Just started recording some vocals (complete newb at this)

[JonWormwood]

So I'm finally putting my Studio Projects B3 to good use.

I pretty decent results with screaming vocals in my MOTU 828 MkII. I typically record on the figure eight pattern but I'm going to keep playing with the cardioid.

What do you guys typically do for post on vox? Along with double tracking the main vocals, I find myself using the reverse reverb trick on certain parts, then some light compression with Waves RVox.

Any tips or tricks would be quite helpful as I haven't delved into the area of vocals before.

 

[broken81]

Not sure if you have treated rooms or not for vocals but i like to hang a few moving blankets with my extra mic stands. I usually surround the singer on 3 sides with them. It really helps kill some of that untreated room refections of my square room. My vocals usually come out pretty well and i use a studio project b1.

There is band in my sound click page called Zymosis check out the vox for an example....

www.soundclick.com/dreadcorerecords

 

[JonWormwood]

Not sure if you have treated rooms or not for vocals but i like to hang a few moving blankets with my extra mic stands. I usually surround the singer on 3 sides with them. It really helps kill some of that untreated room refections of my square room. My vocals usually come out pretty well and i use a studio project b1.

There is band in my sound click page called Zymosis check out the vox for an example....

www.soundclick.com/dreadcorerecords

I typically put the singer in my bathroom to isolate them from the noise but great idea and great sound with you have. I'm going to give that one a try, thanks mate!

 

[Unavailable]

I typically put the singer in my bathroom to isolate them from the noise but great idea and great sound with you have. I'm going to give that one a try, thanks mate!

I imagine that would just create more unnecessary reverberations than isolation. Depends on the bathroom of course.

 

[broken81]

Thanks dude....

Yea I bought a pack of like 12 moving blankets of Ebay and was actually pretty cheap. I record bands at their practice spaces so its usually ends up being a untreated basement. The moving blankets come in pretty handy there! If you do have your own studio and or space i would definitely look into proper room treatment. Its not that expensive if you build the panels.

Oh and the bathroom is definitely not a great place to get a in your face vocal. I tried a long long time ago when i just started recording uke:. It may be cool as a effect or something for a part but yea try something different like the blankets or treatment if you can.

 

[JonWormwood]

Thanks dude....

Yea I bought a pack of like 12 moving blankets of Ebay and was actually pretty cheap. I record bands at their practice spaces so its usually ends up being a untreated basement. The moving blankets come in pretty handy there! If you do have your own studio and or space i would definitely look into proper room treatment. Its not that expensive if you build the panels.

Oh and the bathroom is definitely not a great place to get a in your face vocal. I tried a long long time ago when i just started recording uke:. It may be cool as a effect or something for a part but yea try something different like the blankets or treatment if you can.

I have plans to build quite a few bass traps and absorbtion panels for my studio room but I'd like to isolate the main desk work area from the recording area.

I've heard blankets create a boxy effect but the vocals on your track sound damn nice. I'm going to dig up some old blankets I have laying around and going to give those a try and if those turn out nice, I'll probably pick up some off ebay.

What about post? What typically do you look for to correct and such?

 

[broken81]

What about post? What typically do you look for to correct and such?

You mean like what plugs (eq,comp,desser ext...) and how i use them?

 

[JonWormwood]

You mean like what plugs (eq,comp,desser ext...) and how i use them?

Yes.

 

[broken81]

I use a eq with usually a boost at about 3khz to bring vocal more in your face. Then sometimes i add a little lows/low mids. This really depends on singer though. I usually cut anything under 100hz with vocals with a high pass also. Then i use waves Rcomp and smash the vox and then usually a desser and thats it really.

 

[nwright]

^ +1 to blankets and such. For our vocals on my band's CD, I used a spare bedroom in the house (my "tracking room", hehe). I flipped up the king size mattress against one wall, the box springs up on another wall and lined both of them with comforters. I then hung 2 more comforters along the other 2 walls and rounded the corners to make an oval shaped area for our vocalist. Since I don't have some sweetass room to record in, I'd rather do my best to eliminate it all together and this method was great for me.

I also tend to boost 1K-3K a bit, and sometimes boost a bit of air in the 8-10K range. I love the shit out of RVox, and use it on almost all vocals. I use a D-esser sometimes, too, but I tend to not like it too much. For our vocalist, I ended up going through each song and manually lowering a lot of the Ess, P, and T sounds if they were really heavy, otherwise the threshold of the d-esser was pretty high.

 

[broken81]

Yea also i just recorded a real low screamer/growler and i tried using my Studio Projects B1 condenser and it just didn't cut it. So the whole thing people say that different Mic's work well with different singers is very true. I really wish i would have had a sm7 for him to try.

 

[derfbonker]

Sm7's are incredible. I never liked the sound of my own vocals until i got a SM7.

 

[broken81]

Yep i definitely need one.

 

[JonWormwood]

Yea also i just recorded a real low screamer/growler and i tried using my Studio Projects B1 condenser and it just didn't cut it. So the whole thing people say that different Mic's work well with different singers is very true. I really wish i would have had a sm7 for him to try.

There's always the sm57 mod the brings the 57 extremely close to an sm7 from what I've heard.

 

[derfbonker]

Yup. You have to pull out the transformer. I have heard a few guys around here say that they have done this, and liked it.

 

[JonWormwood]

Yup. You have to pull out the transformer. I have heard a few guys around here say that they have done this, and liked it.

There's two difference mods from my understanding, one you pull the transformer but then you have a loss of -15db so it's typically used on snares/guitar cabs etc. then there is the TAB transformer replacement which is supposed to get the sm7 sound but that costs about 75 bucks for the parts.

I really want an sm7 though.

 

[nwright]

I pulled the transformer on my 57 and didn't notice a drop?

 

[broken81]

I pulled the transformer on my 57 and didn't notice a drop?

I did this mod on one of my 57 and it droped quite a bit.

 

[-J-]

I usually use free VSTs, so take this with a grain of salt:

on my latest tune (not posted anywhere yet) I used these 4 VSTs on the main vocals (in the shown order). I only doubled the chorus, & on the 2nd track I goofed it up with a pitch shifter to make it sound demonic:

blood overdrive (I played with it until it produced a slightly hot and midrangy effect but not over the top), classic compressor (basically the "vocal" setting: -20 threshold, 2.5:1 compression, soft knee), SIR with an eventide eclipse reverb impulse (Echo Room + Reverb 8), classic master limiter (-4 threshold).

Um, my vocals usually need a lot of work.

 

[JonWormwood]

I did this mod on one of my 57 and it droped quite a bit.

How do you like it compared to the stock 57?