Recording

VOCALS

I prefer to record them last but there are no rules. If you prefer to record them first, then do so.

To record vocals, make sure the place is quiet, shut the door, tell the people who live with you to be quiet, and do not record while your neighbor is drilling holes through his kitchen walls! Also, turn off your monitors and use a headset instead to avoid recording the playback with your microphone.

Condenser or dynamic microphones?

Dynamic microphones are solid, they don' need a power source, they can take heavy acoustic pressure (like a kick drum or a saxophone) and they are not too expensive. They are also less sensitive to surrounding noises than condenser microphones. The cons are they lack clarity in the high range, which renders takes less clear and defined than with condenser microphones. They can be used with Jack or XLR plugs.

Condenser microphones are much more responsive and accurate. Their high sensitivity is double-edged, because they will capture any noise when recording. The fans of your PC are noisy? Chances are this noise will be recorded. Sound comes out of your headset? It will be recorded by your condenser microphone. Children are loudly playing outside? You might get that too. However, some condenser microphones are called "cardioid", or "hyper cardioid", and they only record what comes from a specific direction, ignoring (more or less) other sound sources from other directions. On the contrary, omnidirectional microphones record what comes from anywhere. Not ideal for a home studio. Condenser microphones are also more fragile (don't knock them) and must be powered through a "phantom power", whose standard is 48 volts. This kind of power is either present on your audio interface and can be turned on and off with a button, or it will require the use of an external phantom power source that you will then connect to your audio interface. You have to use 3-pin XLR plugs that carry the phantom power current. Finally, condenser microphones are usually rather expensive, some of them cost several thousand euros (or dollars, or pounds), but only professional studios or rich amateurs can afford those. On the plus side, the sound you get with a condenser microphone will have the best quality.

Be cautious though, a good dynamic microphone is worth better than a bad condenser microphone. No big secret here, for microphones like for anything else, very low prices are rarely synonymous with good quality.

A few known and renowned microphone brands: AKG, Milab, Neumann, Rode, Sennheiser, Shure...

Jack plug (left) and XLR (right)

Some pieces of advice: buy a microphone stand and a pop filter (you can also make one yourself with wire and a piece of tights from your wife / girlfriend / mother / daughter / neighbor). The stand will prevent you from manually holding your microphone and thus produce handling noises. As for the pop filter, it prevents the air to hit the microphone and produce unwanted blowing sounds when you pronounce some letters such as "p" or "b".

Microphone stand and pop filter

Furthermore, try to stay in front of the microphone when you sing, don't move from right to left or back and forth in order to avoid big volume variations. Dynamic microphones will not record you correctly if you stand too far from the microphone (8 inches, 20 centimeters would be a lot, meaning you can easily go too far). Don't let this piece of advice prevent you from "feeling" your song. If thinking about your position prevents you to have emotions, just forget about it but try to remember that the less you move away from the microphone, the better the quality. Nevertheless, if you have to really scream all of a sudden (I think about Frank Black from the Pixies, who goes from whispering to howling in an instant), you should then step back from the microphone in order to avoid clipping.

Just like the guitar recording, you have to set the recording level of your vocals before the take. Have some tries and check once again that the level doesn't go beyond 0 dB. Now, if you plan on having very different volume levels, using the howling moments as a reference will render the quiet moment barely audible. So, either you live with that (but you could bring some noise when compressing the quiet sounds during mixing), or you make several takes, with different level settings for the quiet and loud moments. You can also get the help of a friend who knows the song and will manually adjust the levels on the fly.

I also advise you stand up when recording vocals. Singing while sitting is a bad habit, as it prevents you from breathing deeply and could compromise your vocal amplitude. When standing, singers can better "live" their song. Look at studio recording videos: singers stand. Not only because it looks nice on the video, but for breathing reasons. Also think about carrying your voice. I am not saying you should scream (unless it is required in the song), but you should carry the voice. If you're mumbling, people will hear it. Think of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Elvis Presley or Freddy Mercury, they carry their voice. You can clearly hear when they refrain, then just let go. So let go, let your future listeners feel that you gave it all, that you lived your song. But once again, unless it is voluntary, do not force it. You are not taking part in a shouting contest!!!

Unless you have a natural gift (and even then...), be aware that singing requires work to be mastered. Nobody becomes a great singer without practice. Do not overestimate your capabilities. Each of us has a singing range (tessitura) that can only be broadened through training. This is the range of notes one can sing, from the lowest to the highest. Needless to sing a note that is too high-pitched for you. If you cannot reach it (not yet), forcing won't help you much. At best, it will sound awful, at worst, you'll damage your vocal cords.

No need to go on and on forever, recording is rather easy. As long as you pay attention to your recording levels and take care over your takes, you should get a satisfying result, good enough to finalize the song

VOCALS

Jack plug (left) and XLR (right)

Microphone stand and pop filter

MESSAGES