Going to be recording my first vocal this week- Tips? SM57?

[kev]

Hey guys, well one month in and im gonna have a go at my first vocal. The only mics i have are 2 Sm57's so i need to make the best of the situation here. I've just bought a pop filter and a mic stand to help things along too.

Are Sm57's good for vocals ? If not i think i can get hold of a Sennheiser E835 locally too if needed.
( http://www.zzounds.com/item--SENE835 )

All i know for vocals basically from what you guys have said is keep em centred and as dry as possible (ala not to over do the verb). The type of vocal isnt going to be a cooky monster, gonna be going for a pretty bright approach hopefully maybe aiming for something like a clear Brucey D vocal.

Any other pearls of wisdom for vocal recording would be appreciated for sure here! Any effects to use? Or plug ins that could be useful on this?

Cheers.

Kev

 

[chadsxe]

Any other pearls of wisdom for vocal recording would be appreciated for sure here! Any effects to use? Or plug ins that could be useful on this?

Cheers.

Kev

Yeah....make sure the singer is good....

 

[kev]

Yeah....make sure the singer is good....

haha, that could be a plan

 

[SickBoy]

Are Sm57's good for vocals ?

Maybe and maybe not, depends of the voice.
I suppose they'll have less top end sparkle and detail than condensers, but it doesn't necessarily have to turn out bad...

All i know for vocals basically from what you guys have said is keep em centred and as dry as possible (ala not to over do the verb).

The main rule is there is no rules! No kidding...
Yes, beginners tend to overdo the effects in general, so you could maybe add it like this for starters: find the amount you like, then turn it down a bit.
It all depends of the moment and the song itself, you have to feel what would fit the best.

Any other pearls of wisdom for vocal recording would be appreciated for sure here! Any effects to use? Or plug ins that could be useful on this?

Make a high pass filter at 100Hz BEFORE compression, to avoid pops and rumble. Of course, you can move the frequency, if the voice is thinner put it higher, if it's lower, turn it down. For easiest vocal compression Waves RVox is a no-brainer, as simple as it gets. I like the effect of doubled and then panned left and right vocals sometimes, it makes the vocals sound huge... But you'll have to make sure the takes match perfectly!
As for recording them on SM57 I reckon the vocalist should be fairly close to the mic in order to avoid making him/her sound thin...

 

[kev]

Maybe and maybe not, depends of the voice.
I suppose they'll have less top end sparkle and detail than condensers, but it doesn't necessarily have to turn out bad...



The main rule is there is no rules! No kidding...
Yes, beginners tend to overdo the effects in general, so you could maybe add it like this for starters: find the amount you like, then turn it down a bit.
It all depends of the moment and the song itself, you have to feel what would fit the best.



Make a high pass filter at 100Hz BEFORE compression, to avoid pops and rumble. Of course, you can move the frequency, if the voice is thinner put it higher, if it's lower, turn it down. For easiest vocal compression Waves RVox is a no-brainer, as simple as it gets. I like the effect of doubled and then panned left and right vocals sometimes, it makes the vocals sound huge... But you'll have to make sure the takes match perfectly!
As for recording them on SM57 I reckon the vocalist should be fairly close to the mic in order to avoid making him/her sound thin...

Ok great advice there! How do I go about doing the hi pass filter bit? Also, if you've time, could you possibly expand on the doubling and panning left & right stuff?

Thanks

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

Generally if I double-track vocals, I don't pan them - I put the better one high in the mix and bring the other one up until the whole thing sounds thicker but still isn't that noticable. Last time I recorded vocals I tried panning them slightly but I didn't like the effect; rather than sounding big, it just sounded like two vocals, but I guess that's a taste thing. I use a little bit of compression and a bit of reverb (more on harmony parts), but other than that I steer clear of effects unless I'm going for something specific.

As for the mic thing, I did THIS with a dynamic mic I got for £9.99 from Maplin (like Radio Shack if you're not English) - the vocals came out quite well considering. The loud vocals at the start are double tracked like I said above.

As with everything, EQ'ing depends on the singer, but most articles I've read say nasality is found at around 2kHz, 4-5kHz affects presence,
the 7-12kHz region covers sibilance (ess sounds) and breath noise and 16-18kHz gives crispness to vocals - in practise I just play around with it 'til I like what I hear

Steve

 

[006]

I remember that clip Suicide, I remember the layered melancholy vocals being very cool sounding. Very nice production considering the mic cost like $18US, lol.

~006

 

[KeithRT99]

sm57's can be good for vocals, i just hope the vocalist is good. they can be a bit siblant, so i try and point the sm57 slightly off axis as if their mouth is the dust cap of a speaker. it helped when i used it.

 

[cobrahead1030]

my band just tracked vocals for our EP recently (well...we're actually still working on them)

we set up a shure beta 58 and a cheapo mxl LD condenser, that way we can blend the two or choose which sounds best @ mixdown

gotta watch out tho, if the singer gets too far off-center from the mics that way you'll get a wierd chorusey effect

 

[Nebulous]

The main experiance i had with recording vox was using an SM57 and Shure KSM 27 (i think it's 27?). I found that the SM57 needs alot more coaxing than the condenser, and there wasnt quite as much detail in the vocals. If the 57/ another dynamic is all you have, then just go with it, just be prepeared to fiddle with EQ in post.

 

[SickBoy]

Ok great advice there! How do I go about doing the hi pass filter bit?

It's usually marked in an EQ as "high pass" or "low cut" or with a curve that looks like this:

   _____
  /
 /
/

When you choose that behavior in EQ set the frequency where a cut should occur.

Also, if you've time, could you possibly expand on the doubling and panning left & right stuff?

It's like achieving a natural chorus effect...
You won't have it by simply copying one single recorded part twice, cause no matter how much you spread it, it will remain in the center, mono, cause two identical signals play at each side (which, after all, IS mono).
What you should be aiming at is to record two takes in two separate tracks, but trying to make them as identical as possible performance-wise...
So, take care of the phrasing, rhythm, intonation and whatnot.
Even if it is sung identically down to a milisecond, because the humans aren't robots it won't be technically identical, so you'll have your chorus effect and stereo spread.

Download an example from one of my recordings here, I double tracked my vocalist and spread his vocals left and right.

 

[kev]

Thats an awesome vocal recording there sickboy!!!

 

[SickBoy]

Thats an awesome vocal recording there sickboy!!!

Thanks!
Did you get a better picture of what I was talking about?
I was trying to create somewhat hypnotizing vocals in that part and a single vocal track just didn't cut it for me, so I made him sing the same part again and spread them, that's what you're hearing.

 

[Torniojaws]

The vocalist sounds a little bit like a cross between less-squealy James LaBrie and Ville Tuomi, very nice