with.

 

[Robert D]

Well imo its harder to pitch when you can't hear yourself. Thats why you'll see singers often hanging a can off the side of their head. I don't usually have much problem with bleed from my open backs.

Yes, and as soon as they lift one side to hear themselves direct, you're right back to the bleed. This is a common problem, with many singers having dificulty when there's no direct audio feedback from mouth to ear. Usually the best solution is to use closed phones, and have them press the off the ear can against their head behind their ear.
Having said that, the only time I've ever had a track ruined by bleed is from click tracks. A little bleed of program material that is staying in the mix is usually not a problem since it is well masked.

 

[David M]

You might try turning the speed up on the auto tune to around 12 for less artifact. It sounds like you have it on 0. I thought maybe you were doing it as an effect. It does get annoying after a while. It sounds live a vocorder.

I have a relativly cheap mic that I like. I use an Audio Technica AT4040 Cardioid Condenser which sales for around $300.