Recording Vocal Techniques.

[isaak]

Can anyone give me some tips on getting really smooth and warm recordings for vocal. E.g Compression, Eq and Reverb
hints using a Rode Classic Valve mic and UAD-1 FX card. This is for straight accoustic and vocal songs (Mellow stuff).

Your tips would be appreciated!

 

[Sennheiser]

Your dynamic settings will vary with the singers ability or lack thereof and your effects settings will depend upon what kind of room you want the singer in and what mood you want to convey.

Warm reverb generally has more bottom end and a longer decay to allow the bass wave to develop. Of course you probably don't want it to sound as though it was recorded in the bottom of the Grand Canyon either. The settings are also determined to some extent by the tempo of the number. You don't want the recording to be awash in a sea of reverb. The intelligability of the words can be affected by the reverb as well. It's a balancing act.

You EQ settings may very well change too depending upon the reverb settings used.

A starting point might be a medium sized hall preset and then adjust the parameters to get what you want. Pre-delay can be important and will make the words stand out better before the first reflections start.

What kind of room are you tracking in?

Male or female?

Piano and vocal, guitar and vocal, flute, violin, etc?

This is just a starting point for you. There are others here that can be more specific. I use my ears and tempo to set-up reverb
and delay.

 

[dobro]

isaak - I assume you're talking about recording, not mixing. It's safer to record vocals with as little EQ, compression and reverb as possible. None, if you can get away with it. You can use all that stuff later in the mix if you need it, but the human voice needs to be as natural as possible in its origin (the recording).

I use no reverb tracking vocals. I used to use EQ, now I don't. I do still use some compression to prevent clipping - audio prophylaxis.