A Couple Of Q's

1. should i track the beat seprate then record the vocals or juss do both in the same session? ive seen both i juss want sum feedback on whut you all thinks sounds better..

2.ok i havent been pleased with my vocal recording's and was thinking of getting a new mic BUT the mic i got is rated good all over the place and alotta people even on here have one its AT 3035...is it cuz im runnin straight to the mbox(juss phanthom) and cuz i have no pre-amp?

3.when recording vocals should i record with two tracks at the same time? i heard it make your vocals sound more "rich"??


if you need me 2 explain more i will...

any input would be greatly appreciated,thnx

Am sure others will pitch in & throw tips & pointers your way...

But to deal with the 1st question you posed....
I personally like to keep things a little separated so i'm not concentrating on too many things in the same session.

1) PREP is the KEY:

I make sure that if i'm going to be doing vocals...I've printed just a stereo version of the music & imported it in to the vocal session....

last thing you want is to be messing with the music when u have a vocalist to be directing or thinking about!!!

So, the night before or however long before....just do a ruff structure with your drops in the right places etc...then when the Artist comes to do their part....all you're concentrating on is getting a GREAT vocal performance...& I STRESS the word 'PERFORMANCE'...Just cos some one might just be Rapping doesnt mean they can be sloppy on the M.I.C

If you're Producing the track...then you're also responsible for extracting the best performance from the Artist!!!

2) Mic...that Mic you mentioned is pretty decent as far as i've heard but have no practical experience with it...i use a Rode NTK myself with a FOCUSRITE Green Pre-Amp....& there in lies the Key....the Pre-Amp acts as the last port of call before the vocal is printed into the DAW!!!

Its here that i spend time setting up & making sure the signal is CLEAN & Hot w/ou peaking & with as little if no noise on the Channel as poss.

A gate stage is useful if you have noisy gear in the same room..

My G4 is hella noisy but this never a problem as the Gate is used to 'GATE' out the noise when the Channel is not open....I.e in pauses btwn words etc....

there are many all in one channel strips out there...Focusrites come highly recommended in my circles & highly affordable...My green is an oldie but a GOODIE!!!

Anyone else wanna chip in n help dude out?

H*

All very good tips, however I disagree about using a gate in the recording process. If you clip a word of a breath, its gone forever. Also its one more device or process in the signal chain. You can always apply a gate on mixdown. Or some like to manually edit the vocal.

ddot_SFV wrote:All very good tips, however I disagree about using a gate in the recording process. If you clip a word of a breath, its gone forever. Also its one more device or process in the signal chain. You can always apply a gate on mixdown. Or some like to manually edit the vocal.

hear your point & i guess if it were advice to some one less experienced, it'd be taken whole heartedly...thats not to negate your point....

absolutely right about keeping the signal path as pure as possible on recording...just find that my method works for 'me' very well...

Am also a great believer in the point about manually editing vocals....i've been known to spend hrs at a time doing so for corrective purposes.

Bottom line...its all learning!!!

Good on you ddot!!!

H*

Haha the best engineers got their secrets to get that sound!

To reply to your problem, if you talk about recording your demos, a mic preamp will give you more easyness... the more peaceful you are the better your demos will be...

A noisegate plugged to the preamp will give you a better sound if you don't get a professional recording room.

thnx you all for tha tips! i been doin sum research on whut you all said..

but when recording vocals should i record with two tracks at the same time? i heard it make your vocals sound more "rich"??

swamp wrote:thnx you all for tha tips! i been doin sum research on whut you all said..

but when recording vocals should i record with two tracks at the same time? i heard it make your vocals sound more "rich"??

You could do but i find that theres no point just recording 2 trax at the same time as you could replicate that by just 'Copying' the 1 part you've recorded.
the ear, whilst at times, easily fooled can also be quite discerning. A better way is to do what is commonly known (in some parts of the world) as 'tracking'.
Record 1 pass of the voal, then record it again & stack the vox until happy....

the same process will apply when doin harmonies of a lead line!!!
I often will have the main lead panned 'dead Center' in the mixxx
Then record another 2 passes of the same vocal & pan them any where in the spectrum Right & left to give a wider stereo feel.

Play around till u get a sound you like!!!
Try it!

Then come gates, eq, compression, revbs...

TurnItUp wrote:Then come gates, eq, compression, revbs...

Slowly but surely!!!!

swamp wrote:1. should i track the beat seprate then record the vocals or juss do both in the same session? ive seen both i juss want sum feedback on whut you all thinks sounds better..

2.ok i havent been pleased with my vocal recording's and was thinking of getting a new mic BUT the mic i got is rated good all over the place and alotta people even on here have one its AT 3035...is it cuz im runnin straight to the mbox(juss phanthom) and cuz i have no pre-amp?

3.when recording vocals should i record with two tracks at the same time? i heard it make your vocals sound more "rich"??


if you need me 2 explain more i will...

any input would be greatly appreciated,thnx

1) if ur recording many musicians at once, like a band, then you can record them all at the same time.... if not, don't

2) the mbox has a mic pre in it (with phantom power) and it isn't bad. Ur sound is azz because of ur acoustic treatment in ur room. Here is some light reading on the subject

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

3) u can record with two mics at the same time (ea to a dif track). I've never done it myself but I'm sure it could work.

oh chit,

i thought this thread was about some herbal weight...