recording vocals, plugins on input bus?

[noarin]

hey guys, I'm going to record vocals for my band soon, and I was wondering..

since I don't have any outboard gear for compression and such; should I set a compressor/limiter on the input bus in cubase? I am using a Presonus Firepod or FP10. I notice that if I don't use any plugins the signal sometimes clips (when the singer sings loud) and if I turn back the gain it sounds kinda thin. oh yeah I'm using the Studio Projects B1 condensator mic (sounds good on vocals!)

Is it a good idea to use a little compression (Blockfish?) on the input bus?

thanks in advance
Rob

 

[scorpio01169]

i do it all the time. and i know alot of peeps will tell you not to because its will be printed to tape..(hard drive). but if you have a vocal sound that you are truly happy with and you know that you're gonna be using it. then why not. what you dont wanna use on the input bus is verbs, delays, choruses, or any fx that alters you vocal drastically. so a little compression i believe is ok. also it's common practice to do multiple vocal takes for one song (virtual tracks). i would do at least two takes with it and two without it and then you can decide later. and that also gives you the flexabilty to take the best parts and pieces of all tracks and splice and pasted to make that one perfect track.

 

[ahjteam]

I really hate to bitch, but I really think you should atleast consider getting an outboard compressor so you know for sure that the signal wont clip in the input. Even the semigood ones like dbx 266XL and 166XL are usually fine for demo-level recordings, I have a two channel Behringer T1952 as a backup for live purposes myself (but I switched knobs on it, so I can actually see where the knobs point). It also looks a lot cooler with all the knobs, meters and leds than playing with plugins

 

[Ihsahn1981]

I guess you could do that but I hardly see the point.
What you can do on the input stage in Cubase you surely can do later too.

If you dont have direct monitoring you wouldnt want to add fx that could add latency to the headphone feed.

 

[ahjteam]

I guess you could do that but I hardly see the point.
What you can do on the input stage in Cubase you surely can do later too.

Exactly.

Its more important on what stage the clipping happens. If the clipping happens after entering the interface when DAW is getting bashed with +5dbFS signal, then its fine to put a compressor in the input bus.

But if you first boost the signal with the preamp and it clips when entering the input of the interface, which you can usually determine by nice flashing red leds if they have them, putting a compressor in cubase doesn't help if the signal is already being clipped.

You would either need an outboard compressor the signal to get a hot and constantly loud signal to the interface without clipping, or just turn the gain down and get a hot signal with a lot of dynamic transient, which is pretty much unnessecary with vocals if you ask me.

 

[crosstalk]

Most likely it's clipping in the firepod so a compressor isn't going to really help fix it.

I have noticed that on some vocals that get recorded and clip during the recording, a compressor during mixing on the track makes it disappear. That's for little clips and I wouldn't bet it would work on a badly clipped section.

Two suggestions I will offer: Vocal technique I guess you would call it. When the vocalist hits those loud sections, figure out how much they need to move back from the mic to keep the levels nice. Once the different positions are known, they can move back and forth and there shouldn't be any clipping.

Another option would be to record all of the softer parts and the louder parts separate. Either switching the gain or the distance between the two.

Good luck.

 

[Ihsahn1981]

From what I have heard, the FirePod pre's are clean enough for you to record at a safe and relatively low level and then boost the signal later in Cubase without noticeable increase in noise.
Be sure to record at 24 bit when doing this though.

 

[everybody's x]

I sometimes add plugs to the inputs if i am SURE I like what it sounds like. It definitely saves CPU at mixdown.
Go ahead and make some decisions. Sometimes the lack of commitment factor in a DAW ends up being a drawback

 

[scorpio01169]

I sometimes add plugs to the inputs if i am SURE I like what it sounds like. It definitely saves CPU at mixdown.
Go ahead and make some decisions. Sometimes the lack of commitment factor in a DAW ends up being a drawback

exactly, i agree with you 100%. i mean i have said this a million time the point of the game is to capture the moment and move on.