Death/Grind Vocals with a TonePort UX1

[fantasmal]

So to start off, I'm obviously new here. Been lurking these forums for the last week or so and I've found so much useful information, so thank you to everyone who posts.

Second, my other guitarist and I are planning on recording death/grind vocals for our band Youth Deceiver using his TonePort UX1 and my SM58. Understandably I know it isn't the best medium for doing so. However, if you wonderful people would find it in your heart to give us any tips on how to record the best dry take as possible that would be amazing. Also, any tips on further eq'ing and compression would also be greatly appreciated.

**EDIT** - to be clear, we basically haven't done this before so any beginners help with using the vocal preamps inside the TonePort would be extremely appreciated.

 

[ahjteam]

I usually compress vocals already when tracking, but that requires that you get a preamp that has a compressor on it

 

[Sean in Silence]

do you have gearbox or podfarm?

P.S. Welcome to the forum!

 

[fantasmal]

I usually compress vocals already when tracking, but that requires that you get a preamp that has a compressor on it

Luckily the UX1 has built in vocal pre-amps which also has digital compression. Thank you for the tip

 

[fantasmal]

do you have gearbox or podfarm?

P.S. Welcome to the forum!

We have gearbox but I'm sure we could get podfarm. Thanks for the warm welcome.

 

[Sean in Silence]

They're basically the same thing
I prefer Gearbox
It doesn't look as good but it uses way less cpu
anyways
Try using the vintage UK preamp
set the drive to about 30, less or more depending on what you're going for and working with
hipass or lowcut, not sure what it's called on this preamp, at 120
use the high shelf to dial in as much treble as you need to make the vocals sound clean, I usually do 6-8
voila!
Compress and post eq if needed
If you want to hear what that sounds like listen to one of my band's songs
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=915244&songID=7395217
vocals come in at about 0:52
Don't pay attention to the random pauses, using a demo mastering plugin at the moment
haha

 

[fantasmal]

They're basically the same thing
I prefer Gearbox
It doesn't look as good but it uses way less cpu
anyways
Try using the vintage UK preamp
set the drive to about 30, less or more depending on what you're going for and working with
hipass or lowcut, not sure what it's called on this preamp, at 120
use the high shelf to dial in as much treble as you need to make the vocals sound clean, I usually do 6-8
voila!
Compress and post eq if needed
If you want to hear what that sounds like listen to one of my band's songs
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=915244&songID=7395217
vocals come in at about 0:52
Don't pay attention to the random pauses, using a demo mastering plugin at the moment
haha

Good lord that mix is massive! As far as vocals go, they will be mostly high screams, mid range growls, low growls and gutturals. Your vocals definitely have a nice clean sound to them. No plosives or muddyness. I'm not sure what highpass and low cut means though. Many thanks for your help!

 

[fantasmal]

Also, sorry for the double post but this may be important. We don't have any treatments to the room, so should be set up something like this : http://www.palmcitystudios.com/timobrien/music/soundbooth/simplesoundbooth.html

 

[Sean in Silence]

For that track we recorded vocals with a shure beta58a while our vocalist was walking around his house with the mic
hahaha
But
A treated room/booth sounds absolutely amazing on vocals
It makes them that much clearer
haha
I would definitely build one of those
We are going to set one up for our cd, but with wood and completely enclosed

 

[Full_Tilt]

They're basically the same thing
I prefer Gearbox
It doesn't look as good but it uses way less cpu
anyways
Try using the vintage UK preamp
set the drive to about 30, less or more depending on what you're going for and working with
hipass or lowcut, not sure what it's called on this preamp, at 120
use the high shelf to dial in as much treble as you need to make the vocals sound clean, I usually do 6-8
voila!
Compress and post eq if needed
If you want to hear what that sounds like listen to one of my band's songs
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=915244&songID=7395217
vocals come in at about 0:52
Don't pay attention to the random pauses, using a demo mastering plugin at the moment
haha

Nice balance between bass and guitars ! The bass guitar sounds really heavy . Do you have any tips on how to go about achieving a killer bass sound like this?

 

[Sean in Silence]

Thanks a lot dude!
I actually feel like the guitars aren't quite big enough
So I made a new mix
same link
just Ostrich Test Mix 2
haha

It's all in how you level your mix
Follow this post and you'll see(hear) what I mean
haha
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/8065710-post6.html

 

[Full_Tilt]

yep that makes total sense about using the bass as a bench mark and using it to anchor the whole mixing process from the beginning . I'm still really interested in how you go about shaping the initial bass tone seeing as this will be the bench mark for further mixing decisions.

 

[Sean in Silence]

I really don't have a straight procedure
I record the di bass
Picked the amp I had heard a lot about in real life (Ampeg SVT. Well actually the Hiway 200, which is supposed to be a brighter SVT.)
and used an Ampeg SVT 8x10 Impulse (Also heard a lot about)
used the preset and turned the bass all the way up
Done!
hahaha
It's just one of those things that I've gotten used to hearing what it's supposed to sounds like in a mix.
haha
Sorry if that wasn't too helpful:/

 

[Full_Tilt]

Not at all its all info . I'm thinking to get the http://www.thomann.de/gb/radial_pro_rmp.htm but not sure which DI box to go with it. All ready have a great amp Trace Elliot V8 + 8X10 cab .Might invest in a kick drum mic etc but trying to keep down costs.

 

[fantasmal]

any other tips that may be able to help us?

 

[Fragle]

check www.myspace.com/retaliationdeath
the second song "wrath defied" was done with that exact same chain for vox, i.e. sm58 handheld -> toneport UX1.
IIRC there was only some mild compression used in the input stage of cubase to tame the highest peaks a bit (kinda what ahjteam was pointing out, too); all other processing was done during the mixing stage.
you decide whether that sounds alright to your ears, or not

 

[Sean in Silence]

A big part of my vocal sound is compression
after doing the whole gearbox thing that I explained above
I heavily compress the vocals
running two comps both with about -4db GR each
10-15ms attack
100-150ms release
4:1 ratio

 

[fantasmal]

Thank you both so much for letting us know the settings you used.

Fragle - I like the clarity of your vocal recordings for sure and the dual vocals blend really well.

So far what I have loved about this forum and harmony central is how much info i've obtained about releasing our music ourselves without label help. I can't wait to get our music re-recorded, mixed and mastered just so I can share it with all of you.

 

[everdrone]

if you get the plugin for podfarm you can reamp, tweak after you record. I dont have the plugin; I use the studio preset and then compress/recompress later so that if I need the original track for any reason I can go back.

 

[Neil_Mad]

if you get the plugin for podfarm you can reamp, tweak after you record. I dont have the plugin; I use the studio preset and then compress/recompress later so that if I need the original track for any reason I can go back.

that is what I do, the plugin is the best because you can make a set to record clean vocals but... you have the original signal so you can tweak them to taste