Professional Sounding Vocals?

F

FKHUL

New member
Hi,

I'm a total newbie to all of this and don't know anything about recording. I'm a singer, and have recorded my own music for years. I've used Acid, Cakewalk, and Adobe Audition. Before it was for fun, but now I'd like for my music to sound more professional. My question is probably hard to answer, but I would like to know the minimum number of things I would need to have professional vocals. I hear lots of things about pre-amps, compressors, microphones, soundproofing, normalizing, etc. I just want that professional sound to my voice, I've got my music to sound great, it's just that the vocals are a problem. I don't want them to sound like I recorded them with a cheap karaoke mic anymore. At the cheapest I possibly can, what equipment would I need for it to sound like it was recorded in a studio? Do I actually need to soundproof rooms and things, or will good equipment do the trick? You all probably get questions like this a lot, and I'm sorry to be so vague about everything. I appreciate any responses you can give me!

Thank you!

J
 
You need a decent condenser mic, a pop filter, and some kind of compressor, and maybe a touch of reverb depending on what sound you are going for.

I get pretty professional sounding vocals using an AKG Perception 200 condenser mic, a pop filter, and whatever compressor plugins I have in Cubase.
 
Good space, good mic, and good pre. After that, some tweaking in one of the programs you have. It will take some experimenting, but there are many good threads that can help you. Good luck.
Ed
 
A decent condenser microphone, a decent pre en some mixing skills.

Try this: copy your vocal track to two other tracks, leave one like it is for the transients, add some compression to the second and some really heavy compression to the third. Blend to taste.
 
A preamp starting with the Grace 101, API, Neve, John Hardy, etc.

A LDC mic from Neumann, Soundelux or MG. Plan on investing over a thousand.

A tube compressor from Manley, Drawmer, or Universal Audio.

A high end reverb unit.

You would be able to get great sounding vocals in a broom closet with the preceding tools. If you can only afford one of them, I would go for the mic.

Regards.
 
CCS said:
A preamp starting with the Grace 101, API, Neve, John Hardy, etc.

A LDC mic from Neumann, Soundelux or MG. Plan on investing over a thousand.

A tube compressor from Manley, Drawmer, or Universal Audio.

A high end reverb unit.

You would be able to get great sounding vocals in a broom closet with the preceding tools. If you can only afford one of them, I would go for the mic.

Regards.
Click to expand...

I disaggree, you'll just have a multi thousand dollar vocal chain with that vintage broom closet sound and feel. Rooms are damn important and don't forget that. It doesn't take the greatest equipment to get pro quality, it takes skills and maybe a decent room, but if your room sucks that expensive equipment is just going to show that room's true color even more. Just get a decent LDC(like a rode, blue, Studio Projects) and maybe the RNP/RNC combo. That is a good step in the right direction. Just don't feel like you need the gear this guy mentioned to get pro quality. Skills are probably the absolute most important thing.
 
High cost gear will help the salesmen much more than you. I've done some excellent recordngs with a Rode NT2000, an MXL 990 and a matched pair of Samson C02s. The Rode was used for male vocals, the MXL for female vocals, the C02s for violin and cello. The preamps were a Mindprint DTC for the vocals and a DBX 386 with no "warmth" via the tube gain for the violin and cello. The results were super. I've also had some pretty good results with Octava 312s through a behringer preamp. The musicians were good, well practiced, and hit the notes right. The room accoustics were good too, (an unfinished room with ceiling joists exposed). The bottom line is how good you can play and or sing along with decent (price wise) gear. Bottom line is for simple vocal recording and a few tracks of instruments, a $20,000 rack is not needed along with a $2000+ microphone. I think the most important investment will be your sound card. Get a good one since it does the A/D conversion and will have the biggest impact on your recordings.

The boutique gear only pays off if you make large multi track projects or record large orchestras with many microphones, etc. Cheaper gear and converters will muddy large projects up.
 
I don't want to ruffle any feathers here, but you guys don't get the point.

It's about skill, a $25 Audio Technica dynamic microphone, a decent board like a Topaz and a couple of decent compressor/limiters (even the old Behringer Composer) will do the job.

A skilled engineer will give you a professional sounding vocal with just these toys.

That's the point, skill.
 
Yes, but he might want to spend a bunch of money to make him feel more professional. Ya, I agree about having skill with using the tools you have. I have a pretyy high-end setup, but somtimes it just doesn't sound as professional as I would like. Yet I have heard other recordings by people who have cheap gear, and it can sound great!
 
Okay, so I'm kinda confused here. I'm hearing it's all about the room, equipment, etc. Some have suggested really expensive equipment in the $1,000s+ range. Now I'm not THAT serious about my stuff. I just want that professional tone and sound, so it's not like karaoke. I'm not making music for anyone but myself for now.

So if I buy a relatively good condenser microphone, pop filter, compressor (which I already have), what else will I need? I've been looking at preamps, but they're all super expensive, and I just don't have that kind of money right now. Are there any preamps that are relatively unexpensive? And would it be necessary? I'm just looking for the cheapest possible equipment to do the job. Thanks for the help.

J
 
Have you got a price range or budget? there are preamps/mics availible at the lower end of the bracket that sound good, but unfortunatly some money has to be invested...

I would also be interested in what you have recorded already :) I had my days of getting karaoke style music ;)
 
FKHUL said:
Okay, so I'm kinda confused here. I'm hearing it's all about the room, equipment, etc. Some have suggested really expensive equipment in the $1,000s+ range. Now I'm not THAT serious about my stuff. I just want that professional tone and sound, so it's not like karaoke. I'm not making music for anyone but myself for now.

So if I buy a relatively good condenser microphone, pop filter, compressor (which I already have), what else will I need? I've been looking at preamps, but they're all super expensive, and I just don't have that kind of money right now. Are there any preamps that are relatively unexpensive? And would it be necessary? I'm just looking for the cheapest possible equipment to do the job. Thanks for the help.

J
Click to expand...

Read my first post (post nr 6) again please.
 
What kind of mic and preamp are you using now?

If you go from a cheapie mic/preamp to something nicer you'll be shocked by what you're hearing.You have to learn how to "work the mic" with your voice.

Figure out what you can afford,buy it,use it and work from there.
 
Dogman said:
Good space, good mic, and good pre. After that, some tweaking in one of the programs you have. It will take some experimenting, but there are many good threads that can help you. Good luck.
Ed
Click to expand...
Good Space...just somewhere that you don't have a lot of other noises, and maybe you can hang some blankets or something to deaden the room a bit. Might keep some unwanted reverb from happening.
Mic...$100 or so will get you a decent condensor. It will require phanotm power, so a pre is needed that has this. Another $100 or so will get you something. Maybe even less, anymore. This would be some good basic stuff. Nothing would hold you back from getting good results, except you at this point. If you spend more, you will not necessarily get better results. But, you may save yourself an upgrade in the future. We always seem to want more, and it's a never ending cycle.
 
If you're serious about recording your voice, the only way to get the best mic is to audition them, hopefully in an environment where you can record. There are other elements in the chain (and the room is the biggest, and hardest to deal with) that cause problems but you must start with the mic that suits your voice.
 
professional sounding vocals starts with a professional sounding voice. like all things (guitar, bass, drums, etc), getting a "professional sound" starts at the source.

beyond that, it's a relatively simple matter of hanging a mic, running a cable, dialing in some gain and maybe some compression and hitting record. this talk of "what mic" and "what preamp" and "what compressor" is all vapor--you don't NEED a $5000 signal chain to capture a professional sounding vocal track. you can do very nicely with an SM57 and a VTB1--the proof of that is in the "mixing clinic" from time to time.

however, you DO need a professional sounding voice. everything else is just "enhancement" or "improvement" or "shine".


cheers,
wade
 
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