Recording Vocals @Control Room?!

[shredder10]

With those monitors Crank'd up.
What do you think?! Ever done it?
Pros n Cons?

About a couple of days ago,
the engineer at some local studio
told me not to do so, but i wonder why
since imho, it gives great feel to it when tracking.

But...could it be a pain while Eqing and all that
while mixing?

I'm wondering if to track like that sometimes
Or not.

Thanks for your opinions

 

[Charles J]

i switch from 'phones to moni's while doing vocals. ALWAYS in the control room.... fuck vox booths =D

 

[morpheusmultimedia]

did a couple of times when the singer had troubles with cans. the intonation is usually much much better when they sing without cans.
with a sm7 you shouldn't have any significant bleed issues.

 

[shredder10]

hahaha fuck vox booths |m|

What about those words that end with a soft 's' 'sh' tail?

 

[if6was9]

Depends on the singer, their technique and the band. If it's a loud singer with decent mic etiquette and if you flip the phase of one monitor it works very well. Also I find you really don't have to have the monitors blaring, just playing in the room at an alright level to get the effect. Try and position them further rather than too close too, the further they are away from the speakers the better.

 

[Trevoire520]

If the singer is loud then I love it, no good if they're quiet though.

 

[Wisheraser]

If you want to do the old no headphones, flip the polarity trick, make sure you roll off some of the low end as it's much less directional and won't phase cancel as well. Also, you have to make sure the mic is exactly the same distance from each monitor.


EDIT Actually, Ronan CM has a great explanation of both of the ways to do this over on his video tutorial site:

http://ronansrecordingshow.com/2010...rick-for-recording-vocals-without-headphones/

 

[::XeS::]

Also with bleeds, when someone scream on the mic, you hear the voice...the bleeds are only during the pauses...and you can cut it.

 

[shredder10]

Interesting thing about phase!

 

[avrinder]

dumbest question, but what the hell. How do you put one monitor out of phase? I'm in Logic, and I know about the gain utility plug. thanks for understanding my ignorance haha

 

[egan.]

Some monitors do you the favor of having a switch. Otherwise you can separate the L/R EQ or whatever plugin allows for phase inversion. The mix has to be in mono for that trick to actually work.

 

[B36arin]

You can do it quite easily in Logic. Just put the gain plugin on the master bus and flip the phase on one side.

 

[Backe]

Love that technique. I record myself a lot, and I used to do it with headphones and a Rode NT1-A. Had to treat my room a little since it picked up a lot of it. Nowadays I just, with a firm grip around my SM7B, crank my monitors/hifis to max and simply scream/sing/whatever. It bleeds a little when I'm not singing, like in the pauses as someone pointed out, but in the mix you can't really hear it, and most of it I cut. It's really a blessing being able to stand right infront of your DAW and actually see the shit you record. It is also easier when making the arrangements, like.. just add a fucking track and record while sitting to see wether it works. The SM7B is such a great mic for this since it picks up very little ambient sounds, and it sort of "compresses" your voice from the beginning, and with the low cut and presence boost you won't have to do much EQ'ing either. A fucking no-brainer.

I'll post a little proof that it works: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10612702/Among/Oceans_firstmix.mp3

 

[Skyweaver]

I've used both monitors and cans to sing to and prefer something in between, one can on and the other off, I watched a pro do it and she just nailed her parts so fuckn well....I tried it and never looked back

 

[avrinder]

You can do it quite easily in Logic. Just put the gain plugin on the master bus and flip the phase on one side.

i was going to guess that option, glad you verified it! thanks so much!

 

[koalamo]

dumbest question, but what the hell. How do you put one monitor out of phase? I'm in Logic, and I know about the gain utility plug. thanks for understanding my ignorance haha

Its alot easier IMO to just record a seperate take of the bleed and then reverse the phase of that track in your DAW then reversing the phase of individual monitors and measuring out all the distances and angles involved and such.

 

[aortizjr]

I do it a lot but mostly with dynamics and often because I am too lazy to get everything set up. Especially for backing vocals and quick fillers.

When singers can't take the environment of the cans and mic stands and such, I give them an SM7 or even SM58 or rock and hold and such. Mostly they are screamers.

Typically the bleed is very very minimal, not even enough to worry about in most cases. Sometimes I will have more trouble with headphones being too loud and bleeding into condensers.

 

[bryan_kilco]

My problem with this isn't the bleed in the pauses, as that can simply be edited out....but the tiny bit of bleed right before and after he screams. In the mix, it's really not even noticeable, but it still irks me to know it's there. What do you guys do about this? Just edit tight?

 

[Lasse Lammert]

If it's not a jazz ballad you won't have any problems with the bleed...don't worry too much

 

[Ermz]

With the amount that I compress vocals I have trouble with most normal closed headphone bleed...