Recording vocals (From The Shallows)

[interpolplacebo]

Hey guys, I'm in the metal band From The Shallows, my band has been in the process of recording some demo songs ourselves. We have a pod ux2, Alesis compressor, and bluetube preamp. We use Cubase sx3 to record. The music itself has come out great, guitars are nice and thick, drums are beefy and cut through the mix very well..But now we're stuck on recording my vocals. We have an AT 2012 Condenser Mic plugged into the preamp and ran through the compressor and ux2..The problem I'm having is getting a good preset on gearbox..When we recorded our first EP "Beyond The Unknown" with Joey Sturgis (foundation) my vocals came out great..They sounded very raw, and more live with a slight polished feel to them. I can't seem to duplicate that sound no matter what I do. When we record my voice sounds like a different person. I'm not sure if it has alot to do with EQ's or not..But I'm just stuck, we've been prolonging finishing these songs for the last 4 months based on the simple fact that we can't figure out the vocal situation. We're all recording noobs, so if anyone could please walk me through the process of how to set my rack up properly, good compression tips, and preamp and preset advice as well, I would be so extremely thankful.



Thanks,

Steffan

-From The Shallows

 

[JBroll]

Clips are handy. Can't say much without them.

Jeff

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

What jb said. And I would say try to add effect to the vocal after it's recorded instead of on the way in. Try to get a take that sounds good to you without any effects before you start adding effects to it.

 

[whitedamp]

I think you should stick recording vocals with Joey Sturgis. In my opinion his work is top 3 on this board. That said, I´ve read on some old threads that he used these compressor settings on vocals:

Threshold : -40 db
Ratio : 20:1
Attack : 0.01 ms
Release : 50 ms
Make up gain : ~35 db

And these plugins: regular waves compressor (C1, I guess), nuendo de-esser (leaves on the default settings), a little bit of delay, and some waves rverb.

 

[colonel kurtz]

1st of all, i would also say go back to joey...not only does he have a ton of experience and know-how, but his gear slays what you've got

his usual vox setup is an AT 3035-->onyx 800R-->fireface 800 - not world class, but way better than a bluetube and UX2

 

[broken81]

You guys just need to come record with me!