4 Tips for Recording Great Vocals

Vocals might be the most difficult part of a song to record. Voices vary greatly from person to person, they tend to have a huge dynamic range, and human vocal chords are susceptible to all sorts of ailments (illness, dehydration, fatigue) that other instruments are not.

Here are 4 things you can do in the bedroom studio to get the best recordings out of your vocalists:

1. Isolate.

Try to situate the vocalist such that he or she is in an enclosed space, away from sounds you don’t want in your recording, like the hum of a nearby computer or the air conditioner in the next room. Closets work well; I like to pad mine with pillows and blankets to absorb vocal reflections.

The cleaner the audio you capture, the more control you’ll have when it comes time to mix. You can always add reverb to a recording; you can’t remove it if it was there when you recorded it.

If you don’t have a closet or some way to isolate the vocalist, you can buy something called an “isolation shield” or a “reflection filter” that attaches to your microphone stand and absorbs sound waves that pass the microphone so that they don’t bounce off of nearby surfaces.

2. Pamper.

Not all vocalists are extroverts, and even those who are are not necessarily comfortable in a bedroom studio setting. Make the vocalist feel at home. Leave the room when recording, if he or she prefers. Offer water, coffee, snacks, a pedicure, or whatever will ease any anxiety he or she might have about singing. Just be a good host. The more comfortable the vocalist is, the more relaxed he or she will be, and relaxation is one of the keys to a good performance (unless you happen to be recording Jim Carrey).

3. Process.

Normally, I’d advise a bedroom producer to save the use of plug-ins for the mixing phase, but this is one of those times it’s okay to break from the usual workflow.

An unprocessed voice can sound bad, even if the performance is good. It might seem dry, there might be a few nasty frequencies, or the volume might fluctuate a lot.

A little EQ, compression, and maybe even some reverb can make the vocalist sound better in his or her headphones, and the better a vocalist sounds to him- or herself, the more confident he or she will be, and the better he or she will perform.

4. Moderate.

No vocalist can perform forever. It might make editing and mixing easier if you have multiple takes, but you don’t want to wear out the vocalist. Take note of which lines have been performed well, and stop when you have a good take of each one, or when the vocalist begins to fatigue, whichever comes first.

Of course, if you have everything you need, but the vocalist wants to keep going, you can give him or her the opportunity to explore additional takes. You never know what you might get.

Just don’t push the vocalist beyond his or her limit. Even if you don’t have a good take of every line, it’s better to wait until the next session than to risk the vocalist’s health. Take a break, if it helps.