Why waste your time with vocals when you got all those instruments to jam with for eternity?

 

Oh, and a couple of tricks I've learnt from my betters:

As @RMorgan said, monitoring is important. I set up a vocal submix when feeding the track to cans, in it I emphasize the melodic and harmonic elements since it makes it easier to "stay in key", in there for the vocals I really don't do that much but some styles benefit from compression to make it more rhythmic, say. But record it plain, just use that submix for monitoring.

Then before doing anything else for the signal, there's this EQ trick that can be used, start with a fairly high Q, a fair amount of boost (+10dB for instance) and sweep the range to find where the "good" vocal resonances in that take lie. Then set up the EQ with those identified frequencies, lower the Q and the boost to make it more, well, resonant. Also if you get boominess a lowcut filter helps and maybe additionally a dip at around 200-300 Hz.

*edit*: typos and grammer

 

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Story of my life hehe.

From what i read, you feel your vocal performance is constantly compromised. I have been where are you are in the past. I must say for peeps who come from the older old school (lol), much like you and me, when all else fails, there is only one major solution to make you feel comfortable and perform your best:
Once you have some song arrangement you are confident you can sing on,
Crank your loudest speakers as high as possible, carefully up to the point where you can avoid mic feedback, press rec and sing away your songs.
Some may say wtf am i saying. My answer is simple: The cleanest signal possible, although is nice to have, it's not mandatory.
What is mandatory is the vocal performance to be as good as possible. And if you can get a great performance with all the mix bleeding in your mic, then so be it. I 've made 3 or 4 albums with all the band+vocalists playing live in the same room and they came out great.
I'd rather spend time fixing a great vocal performance with instruments or full mix bleed in it than trying to find how to "ressurect" and sweeten a "dead"- so to speak- or simply bland performance.
On a sort of different matter, from my own experience, it is very important to lay vocal tracks as early in a song as possible. At least scratch vocal takes that you may replace later on. You may find, if you haven't already, that structuring and orchestrating the song after vocals have been recorded is so much easier and more to the point than having a whole complete instrumental and trying to fit vocals last.
Cheers mate

 

Yes, a suitable reverb on the vocal while recording [but not recording the reverb, obviously] is absolutely necessary. I forgot to mention that. If you have a zero-latency "comfort reverb" on the audio interface, I would absolutely use it, and I do. My TC SK48 has a pretty nice choice of reverbs and I find the "live" or "stage" reverbs the most useful to make me release my voice loud. Also, the mic position should be high enough to make you stretch your neck a little and open your throat naturally. Kinda like you're shouting at a 10-20cm taller prick than yourself.

It depends on the song, so does the compression setting. It can be a bit tricky to record very dynamic performance properly. I mean something akin to Trent Reznor's type of singing. Flatter pop-like singing is easier, and ballad type singing even easier to record, in my experience. Well, in any case I always try to aim for a somewhat most natural sound possible that fits the particular song.

That sounds very interesting @taskforce! I have to try that. Also, if you can, recording vocals at some interesting place like a cave, church, or an abandoned factory, or a warehouse is an absolutely great idea that I thought about, too. Worth trying. Experimenting is interesting and could yield great results!

Some "grandpa speech" : When it comes to experimenting, I always get reminded of Joy Division's drummer who recorded drums for "She's lost control" on the roof of the studio. They tried various places, but the roof sounded best. Well, there are no reflections at all, and if there's not much traffic, and the neighbours are tolerant, why not?

Cheers!

p.s. I think recording a screamo type vocal on the roof would probably make someone call the "old bill"... or the "good people dressed in white".

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2021

I see how that is extremely problematic.

Low ceiling, brick walls and a tunnel of keyboards and outboard gear.

Could you record off location once the instrumental multi-tracks are fixed with a laptop or tablet? Not having heard a dry take I can only guess at how much space wash must be in the there with the which is always going to be factor because you will compress and enhance the wash as you are chasing your vocal no matter what you do.

Just drive out into the bush with an inverter and set up for vocal out there.

You can try for a radio booth setup with filters in front and behind a EV RE20, SM7b, Telefunken M82, it will attenuate a lot of the wash but your problems will tilt the other way, lots of bass and mid-range very little air and silk. You'll need an inline amp like a couldlifter and you'll be in the hole for about $500US+ Aussie VAT. Honestly though for such a small space I would try to find a setup with low output dynamics. You can even play with a cancellation setup if you want to capture the room with a phase flipped polar opposed set.

IMO it's not worth the trouble as it's really touchy especially in such a tricky space.

Best bet is just to take a long drive across 'Strallia and sneak into the Sydney Opera House at night when nobody is looking and record off a laptop.

God Wills It.

 

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Make money from music? Can you actually do that? No, if you want that kind of money, do as I did. Drive your vehicle head on into a tree, suffer mild frontal lobe brain damage and wait 10 years for a relative small amount of cash to be deposited at the bank of your choice.

 

I had forgotten that back when recording albums in top notch facilities, a guide vocal always went down with the rhythm tracks and stayed there as you built the song. You got a better feel for where to avoid clashing with the vocal. I had abandoned that and was making a complex instrumental with a hundred pads and two hundred rhythm guitars. Thirty bass and drums... etc. etc....
I also saw something recently where someone was recording vocals with an SM57 with no headphones and the monitors low. The directness of the mic only picked up the vocal. No backing track.
But I still can't see a solution to hearing what is going "to tape" when you are the source instrument at the same time. As you hear the signal return to you, it is resonating inside your head.
It is similar to recording a real Steinway with cans on. The pianos resonant tones and vibrations added to the headphone signal makes you think you are recording the most amazing piano sound ever but when you get to the control room, it's just a piano. In 2D.

 

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One octave lower. Two would be better!

 

I don't have the balls for that.

 

You would be surprised how many good vocalists refused to wear headphones and have vocal takes that pretty much only worked when phase aligned and flipped. A few that come time mind or Peter Gabriel, Bowie & U2's Bono. That also killed any aspiration to build any low end in their vocals when the band was playing, so that's why they sound the way the sound / mid rangy and breathy. Peruse the internet for some multi-track, I think 5 years and Sledgehammer give you a pretty good example of that. The recording itself outside of the mix sounds pure shit and small. but flip it add a little compression and reverb to to blur the phase cancellation when the gate opens and it works.

That's what I've been talking about with low output dynamics that are directional.

The issue or resonance is something that only habit can fix. You can try a pair off molded in ears if you can stand the sound of your own voice till you get it right, but at some point you'll have to take them out and do your take. But rocks isn't so naked that you need all that detail. You're probably never going to sound like Amy Lee or Bjork without some serious isolation but can you sound like that to being with. If you can get close to Brian Johnson call it a day.

I also think you don't actually sound that thin in the last song you posted. Waterfalls or w/e. Some questionable EQ choices but I think the vocal has bottom that you are just not tapping into. There are some structural issues and wordage booboos. Avoid saying 'I am' in any song unless it's somewhere you can belt it out - try dropping some words out here and there, singing it's not talking, and it isn't poetry either, say what you can say with as little words as possible.

Anyways, I digress.

 

I only turn on what I need. My partner is not on the list. She always looks annoyed.

 

Perhaps you didn't get me when i said crank it up as loud as it can possibly get. No headphones. You will be hearing the whole mix plus your voice just from the speakers making sure the volume is loud enough so your "own inner body speaker" is muted to your ears. When and if you try this, you should think of it as the equivalent of performing/playing live and listening through stage monitors NOT recording.
Once you fathom this in your mind, you may find it can also be liberating. Why ? Because most singers, including yours truly, however good they are live, they are consistently worse in the studio. Very few ones exceed in both. Something about self expectance for excellence that never really happens because you have it idolized and frozen in time within your head by the best paradigms of all you 've heard, the negligence brought by knowing you can always go a for a second take, the absense of a live crowd cheering, the "colder" isolated environment of the studio... So many more factors i could write a fkn book about it lol.
So, when following my example you have to forget you are recording. You will be performing live. Forget the red blinking button. You may shut your display(s) off after you press rec, it could also be benefitial.
Cheers mate

 

I get it now. Yes, that's a great idea. Pretend I'm on stage. Now, what to wear?? My old sequinned tops won't fit. I'll run something up from the curtains. Lenny Von Trapp!!

 

on a side note, "Lenny Needs Help and God Isn't Listening" is a great title for an LP/EP. ijs

 

god said use slate Fresh Air more... kidding slate is god

 

The dress you already wearing in your photo will do great man ...

 

I think you're being literal because you took his recommendation before, so your balls dropped 2 octaves where you've stepped all over them flattening them to the point of missing persons reports?

Therefore, you can't take his recommendation again?
RIP.

Never forget; 2021: Two Octave Ballsack Droppage followed by Wah Pedal Urine Moppage

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2021

@Lenny Belardo II suggestion. check out the Logitech MX Master mouse. thumb scroll its enough to get rid of the Magic Mouse to me, but you could install the Flow software and use one for both machines.

 

Plenty of room and fresh air for my massive balls which supply the sub baritone which frightens Nick Cave and may possibly resurrect Leonard Cohen.

So I'm just wearing a dress for nothing? I really need to take a look at what's going on under there.

 

I've bookmarked it. Thanks, it may be a massive help to me. Looks like it fell of the Starship Enterprise.