recording vocals

D

djmilo

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i want to mess around recording a friends vocals. any tips on filters or plugins i should have running while recording the voice. i'm running protools pretty standard, with just the standard audiosuite. thanks guys for any help.
 
I would like to know the same thing. I've actually been told on numerous occasions not to add any proccessors or compression on the voice whilst recording. But instead record the vocals raw and then tweak it to the right sound.

If you record with compression and processors you lose sounds and frequencies that you may want, then becuase you don't hear them, as they have been lost through the compression and processors, you never know if you wanted them or NEEDED them.
 
I usually run a compressor, limiter, and EQ...but only for the comfort of the vocalist in his/her headphones and for checking the vocal with the rest of a pre-mixed project.
 
I use a little bit of compression on the way in, but I wouldn't recommend this if you don't have a hardware comp. I wouldn't do any other processing on the way in because you cannot change it later. I'll compress a little more once all the vocals are bussed together and tweak a little eq after that. Don't overprocess vocals because they should sound natural.
 
The effects that djmilo was referring to are RTAS plugins (weren't you?), which are non-destructive towards any audio being recorded, but are applied for the sake of any outputs during recording and playback thereafter.

Neither do I recommend running any hardware effects (compression, gating, etc, etc) before recording. You should be focused on getting the best performance possible out of the artist, not on mixing technicalities. However, if non-destructive effects help the artist in any way to achieve their best performance, then by all means. (I wish I could show you some of my hard rock vocalist-pleaser mixes...blatantly overdriven, limited like crazy).
 
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my recording chain, except sometimes for drums, is mic-preamp-convertor(aka soundcard)-daw. For drums i gate sometimes, but only to avoid bleeding on the overheads or hi hat wich i mostly record with a condensor mic who's very sensitive.
 
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