Recording music - Recording a Vocalist

I'm currently recording a song. Radiohead, Creep in fact. Me and Tom Mills-Smith (who is sweating in the studio trying to get his guitar part right). It's for project work and part of an assignment.

I'm going to blog the procedures (but not post the results as I don't really want to post this particular cover version, not because its crap, just because its not really something I was associated with me).

The first part was for a vocal recording. The notes below are the notes I have taken during the process and are largely unedited.

The second part will the full band recording and will be posted once the part is completed. Currently its still ongoing as two session have proved to be more learning curves than actually nailing the parts.

RECORDING PROJECT

Part 1 – recording a solo artist.

For this project I worked alongside Archie Kingsley and Thomas Mills-Smith.

Working with Thomas Mills-Smith initially, I recorded 2 tracks with him, both of us taking turns at the desk and myself playing guitar and singing. We used a track for each part but encountered a number of problems.

Firstly I had not set up a guide track so just played the acoustic live into the vocal condenser microphone. I had initially hoped to play guitar into one with vocals into another to capture a live performance. However, this was not possible as the other mic was being used.

So instead I decided to play live and not use a click, as I know from past experience that they often bleed into the mic.

When recording there was also a massive problem of bleed from other areas of the college. The vocal booth is far from soundproof and due to time constraints we had to get on with the project despite there being a full band just beside us with only one door separating. The actual recordings, considering this, are not that bad but they are still unusable. We also found that recording without a click made the backing acoustic guitar difficult to sing to as there were small time quirks that were impossible to premeditate with only a few rehearsals.

The recordings were therefore scrapped. However, we learnt that a guide track was useful (and that using a quickly made logic drum track instead of a click is a viable option) and that getting a better studio environment was a must. We also experimented with microphone positions and while the pop guard was broken and useless in this particular instance, due to me being a loud singer I found a good position in relation to the microphone.

We also found our way round the desk and managed to route stuff into logic effectively.

I then went for a second try and used different songs, not for any particular reason other than it suits me for future projects.

I made backing guide tracks at home for these using an acoustic guitar to a click and a further guide track with acoustic guitar and guide vocal (to help with position in the song).

These were then imported into Logic and a rudimentary drum track was added. This meant that they could be sang along with easily having both a timed track (although it turns out one was a little out – Houndwood Blues) and a guide vocal to help with position.

Once the desk was set we recorded two complete vocals. On singing it appeared that both vocals in each case was satisfactory. We took it in turns as a group setting up the desk to record, having already had a good microphone position established from the earlier session. As a singer who knows my own optimum singing position already it made sense to use this again and on sound checking everyone agreed it made a good sound. The only slight difference was a little popping so I sang slightly across the mic. The setting was on cardioid with no boost.

The track I set up was for Houndwood Blues. As singer and producer I set the volume by getting someone to speak loudly into the mic and then when I went in to sing got it double-checked. I’m quite used to moving around the mic to avoid loud and soft too much so this helped. Perhaps as I get more used to studio recording my techniques for doing this may change.

We then took it in turns to record two complete good takes of each song.  Once getting my track, Houndwood Blues, I started the mix down.  I did not include the backing tracks for my piece, as they were only rough and purely intended to be for guide and something to build on in the future. The vocal take will be used for that too but we did record it to the best of our ability for this project, it just means that I would re-record the vocals once the rest of the track is complete.

The first thing I did was compare the two takes phrase by phrase, picking up the best one and deleting the worst. It varied and I was somewhat surprised that there were good and bad in each take but I guess this is why this technique is used.

I then silenced all the gaps and normalised the results. I then added a compression using a preset of VCA Vocal but adjusted the ratio up to get a punchier sound. I then used a channel EQ and again chose a preset after tinkering with my own settings. I was looking initially for a warm sound but actually in context of the track I chose the Male Vox 01 as it brought the upper ranges up slightly and helped it sound strong and cut through the mix.

Finally I turned to the space designer to take a little of the rawness of the vocal off. I found the preset Grand Hall One which gave a very nice ambient reverb. This I turned down to about a 3^rd as the effect was too overpowering otherwise. Listening to the vocal on its own its still retains its rawness but the reverb just takes off the dry edges that seemed to make it too harsh.