Pro Tools setup.
Recording a vocal—what steps do you take? I don’t mean general singer tips, but from the microphone on in to the mix. I’ve struggled for years on finding what really works for me.
Let’s move past the mic please, and tell me what you do next—processing…compression, reverb…I want a fat, rich vocal sound, that’s “in your face” but effected with a dreamy, spacious verb that doesn’t sound like verb, but yet sounds suspended in the middle of a space with nothing around it. (Picture floating in that space above skies
) Airy. (Forgot mention, slow song, solo vocal)
Anyone care to offer what works for you? Many thanks.
Tim
There really isn't one one-size-fits-all approach here, so I'm not going to say "oh, here's my usual vocal process!" or anything like that - hell, mostly I record instrumentals. But, based on what you're describing, here are some approaches I'd be thinking about. Roughly in order of importance.
1) This should go without saying - get the best vocal performance you can. You want a pretty "effected" sound here, and you won't get that out of a raw vocal... but when you listen back to the raw vocal, it should sound great on its own, even if very dry and present and in your face. If the raw track doesn't sound great, you're going to struggle with everything else here.
2) "in your face" but still "fat and rich" - One thing I've done to "fatten" vocals in the past that had a lot of edge to them but less body is parallel compression. The easiest way to do this is to take your lead vocal track and make a copy of it on a new track. then, take that track, and absolutely smash it with either an aggressive compressor, or a limiter. Really overt, obvious compression, it shouldn't sound very nice on its own. Then, set the volume all the way off on your new track, hit playback, and slowly start bringing up the fader until your lead vocal starts to sound "thicker" and "fuller" more than "different." You'll still have the dynamic content of your original track, but with perceptibly more body to it. Then bus the two tracks together to a single bus to make volume management and subsequent processing easier in your mix.
2) a) You also might like the sound of some console or tape style saturation on, if not both, then at least the un-limited vocal, to add a little more edge and bite to your transients. Could sound great, could sound bad, you won't know until you try.
3) "In your face" and "floating" are not a common combo... but I'd suggest tackling this with a separate reverb/ambience bus rather than applying reverb directly to the vocal and adjusting the wet/dry mix. Especially if it's a stereo effect or panned to a different place in the stereo spectrum (and here's another could be crazy, could sound great approach - you could also use a pair of reverbs with different attack and decay times panned L and R to create more stereo image, while leaving your dry vocal in the center - I've never tried this but as I'm writing this i could see it being interesting). But basically, create a send from your dry vocal track, to a separate FX bus with a 100% wet spacious reverb effect on it, and then start with the mix very low and then bring it up until it's getting close to what you want.
4) Especially on a slower song don't rule out a bit of stereo delay, maybe a darker tape-style delay, mixed barely audibly on your vocal here. For bonus points you could try adding a delay somewhere in the FX chain on your reverb bus, too, so the echoes and reverbs are getting all mixed up with each other.
5) Also worth a try, and this is more of a longshot and would require a pretty good vocal - go full modern pop. A lot of pop production these days relies more on a "vocal stack" than a lead vocal, utilizing additional vocal lines in unison or harmony or a breathy soft vocal mirroring a more full throated one, etc sometimes throughout the song, sometimes selectively reinforcing a line or a word, etc. Get creative. If you've got a good vocalist and plenty of time on your hands, you could record a main vocal track and then a series of "reinforcement" takes, maybe selectively supporting the occasional line in your verses but coming out in force in the chorus, combining intensities and timbres. Super common in female pop these days, and if you want to hear a (much older) similar approach in a non-pop environment, Devin Townsend is just a vocal force of nature and while his own material has plenty of examples, I always thought his work on the chorus of Aeyron's "Day 3: Pain" off The Human Equation is one of the most incredible vocal performances I've ever heard - starts off with soft breathy harmonies for the first two lines, one of them jumps an octave and becomes full voice on the third, and the fourth suddenly you have death metal growls harmonizing with that same soft breathy voice and it's just, well, scary, how it does such an emotional 180. But, I think you might be able to go at thhis with a couple comlimentary tracks and get a lot of the "space" you want before you even reach for FX.
