help recording spoken word, a capella, jazz scat

[thevirgin]

I'm very new here and first I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this board. I keep searching and reading. I am already seeing improvements in my work from what I have learned here.

I am going to be doing a session that is largely spoken word, a capella and jazz scat. I have at my disposal one mxl67, two sm57s and one rs 33-3032 (which I find is useful for only a very limited range of backup vocal effects).

I can get pleasing sounds with both the MXL67 and the sm57 on the voice in question and will probably switch between the two depending on the piece or maybe even record multiple takes with each mic.

My major question is if there are any multiple mic techniques I should also try. I have two rooms at my disposal. One is about 13x22 (but partially blocked on one side) with a 9.5 foot ceiling, carpeting and some furnishings. The other is a 6x9 bathroom with about an 8 foot ceiling. It is mostly tiled. I am tempted to try hanging a bunch of blankets in the bathroom....

I am going through a soundcraft spirit f1 that gives me eight pres but I am currently channel limited by my two channel soundcard.

I also have an old paia tubehead - for those of you who remeber. I may try hooking this up in the fx loop to see if I can get any usable "vintage" sounds. It isn't too noisey if I keep the gain down.

In any case, I am grateful for any suggestions.

SW

 

[Innovations]

The obvious answer is do some experiments, remember though that what sound good on the solo track might not sound good in the final mix.

The small bathroom might give a lively resonant sound, which is why you sound so good singing in there, but once you have that small room sound you can't remove it, and adding large room reverb to the final mix, like you might if you want to make it sound like a concert hall, is going to sound bad if the track already has small room reverb in it.

Multiple micing is generally of no use on solo vocal tracs.

 

[thevirgin]

thanks

Thanks Innovations,

I was considering the bathroom partially because it is the most acoustically isolated room in the house - best insulation and the newest and smallest window. It also has a new floor that does not creak. I will try both rooms and probably try loading the bathroom with as much sound deadening as possible.

70-90% of this job will be strictly solo and without any dubs so sticking to one mic is going to make it a lot easier to figure out what works. The rest will have vocal overdubs, multiple vocalists and/or instruments. Guess I will tackle those last since the things I learn doing the solo stuff may help.

I probably should have mentioned that I have recorded instruments before but never had to deal with voice recording in a semi-studio setting - only live vocals. My quess is that I am going to get a huge improvement over anything I ever got live.

 

[Innovations]

Well you might find that by the time you added enough padding to the bathroom that the small room reverbs are cut you may have a booth that is so dead that it is unsingable.

You might want to take a look at the big room and think about what it would take to improve it. Heavy drapes on the window maybe? A gobo or two?