Of all mix elements, getting vocals right is pivotal to the success of any production. With all ears on the song’s centre-piece, it’s perhaps the one mix element that everyone notices. Here are our tips for serving the song as well as possible.

In Summary

Recording vocals well is perhaps more about listening, diplomacy, and being in tune with the artist’s needs than it is about the tech. Most of the magic will happen regardless when everyone and everything is working together to serve the song.

Going Deeper

Medium Or Message?

Anyone who has written a song, sung a song, or otherwise laid themselves bare in front of the mic is putting a great deal of trust in the engineer. Vocals are perhaps the best example of how important keeping the artist comfortable and performing their best eclipses any discussions about the medium of recording. Surely there’s no greater privilege than being the one to help the artist get their message out into the world.

Where feel and emotion really do count, the engineer’s role as technician and confidant is the point where art, science, and diplomacy all meet to serve the song. Here we put together our tips for giving both artist and song the care and the sound they deserve.

Rapport

Going into the studio can be an unusual experience for the artist. Certainly putting anyone under the microscope and attempting to manufacture spontaneity and excellence can be a tall order for all involved. Working with people in the studio needs a level of trust, and knowing the people a little beforehand can help. Going to a show, or meeting up to talk about the artist’s expectations before recording is going to be more conducive to a great experience for the artist. This is contrasted with meeting them for the first time in the control room just before handing them your name and a pair of headphones!

Pre-Production

Pre production can involve logistical stuff, but fundamentally it can fix potential pitfalls with less experienced acts. Things like the song’s key are central to the strength of the performance; female and male voices that lack power at the extremes might be pitched too low or high, for example. Pitching up or down at the last minute in production (either physically or digitally) is never a good idea, and rehearsing the song from the outset in the final key works best for everyone.

Another discussion for pre production can be whether or not the vocal is overdubbed, or recorded live with the band (or with an instrument in the case of solo performers). Sometimes the premise of recording a guide vocal for later replacement can conjure a performance with an honesty and energy that might prove hard to beat later on. This is contrasted with a more accurate overdub later that lacks magic. Also the old trick of recording that ‘dry run’ can serve everyone well - very few singers will object to being recorded this way if it bags the best take of the day.

Monitoring

Headgear

The next question is how the artist is going to hear themselves. Acoustic acts recorded with instruments might not need any monitoring at all; forcing headphones on those who just don’t need them won’t help the performance. Contrasted to that, singers in bands will often expect to wear headphones. While classic closed back designs tend to be the first choice, open-backed headphones can provide a more natural experience for singers. Increasingly, acts will bring their own in-ear monitoring to the studio. These can afford excellent pitching for vocalists. Some live engineers will filter a lot of low end from these, because this can already be heard through bone conduction (the ‘finger in the ear’ effect).

Speakers

Some artists like to work with loudspeaker monitoring, either using the control room monitors for comfort, or very occasionally in the studio for live band takes. Optimising levels and other techniques can help to keep spill out of the take; any spill is worth it to get the artist singing their best. Techniques like the one shown above can reduce the amount of monitor spill going down the mic.

A related, but separate process can further reduce monitor spill down the vocal mic. A second, ‘ghost pass’ minus the singer with just the spill with its polarity inverted can further improve things. This can be balanced at the same fader level as the vocal. This will improve things regardless of whether or not the monitoring itself is inverted on one side (as shown above).

Avoiding Latency

Nothing kills vocal confidence more than latency. While some singers can tolerate a few milliseconds, anything into double figures is quickly noticeable to most. A fast interface can improve things, but pro solutions like using a hardware accelerated system such as HDX for Pro Tools, or a console workflow will be out of reach to many. Smaller studios without HDX or a console can use a high quality mini-mixer such as those from SSL, Yamaha or Mackie for zero-latency vocals, a DSP mixer built into the interface such as those found in RME interfaces, the Focusrite Clarett range or the MBOX Studio, or even a mic amp that supports it.

Tracking Effects

Some singers will ask for reverb or some slapback delay to either to help them pitch or get them in the zone. A great way to get the artist to trust in the engineer early on is to have these ready to use on the end of a pre-configured return. Audio plugin latency is less of a problem here. Bear in mind that sends out to reverbs might be best sent pre-fader to allow the main mix to evolve as needed. On longer-form projects ITB, this allows the artist’s cue mix to remain the same over time for any overdubs that happen later on.

While many engineers will use pitch correction in the mix, an increasing number of artists are tracking with correction across themselves in their headphones. Performing to the effect can help with the final pitch tracking during the mix.

Microphones

What To Use

Like any source, voice and mic need to ‘agree’, and some mics will have a well-known characteristic that sees it left on the sideline, but others need to be heard to rule them in. Thinner voices can benefit from the added heft of certain ribbon or tube models, or just working closer on any directional patterned mic. By contrast, mic choice can downplay chest tones or unwanted nasal qualities in other voices. Experimentation can turn in better results than repeating past choices. Classic Go-To condenser choices are predictable, but dynamic models for stage or voiceover can excel at vocals too.

Putting up two contrasting mics can work well where different songs might benefit from different flavours of mic. Regardless, cardioid patterns are the most used, with lesser-used omni or figure of eight patterns having uses for group vocals or BVs.

Whatever the choice, mic position will make a much bigger difference to the recording than what the mic actually is, despite some of the hype out there.

Where To Use

Studio placements tend to be further back than for stage, with many singers’ live instincts drawing them closer than the recording needs. Pop filters can encourage some distance (maybe 20cm/8 inches as a starting point, conditions permitting). In an untreated room, working closer than this might turn in the best result to keep the room out of the recording. Increasing a cardioid mic’s angle slightly will downplay proximity effects if the mic must be used close up.

Alternatively, placements looking from slightly above can protect against pops. Some distance helps to de-emphasize jumps in level from the kind of head and body movements that inject excitement and believability. Levels, as always, can hit low enough to easily take any loud surprises.

Comfort

Going Solo

If you’re recording yourself, as many will be, being comfortable while recording will largely boil down to ergonomics. After all, when it comes to that nice drink or chair no-one needs to ask themselves for one! Some vocal coaches maintain that singing is best done standing up, and sitting and singing at the workstation might fail to inject that sense of occasion that a stellar take needs. Of course, if you’re not able or inclined to stand, then whatever is the most comfortable is the best way to record.

The DAW is loaded with lots of aids to self-recording. If your spot is some distance away from the workstation, count-ins are great for those 8-bar walks out into the next room. Almost all DAWs offer remote options for driving proceedings away from the computer using a wireless device, or the old classic bluetooth keyboard.

Mood

In many world-class facilities, effort is put into making the vocal booth a nice place to be. These have more in common with being at home, with nice lights, some water, and maybe a drink of the singer’s choice to hand. Making the singer feel relaxed is more difficult when the booth feels to them more like being in solitary confinement!

Other touches like having the talkback ready, set, and open before things happen will also help the vocalist feel like they’re in the room with everyone regardless of where they are performing. Any engineer who hasn’t stood in a small room on their own wearing a pair of silent headphones needs to try it to know what a vibe-killer it really is. On the subject of talkback, momentary buttons later on might serve things better when diplomacy is needed from the control room.

Takes

Many engineers like to record two or three full passes to start with. From there, some will keep going until the Keeper happens. More common is to patch mistakes or pitchiness by whole lines or phrases from a master take - single words are harder to drop in without losing flow. Others will make a composite (comp) from longer takes using their DAW’s MO, or combine a comp with further drop-ins.

Many engineers will concede that always pushing for that slightly better take can be counter productive. (I remember one occasion at a very well known studio where the engineer waited for everyone including talent and management to leave the control room before turning and saying with some resignation: “It never gets better”.) Not all vocals come from the takes that went into the dozens. The first few takes are often the most heartfelt, and some might agree that energy and emotion beat accuracy everytime.

Whatever the approach, the focus must be on the singer themselves. Are they tired? Are they Feeling It? If takes are getting better, things are going well with the converse also true. If things are fizzling out don’t make recording a pain for the talent. Move on, especially when it comes to recording a double track or harmonies that could be done better another time.

Mixing

When it comes to the mix it’s temping to jump straight in, but doing chores like stripping out silent sections or coughs is best done before anything else. In the white heat of recording, track or take names, colours, or order may have been left for later; now’s the time to fix those as well.

Although vocal production is huge subject, the basics around processing boil down to processor order and only using what’s needed. Any pitch correction will often come first for the most accurate pitch tracking, followed by dynamics into EQ (or EQ into dynamics if preferred).

Fader rides (real time manual fader moves) can give the most transparent control of vocal levels for evenness, but compression happens upstream of the fader in most mixers. Those big incoming changes in level can return lots of compression on certain words or phrases, and very little for others. A more even compressor action can be had by routing those fader rides into a buss with the processing across it.

Though mic choice will hopefully have complemented the artist’s voice, EQ is common. Pros will use at least some high pass filtering often complimented with shelving to even out unnatural boominess from close working. Top lift can improve clarity but using it might also raise distracting sibilant “ess” sounds in some voices, and low cuts will make the voice sound brighter anyway. Opinions vary on EQ’ing in the middle. The ear is great at hearing when things are not right In the middle, especially on the human voice. Unless there’s a specific reason to mess with mids, it might be best to leave them alone.

Using fewer reverb or delay treatments shared by multiple vocal tracks can help to deliver a more unified sound for anything, including vocals. This is easily done using sends into return channels that carry only the 100% wet signal. Common effect sends can be automated for level or reverb and delay ‘drop’ effects with mute automation.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to humanity’s oldest instrument, if the conditions are right, the recording need only convey what the singer is doing. In that way, recording vocals can be more a question of helping the singer to do the best they can, rather than concentrating on the technical aspects of getting vocals down. In fact, almost all of the best recording experiences for artists make the process a transparent as possible. Certainly, things like not being ready when the artist wants to start or go again (for example) are not good. Being fast, intuitive, and focussed on the artist’s needs is the name of the game, and knowing the shortcut for a new playlist, take, or track for your DAW, for example, is a great way to win the artist’s trust.

Wherever you are recording, or whatever gear you are using, artists often take their favourite engineers with them on their journey. Who knows, getting it done right now could mean working on much bigger things in the future...

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.

Main image by Cottonbro on Pexels

Notebook photo by Jessica Lewis Creative on Pexels

Tea photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels

Mic photo by Sandra Tenschert on Unsplash

Processor photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash