Recording good sounding vocals

[Season]

I'm in the process of recording my vocal tracks to some beats that I have already recorded. I'm using a Zoom MRS 802CD recorder which I really like for the price range. Anyway, I just want some general ideas of how you guys go about doing your vocals. I'm not big into a bunch of tricks...I like the natural sound....give me a mic and a beat. But the main thing is the levels of vocals so they dont come off sounding too distorted... and also these track parameters, I've got EQ high, EQ low, pan, chorus, delay, reverb....how do these work in relation to vocals?

Lastly, in recording vocals how do you keep your S's and P's from popping your peak levels too high?

I'll thank those who reply now. thank you.

Season

 

[ART MPC 4000]

First Off Your Microphone Levels Need To Be Set. How? Well First Off You Need To Make Shure That Your Levels Arent Clipping In The Red. This Will Cause The Vocals To Distort. To Get A Proper Level Have Someone Rhyming The Way They Would On The Song When You Get A Level. When You Get The Level Dont Change It Till After The Songis Over. This Makes For Better And Easier Mixing

"remember" The Better You Make You Levels The Easier It Will Be To Record, The Better You Record The Easier It Will Be To Mix, The Easier It Is To Mix The Easier It Will Be To Master.

Reverb Gives The Effect Of Being In A Hall, It Makes Vocals Sound "wet" When Applied

Delay Is Self Explanatary

Any Other Questions You Will Have To Pm Me Cuz I Dont Know Where To Start

 

[ACEBEATZ]

Help For Vocals

First of all, look the environnment your in to record your vocals. Do you have noise comin from a pc or anything else? If so try to put your self in a room and the singer in another, just make the wire pass under doors. When you chose the room to put the singer, you need to damp it in other to have no room reverb, like in a vocal booth. If you can use the room for it and for a long time, apply some material like yellow matress. You can buy it for 10$ a bag at wal-mart. If you dont have money, dont wanna spend or if its it not for long term, take blankets and hook them to the ceiling around the singer. It will do great result.

Once your recording area is damped enough (not too much, dont make it sound like its trapped or boxy!), you need to adjust your mic correctly. If you record a r,n,b singer you can with a little time record it only with a mic witout clipping, or distortion. But in rap the vocals r very dynamics. I don't know exactly the model of recorder you got, but i might say you paid this around 500$ ?? Maybe more, and your mic at least 100 $ so i suggest you to buy a compressor. you can have one for 100$ easily new or used.

A compressor well adjusted will prevent your source to clip before going into your machine by keeping the singer to a more average signal, making it a lot more coherent by the same time. Go to a store and talk to a good seller you know and he will advise you well . But look first in your machine's manual cuz i'm pretty sure you have a compressor integrated as an effect, that could work very well.

Begin by testing that, after come back talk me in my trend in THE LAB, where you can ask me question, and i'll help you more with other effect to make you vocal cleaner.

Good recording!

Ace (www.acebeatz.com)

 

[Season]

Hey, thanx so far for the reply's. I understand the whole imput/rec. level thing. I am getting good at that. I am wondering though, should I spend money on a preamp or what? What exactly does it do? Is it somethiing I simpy plug my mic into then plug the preamp to my recorder? Also I have heard of these "pop guards"...are they worth it? I'm not into adding all sorts of effects, I don't want my voice to sound different.....I just want to make sure that it sounds as good as it can.

 

[ACEBEATZ]

Reply

Hey, thanx so far for the reply's. I understand the whole imput/rec. level thing. I am getting good at that. I am wondering though, should I spend money on a preamp or what? What exactly does it do? Is it somethiing I simpy plug my mic into then plug the preamp to my recorder? Also I have heard of these "pop guards"...are they worth it? I'm not into adding all sorts of effects, I don't want my voice to sound different.....I just want to make sure that it sounds as good as it can.

Do you have a dynamic mic (like a mic for stage or scene) or a condenser mic ? If you have a dynamic you don't need a preamp, and if you have a condenser it cannont work without a pre-amp so i don't know how you did to record without it. A pre-amp will give your condenser mic power to work (48 v or called phantom power too). Dependly on the price you pay you'll get the quality for your money. A pre-amp can affect the sound of your recordings. Big Neve's Mixing Consoles are renowned for the sound of they're preamp.

Pop guard i suppose you mean pop screen? It is the round thing you see in front of a mic made of the same material used for your mom's pantyhoses. I tprevent things comin from your singer mouth to dirty your mic and reduce the '' pa'' noise made by p in words.

But check like a said for a comp, that is a voice channel : preamp comp eq de-esser. You can buy this for 200$ and your in business with that.

Holla Ace (www.acebeatz.com)

 

[Season]

Yeah, I have a stage mic....and I get plenty of signal/power from that....so I dont think I'll need a preamp.....I'll look into a pop screen of somekind....someone else told me that a simple wind guard (that I always think looks like a muppets nose) works pretty good. Thanx for you help. Last thing....do u suggest getting a condenser mic? Do they work that much better? I'm basically doing this home recording for my own love. I'm not looking to make millions or get famous. But I do want to make sure that I do things right....so if a condenser is that much better I may look into it with the help of a pre amp.

 

[ACEBEATZ]

Wut to do!!Wut to do!!

Yeah, I have a stage mic....and I get plenty of signal/power from that....so I dont think I'll need a preamp.....I'll look into a pop screen of somekind....someone else told me that a simple wind guard (that I always think looks like a muppets nose) works pretty good. Thanx for you help. Last thing....do u suggest getting a condenser mic? Do they work that much better? I'm basically doing this home recording for my own love. I'm not looking to make millions or get famous. But I do want to make sure that I do things right....so if a condenser is that much better I may look into it with the help of a pre amp.

A wind guard is not good for inside recording. It cut a lot of hi freqs and by the same time will give you a muddy vocal. Pop screen is really thin n let 95 % pass. Wind guard is used for outside like if you interview someone or if you wanna sample some rain noise will not havin all the wind going into your mic for example.

A condenser studio mic could be a good choice and i don't think it's a lost of money, even if you plan to record for yourself. Because, you already spent a fair amount on your recorder, that give you a good hardware quality. you can't use it plentfully without a good mic. So, i dare say it is with your stage mic that you lose money. Look for Studio Project mics http://www.studioprojects.com/. They r really great for the price ! I own the B1, it is the less expensive and you know wut? There is others studio here, and they all gotta 1000 $ mics vs me with a 200$ mic and i'm the best sounding of all em. You know why? It's not the equipment you own that will make it sound, it's the guy that sit behind them.

A good mic and a good preamp like M-Audio DMP3 or tha Art Tube Preamp, and your on the good road.

Holla Ace (www.acebeatz.com)

 

[Season]

Thanx again for your help, Ace. I think I'll take your advice. Being that I record at home do you think I"ll run into problems with the condenser. I mean, I record in a small room...do you think that I will run into problems picking up "little" sounds being I don't have this room all padded off? Secondly, will I need a preamp even if I have "Phantom Power" that is built into my recorder? I was looking at a music store in the area and they have a nice condenser on sale for $75. Regulary $200. U bought a pop screen the other day and can tell a nice difference even with my stage mic. Get back at me because i think I am going to be getting the condenser soon. I just don't want to have it work against me due to the sensitivity and my lack of a "real" studio.

Season

 

[ACEBEATZ]

Reply to Season

Thanx again for your help, Ace. I think I'll take your advice. Being that I record at home do you think I"ll run into problems with the condenser. I mean, I record in a small room...do you think that I will run into problems picking up "little" sounds being I don't have this room all padded off? Secondly, will I need a preamp even if I have "Phantom Power" that is built into my recorder? I was looking at a music store in the area and they have a nice condenser on sale for $75. Regulary $200. U bought a pop screen the other day and can tell a nice difference even with my stage mic. Get back at me because i think I am going to be getting the condenser soon. I just don't want to have it work against me due to the sensitivity and my lack of a "real" studio.

Season

If you have a phantom power in your recorder you will not need to buy a preamp. A good preamp is better than a built in preamp in a console or a recorder. But for the small difference of quality, it would not worth the price of a standalone preamp.

Wut for that mic? What is the model? Why is it only 75 $ if it worth 200$?. I'm not surprised i mean, prices drop everyday since there is a lot of competition these days for the home and small studio market. But is it new or used? A mic is preferably better to be bought new or with a good warranty, one year at least. Cuz if the capsule have problem (the round thing inside the mic), it's not worth to repair it. So be sure of that.

And for your room, if your don't have a computer or any noisy machine in your room you shouldn't have noise going in your recording. But the padding isn't for the noise, it is for the reverb. A room sounding take is not really great, while for only 60$ you can pad it with matresses like I said. Or, for temporary recording, each time you gotta do it for a few hours and for something more serious, hang blankets around your mic stand, 2- 3 feet each side, to build a temporary vocal booth. It work well.

Holla Ace www.acebeatz.com

 

[Season]

Hey Ace, since you've been doing such a great job at helping me with my recording questions, I'll throw another one at you. This one is in regards to recording the beats. I'm using an MPC 2000XL. Now once I get my beat finished on that and ready to record on my first track would you just leave it alone once you get the imput and record levels straight. I mean, would there be any need to mess around with the different parameters that my Zoom MRS recorder offers? Instinctively, I do not really want to mess around with them because I want to keep it sounding like it did coming out of the MPC. What do you think? Or better, what do you usually do?

Season

 

[ACEBEATZ]

Reply to Season

Hi Season,

I work with Cubase SX, so i work with a pc. But if I were in your case, i would record it straight out of the MPC too, or, cuz i'm a mixing/mastering producer, I would export each track of the MPC to a new track in the Zoom. Meanin, recordin track 1 of zoom, playin drums from mpc, then on track 2, the bass, then on track 3, the piano for example. Because after, you have control over your beat. If you record your vocal, then you lack a little volum on the bass drum or the snare, you can boost it. But, since it's a lot more easier to do that on a PC, and it's a lot of time and tweaking on machines, you betta stick to exporting your whole mix into your Zoom as one track. Mix it like you want in MPC.
One thing you could do though, is lookout for your integrated effects. You can apply EQ and compression to your mix, I mean applied to Track 1, where you will record the beat.
Find that, and apply a lil boost of hi freq around 2/3 db from 5k to 20k, and a lil boost of low from 20 to 250. Then, AFTER eq, apply a lil compression. It will give punch and clarity to your mix, then you are ready to record.

Holla Ace www.acebeatz.com