Recording Vocals

[anoopbal]

Hi,.

i am new here and had a question about recording vocals.

How do you record your vocals? do you record by listening your vocals and instrument through ur headphones? I just have heard time listening to my singing through the headphones and record. I feel like it is out of sync or I cannot hear it well. So I usually play the instrument track through my speakers and sing. But I have to keep the instrument track low so that I can hear my vocals

 

[JG96]

you should be able to play your vocals back through the headphones. What DAW are you using?

 

[anoopbal]

Thank you for the reply.

I have used both Audition and now Ableton. I can hear the voice through my headphones and such, but there is a slight delay I feel. Also, I just cannot judge if I am too loud or too low. Is this normal?

I use M-audio fast track as the interface.

 

[Seidy]

Sounds like you are monitoring yourself thru Ableton. You shouldn't have problems with direct monitoring with Fast track - just adjust the mix button on the front(note: this applies when you have the first generation Fast track. Second generation? Possibly adjustable via some kind of user interface on computer?).
If you have problems hearing yourself you can temporarly try cutting some mid-frequencies (around 1-5khz) with eq to make some room for vocals. Another trick is to slip off one side of headphones so you can hear the track(+your vocal) with one ear and only yourself with other ear.

 

[verysickbeats]

What I usually do is mute the channel where my mic is going, so now im just monitoring my live self versus the mix. The delay comes from the mix as you are recording. Just my 2 cents

 

[anoopbal]

Thanks everyone!

And Seidy you just made my day . I never knew what that mix thing on my M-Audio was for. I sang to it with it and came out really good. But I still feel I cannot judge my loudness with my vocals and instruments coming through headphones. And why do people use just one headphones?

I had couple of questions:

1) Do people put reverb when they sing so that they can hear them with reverb? I feel I can sing better but when i play it back i feel something is missing.
2) And should I turn off the compressor and equalizer even when I am hearing my voice through the interface when I record? I am guessing if I don't the vocals will be compress and Eqed as they come in and we don't want that.

Thank you!

 

[Seidy]

But I still feel I cannot judge my loudness with my vocals and instruments coming through headphones. And why do people use just one headphones?

Another trick is to slip off one side of headphones so you can hear the track(+your vocal) with one ear and only yourself with other ear.

1) Do people put reverb when they sing so that they can hear them with reverb? I feel I can sing better but when i play it back i feel something is missing.
2) And should I turn off the compressor and equalizer even when I am hearing my voice through the interface when I record? I am guessing if I don't the vocals will be compress and Eqed as they come in and we don't want that.

1) You could possibly do that with Ableton. I'm not a pro with Ableton, but possible solution I see would be inserting a reverb effect on the channel you are recording and setting it to 100% wet. When you are recording turn the effect on (this way you will get direct signal from the Fast track and Ableton adds just the reverb) and when playing back turn it off (or you will hear just the reverb).
2) Are you using outboard compressor/eq or the ones in Ableton? If the ones in A then it's fine - you are recording dry signal and can always change the eq/comp settings later.

 

[anoopbal]

Hi Seidy,

Thanks again. If you were nearby, I would have bought u lunch

I put the reverb on a bus and routed it. I turned up the Mix knob on my interface 1/2 to the right and I added compression to it too. It came out good I think. I can clearly hear me sing now. If I want to hear me better, I just lower the karaoke track.

I posted the mixed verion and the mastered version in the 'Mix ur Mp3' sub-forum. Can you please check it and give any feedback please?

 

[grimtraveller]

T But I still feel I cannot judge my loudness with my vocals and instruments coming through headphones. And why do people use just one headphones?

The answer to your question is partly contained in the sentence before it. Sometimes with headphones on, it can be difficult to gauge how loud you are or if you're in tune because the music you are singing to is crowding your ears. So sometimes, people take off one of the phones so they can hear and control their voice better. Most of my friends that sing for me do this and it nearly always makes a big difference if they've been struggling with their pitch.

 

[Bobbsy]

Back to basics but is it the original Fast Track or a Fast Track Mk II?

As far as I recall, the original Fast Track didn't provide for direct hardware monitoring, forcing you to monitor via your DAW. In this scenario, you can do things to minimise the latency but there will always be a little bit there--your voice is doing a round trip via an A to D converter, your computer, a D to A converter and then into your headphones.

However, if it's the Mk II version, then using the direct monitor function should completely sort out your problem with latency.

One extra comment: it's important to get the headphone balance between your voice and the track(s) you're singing to as good as you can--and everyone has different tastes. However, getting it just right can really make a difference to how well you perform and, by extension, your recording.

 

[ecc83]

Even the MK11 only has a Direct/DAW switch, thus I do not see how it is possible to monitor live voice and recorded backing track(s)?

The only solutions I see are..
1) Look for ways to minimize latency but it might not be possible to get it down to an acceptable level and is in any case a whole new thread and set of procedures.

2)Replace the AI with something better, The Fast Track pro has a mon mix control and quite low latency to boot. I shall (of course!) mention the Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6. That has the mix control AND fabulously low latency.

Lastly OP: Levels. I trust you are recording well down the meters? -18, even -22dBFS is fine for the vocal track giving you plenty of headroom to "belt it out". In fact you should set levels low enough such that you don't even need to watch the meters when you sing (this is NOT tape!) . "Fixing it in the mix" is a term with a bad name, well deserved but for levels and in digital, you really can! (you will be using 24bits 44.1kHz?)

Dave.