Recording Vocals
- Thread starter rockne023
- Start date
themixspace
Mixing Engineer
I would record your vocals completely dry so you can process them anyway you like during the mixing process. If you record with a hardware compressor on the track you may decide you don't like the settings later in the mix and you wont be able to change them. Recording dry, then putting the hardware compressor on the vocals will gave you the same sound, but with the added flexibility of being able to change the compressors settings.
Just focus on recording in a good room, with a decent mic and pre amp. In a 24bit digital world you can get away with recording at relatively low levels, your track doesn't need to be as loud as possible while recording. I've found tracks to sound ever so slightly fuller when recording at lower levels. The most important part of recording vocals in the performance, get that nailed and you won't need to do much work later, mess up your performance and you'll constantly be trying to improve it in the mix. For example, listen to some of the the great tracks from the 60's, the quality is terrible in comparison to modern standards, but the performances outshine the majority of todays artists, therefore the tracks keep on selling 50 years later. I can guarantee in 50 years time no one will remember half of the people in todays top 10.
Just focus on recording in a good room, with a decent mic and pre amp. In a 24bit digital world you can get away with recording at relatively low levels, your track doesn't need to be as loud as possible while recording. I've found tracks to sound ever so slightly fuller when recording at lower levels. The most important part of recording vocals in the performance, get that nailed and you won't need to do much work later, mess up your performance and you'll constantly be trying to improve it in the mix. For example, listen to some of the the great tracks from the 60's, the quality is terrible in comparison to modern standards, but the performances outshine the majority of todays artists, therefore the tracks keep on selling 50 years later. I can guarantee in 50 years time no one will remember half of the people in todays top 10.
chris carter
New member
As mentioned previously, I would advise recording completely dry with no processing. Any processing you do on the way in cannot be undone very well. I will generally record people with compression and often EQ, but I have a LOT of experience with it and a really good monitoring environment. But someone new to things will likely cause more damage than good. You can always process vocals at mixdown.
Most important thing is to record yourself in a room that sounds good, or treat it in such as way that your vocal will sound good regardless of the mic. Then use a mic you like, with a preamp you like and be VERY conservative with your levels going in.... I would peak not higher than -12dBFS. Bad gain structure at the preamp and converter and recording too loud are very common problems I find in records that I mix.
Most important thing is to record yourself in a room that sounds good, or treat it in such as way that your vocal will sound good regardless of the mic. Then use a mic you like, with a preamp you like and be VERY conservative with your levels going in.... I would peak not higher than -12dBFS. Bad gain structure at the preamp and converter and recording too loud are very common problems I find in records that I mix.
It all depends on the producer. Everyone does recording/mixing a little different. As mentioned record dry with no effects. From my experiences some producers record with compression and some don't. Either way it can be applied after the vocals are recorded. I'd recommend recording/mixing in Pro Tools if its available to you. Better quality and more options as far as mixing plugins go. But compression, reverb, eq, and slight delay are usually put on vocals. But be creative and try different things.
Well I sometimes I use no effects in FL Studio and sometimes I use the Chorus effect or the Blood Overdrive, as they seem to be the only effects that do something lool. But I'm starting to use Cubase now 
I'm not sure on things like reverb as I have no idea what they mean but that's what I used to use
I'm not sure on things like reverb as I have no idea what they mean but that's what I used to use