Recording Vocals

PRR-TIME STUDIO

Recording Vocals

1. Make sure the vocalist is well rehearsed, physically comfortable, and under no psychological pressure. Most vocalist perform best standing up in a room that has a comfortable but not over-warm temperature. If they are distracted by other members of the band or by hangers-on, send everyone but the engineer (and producer, if you have one) out of the studio.

2. Take time to get the vocalist’s headphone mix right, and give them a little reverb to help them sing more confidently. If you can rig up a system that allows vocalists to adjust their own monitor level, it will make life a lot easier. A good headphone mix really helps to encourage a good performance.

3. Always use a pop shield between the singer and the microphone. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in unnatural ‘pops’ on plosive ‘b’ and ‘p’ sounds that can’t be fixed afterwards. Foam wind shields are virtually useless in combating pops.

4. Use a good microphone: it doesn’t have to be anything too special, but you should avoid low-cost ‘bargain’ models. Professional studios generally use condenser microphones, but in the project studio a good back-electret microphone or even a good dynamic vocal microphone can produce excellent results.

5. Pick a microphone to suit the vocalist. Vocalist with thin or excessively bright voices may actually sound better with a dynamic microphone, such as the Shure SM58, while those needing more of an open sound would benefit from a capacitor or back-electret microphone. If you have several microphone models to choose from, try a test recording with each and see which is most flattering to the vocalist.

Pluto always follow these guideline whenever he or his staff is recording vocals.

PRR-Time Studio specializes in mix tape recording, music mastering, music mixing, music video production. Best of all, their rates are very affordable. Contact them through their website at Prrtimestudio.com or by calling them at (516) 699-2375.

Pluto Rock Rol Time Is Money Entertainment (PRR-TIME)

by Bob Valentine