I'm wondering how you guys get good vocal recordings when you're recording yourself in the control room? I've spent my long career tweaking the desk, taming transients, applying upward and downward compression and eq before I I even hit record. Yes, vocalists find this tedious. but it's not hard when all you hear is what's coming from the vocal booth into the monitors.
Now I don't have a booth. Not that it would help since i can't be in two places at one as a singer and an engineer.
So, I record with my eyes, not my ears. in short, I have no idea what I'm recording. then I'm in a position of having to fix a below average take when mixing.
Tools at my disposal are UAD Apollo Quad and Octo Satellite running Thunderbolt 2. Start point is a Brauner Phantom mic. I sometimes use an AKG P820. I can run the Brauner directly into my SL SiX for a pristine, but cold take. I can run it through the SPL Channel One with a bit of tube warmth. I have the option of inserting a Warm Audio Wa76. Which is all great, but without listening through monitors, I'm lost. back in the 80's i was taught, get the vocal right on tape and you'll have little work to do to polish it.
I always feel like i'm fixing thin, badly recorded vocals.
Help.

 

make a friend

 

Use a dynamic with good rejection off axis, and make a dead absorption area behind you with some rockwool or a mattress (get creative) bring your monitors and an ipad with you to control your DAW remotely.

Think stage monitors & live rather than Frank Sinatra @ Capitol Records.

 

Quite impossible. I'm bad tempered, petulant, easily angered, often drunk or asleep, I have bad breath and rarely shower, I change clothes once a month, I forget things, I'm bad tempered, petulant, easily....wait...did I already say that?

 

I have no room to move. I stand in front of the desk because it's the only space.

 

Possibly try running an LA-2A / 610 / both - with some Realverbpro in UAD? I get pretty good results with variations of this combo into a SM7B bumped with a Cloudlifter. No 3k mics at my disposal lol.

*Edit: Live monitoring, whether headphones or monitors is crucial IMHO. You know what they say about opinions

Ps. Sweet studio!

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2021

ure space is much as Greg Wells had, more or less.. Here is a Pensado's video on his studio tour.. at around 30:00, there we can see it's not a common recording booth setups.. maybe some info useful there.. kinds like how professional mixing engineer did a vocal recording on limited space.. just sharing..

p/s.. btw might not confuse god with genie.. they both do listen all the time.. while it takes time for god answer (for good).. genie is instant reply.. try do this on chair if needed fast reply.. #humour

 

B'jeez Steve, with all that equipment I'd be afraid to fart in the room for fear it will blow up, it's no wonder you're having issues. Why don't you try something different, go back to basics, sometimes we get way too caught up with all the toys. Less can sometimes sound like way more and end up giving you a different perspective. We tend to be our own worst critics when striving for ultimate perfection.

 

Well, the problem is not so much to find a basic setup with general settings for a Channel One plus WA76 recording chain. Depending on your routing options the basic approach is pretty easy to achieve, the problem is that your performance differs depending on day, day time, how fit you are and song. And this needs some adjustments for input, de-essing, compression and eqing. This is why you just can't step up in front of your mic and start recording, it just doesn't work - if you want to make a good recording, that is. That's what a recording engineer is good/needed for.
The only solution would be to make the basic setup everytime you record your voice.

I'd suggest this approach:

1. make test recording with dry voice, just you -> mic -> preamp -> DAW
2. insert Channel One into the recorded vocals and insert WA76 into Channel One. De-ess a bit, fetch high peaks with WA76 and high ratio for only a few dB, thicken your vocals up a bit with Channel One compressor, get rid of boomyness and make it a bit more shiny with Channel One EQ.
3. use this setup for recording and adjust it everytime for a new one.

 

Don't worry, I don't use any of the toys. It's my security blanket. I use almost none of if. I work ITB and only use the NI 88 and a Microphone, preamp and into the DAW. I could sell 90% of it and keep going, but I'd feel like I did 20 years ago. No confidence. Also I have a long history of getting rid of stuff I'm not using. Two ARP 2600's, Oberheim OB-X, two Roland System 100's, Pro-One, Roland SH3A, SH-5, SH-7, Rhodes, Wurli 200, Yamaha CP-70, Clavinet D6.... and more I've forgotten.

 

Thanks Tiger Man! I thought I had this approximate setup working well until a few days ago. I was encouraged by a member here who I won't name to sing with more assertiveness. This change of delivery so altered the dynamic precision I had established that a large chunk of the Antarctic Ice Shelf broke off and is currently missing, believed to be docking with the International Space Station. If anyone has any information, please contact Q Anon or speak to a Rabbi.

 

@Lenny Belardo II Did you buy all tthat stuff from money you make with music? Looks impressive

 

You have the talent, great song ideas, your vocals are good, lyrics seem to come easily to you, but I think there seems to be other issues here, you are a good musician, just take a little break from your usual routine for a few days and relax.

 

I know this is basic stuff, and I'm not a great vocalist, but here goes...

Keep a decent distance from the mike, I was taught that it should be roughly the distance from your little finger to your thumb when extended. A pop shield is good for "enforcing" this. Also the polar pattern that your mic uses (I googled and yours is adjustable) it might be worthwhile to see if it sounds better slightly off-axis. Mine does (A Rode NT3 is my home mic).

By doing this you get rid of the proximity effect that can give the recording a cold and clinical sound.

Then as others have said, warm it up with some processing.

 

God is always listning, but are you listning for the answer ?
look into your heart.
listen

 

Well I'm 99% atheist and 1% agnostic (give em a chance I say) however, that's a problem i've solve..

Easy.. I downsized and live in a big open warehouse space.. I've got plenty of high-end mics in my arsenal but when I record myself 90% of the time I grab one Mic... Buy an SM7b and a cloud lifter.. It will change your life..end of story..

 

What I'm doing.
Put the mic on a mic stand and put it similar to where your chair is. Headphones on. Pull up a VU meter on the record input channel and have it open on the screen so you can see it and sing while looking at the screen so you constantly hit where ever your vol target is.
Play back, adjust. Record again.
If you don't like your room sound use a de-reverb plugin.

 

I set up a soft-knee compressor for screamo compression while screaming at one of my dynamic mics as usual, from about 20-30cm distance. Then I ask my wife how many LEDs light up on it when I scream like crazy [5th LED- -10dB should light up then], and if the yellow LED light lights up on the interface [-6dB peak]. That usually does it. I use Presonus Faderport as a remote, it comes very handy for self recording. It feels like recording to tape, and Reaper's comping works great.

 

It seems like you've got no room to breath.

Maybe get out of the studio.
Go to a cave or an empty factory.

Do you turn all of that gear on every time you do music?

 

For me, the single most important thing is to hear what I'm singing extremely well. Every little detail. Every breath. Personally, when I'm recording my voice, I like my monitoring headphones to be more on the loud side, as long as they don't bleed to the vocal mic.

Also, I always use some zero latency fx while monitoring, mostly a delay, a reverb a compressor and sometimes a little saturation. Nothing fancy or aggressive, subtle settings, mostly my DAW's native plugins. This helps a lot to build confidence, you know, make the whole experience sound more like a record...

Monitoring your own dry singing voice can be an extremely depressive experience. It will do your self esteem no favors at all.

In other words, do whatever it takes to improve the monitoring experience.

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2021