Recording Vocals Part One (The Room) by Breck Alan
Part 1 of a 5 Part Series on Recording Vocals by Breck Alan
Recording Vocals (Part One – The Room)
by Breck Alan
The elusive “magic” vocal track is an age-old drama in the recording world and no matter how good technology is getting, recording vocals is still an art form in and of it self. As much as we’d all like a magic bullet that covers all vocalists and musical styles, the truth is that recording vocals can be very different from situation to situation. There are several factors involved.
The first factor would probably be the room. The reason expensive studios have vocal isolation booths is to create a recording situation where you hear only the singer and not the room. Obviously for starters, you’d like the room you record in to be as quiet as possible. Next is to cut down on the reflexions bouncing around your recording environment. In a great sounding room some ambience is desirable, but a boxy little room with lots of standing wave reflexions will produce a roomy, boxy vocal. So even though you may not want to build an expensive vocal booth, spending some time installing some sound dampening materials at strategic locations around the room you’re recording in can go along way. You can often times build these yourself using various forms of insulating material covered in cloth (think non-flammable) or you can do some research and buy some more professional grade material. I’ve used both homemade and the super scientific foams and there is definitely a difference. The better foams will be much more balanced in their sound absorption and not just kill all of the high frequencies like the lesser appropriate materials can do.
Ideally, the room is a shape without parallel walls and has an angled ceiling. In a perfect world the room has a floating floor and spring mounted ceiling to eliminate the rumble of the world. Still, many good and even great vocals have been recorded in less than perfect rooms. Many producers actually prefer a room that is a bit lively for vocals so that they don’t end up sounding sterile or completely separate from the music. If the vocals are recorded in the same or similar environment to the rest of the music, they will sound more natural and organic. That said, a lot of high-level productions benefit from separation of vocals and other instruments to create an intense focus and clarity to each instrument in the mix. Be sure and experiment with mic placement in your recording space and find your favorite spot. One good rule of thumb is to have a lot of sound dampening behind the singer. This way, reflexions from the room don’t bounce directly into the mic. There are also some good reflexion filters on the market that mount on the mic stand behind the mic. These help isolate the mic from reflexions in the room and possibly help cut down on noise coming from sources such as computers, external hard drives etc.
It is also nice to have some vibe in your room. Nice lighting and things that feel creative and energizing can mean a lot to many singers.
Join us in Part Two of this series to discuss “Microphones.”
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