Vocal Recording Technique

T

tmcbrinn

New member
I have picked up on a professionally used technique with I think sounds really cool, and would fit the voice I am recording quite well (I think). Only problem is, I can't figure out how it is done exactly. Here;s what it is: (for the lead vocal track). It sounds like there is a track straight up the middle, which is either competely dry or close to it. Then, on the extreme right and left sides, there is a track with a ton of reverb. The stereo reverb track is mixed in subtlely with the one strait up the middle. THe result is a very spacious, almost (but not) chorusy vocal sound. As much as I listen, I can't figure out if it is all one take going into three separate tracks, or there is one overdub (I don;t think there is two). I have tried to emulate this, but it just doesn't sound right to me. Has anyone ever used this technique with any success? Am I missing/forgetting something?
(Most noticable use is by Type-O-Negative, and some Perfect Circle songs). Any help or insight would be appreciated.
-Tom
 
Both, but I guess tracking mainly. I'm trying to figure out if it is all one track, or two different tracks (one up the middle, one copied to a stereo track). CAuse if I try one way, it sounds bad and makes me think the other way will; work. I guess what I'msaying is I can't seem to find a happy medium.
 
Though I haven't tried it yet, I've been thinking about doing exactly what you're describing. My feeling was that it would work best with one track recorded dry for the center, with a send out to a stereo reverb or short delay, and back in on two seperate tracks, one panned left, and one panned right. My guess would be, that you would have to experiment with the mix of the wet vs. dry signals, and also how wide you pan the two side channels.

Keep us posted on your progress, and if I get a chance to try it out, I'll let you know what I find.

Twist
 
I'm always messing around with it, I just haven't been able to find a happy medium with making it clear but ambient. I'll definatily keep working with it though.
 
The most commonly used 'trick' to get the sound I think you are after is to have a vocal panned center, then apply a stereo reverb with a short pre-delay, using a fractionally different pre-delay time L to R.
An additional thing to try there (if you have the tools available) is to 'float' the 2 sides between left and right. If you havn't got auto-panning on a stereo delay - just do it by hand.
Play around with the settings and you will find the vocal will "come out off the mix" - it wil appear to be in your head rather than come from the speakers.
An example of this effect you can hear on Uru's demo of the song You Know at http://www.mp3.com/uru
 
Ok, Sjoko, you have me interested....I know that all situations are different and whatever sounds good is good, but what starting point would you suggest for the 2 predelays?......
 
totally depends on the kind of thing you're after. If you want to hear the effect, use start with 40 plus microseconds and increase it until you're happy with it. If you want it to be more subtle, play around with between 20 and 30
 
The organic method is to record the vocal track with two mics, one set cardiod facing the singer like "normal". Another mic is set up "sideways" in a real figure-8 pattern. The two mics should be set up one-on-top-of-the other with one upsidedown so that the tops are almost touching.

The "sideways" mic is used to create that wrapped-around-you stereo feeling as such:

1. - Use the "normal" front mic just as that, panned dead center.

2. - Take the 2nd mic and copy it. Invert one copy so that it is 180 degees out of phase. Pan the inverted and the uninverted copies hard left and right. Mix them all together.

What you get is the original sound plus the sound of the sides just as if you were standing nose-to-nose with the singer.

Then try adding pre-delayed reverbs, short panned delays and other fx to the different elements. Woohoo!!
 
Thats cool razor - but you can get all kinds of phasing and cancellation problems if a vocalist moves just a tiny bit off- axis
 
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