Vocals: Preparation

Ironically both most important and most difficult to record, vocals carry the burden of sitting front and center in the vast majority of pop songs. This burden requires a bedroom producer to take great care when engineering a vocal recording session.

There are three main things that will determine the quality of a recorded vocal performance:

1. The mic

Bedroom Studio Magic is all about making the most of what little you have, or efficiency. If there’s one piece of equipment in your recording setup that will make the most difference and should be most carefully selected when engineering, it’s the device that receives and translates the actual sound waves during the recording process, the microphone. Different microphones sound different from one another. The same sound recorded at the same distance in the same room with different microphones will sound different when played back through the same speaker. This is because microphones have their own sort of “EQ,” something known as frequency response.

A microphone’s frequency response is a graphical representation of how sensitive a microphone is to sound waves of different frequencies.

A microphone that is less sensitive to the high end of the frequency spectrum will seem to capture a darker tone.

A microphone that is more sensitive to higher frequencies is better at representing brighter, airier sounds.

Since the voice is such a versatile instrument, a producer will want to choose a microphone that specifically caters to each individual project. A punk band might prefer a dynamic microphone for its ability to withstand loudness and capture the warmth of the human voice, while a pop singer might want a condenser microphone that more flatly represents the frequency spectrum and picks up all the textural details of their voice. 2. The environment

In many ways sound is like light. They are both constructed of waves. Waves repeat themselves at different frequencies. Waves that repeat themselves at higher frequencies attenuate more over distance. Attenuation is the reduction of amplitude. As a sound wave of a higher frequency travels through a medium, its amplitude will be reduced more over the same distance than a sound wave of a lower frequency that starts with the same amplitude. Put more simply, you can hear lower-pitched sounds at greater distances than higher pitched sounds.

Both light and sound reflect off of surfaces. The further a wave travels before it reaches its destination, the more it will have attenuated. Thus, you can expect that the waves that have reflected more and traveled the furthest will be the ones of the lowest frequencies.

Most waves don’t travel directly from their source to an intended target. Instead, they tend to spread out in many directions, so that only a small minority of them go exactly where we want. Much like a photographer’s job is to control the light that enters a camera’s lens, an audio engineer’s job is to control the sound that enters a microphone. This requires a bedroom producer to consider where the microphone is placed and how the environment around the microphone is constructed.

Again, all of this depends on the individual project, but a good rule of thumb is that if you can add it later but can’t remove it, you probably don’t want it to be recorded in the first place. For instance, if you think you might want a long reverb on the vocals in the final mix of a song, you could record the vocals in a nice, big vocal hall. But if you change your mind, that reverb can’t be removed. On the other hand, if you record the vocals “dry,” you can add any type or amount of reverb later with the use of plug-ins.

For this reason, many producers find it most beneficial to have a space specifically designated for vocal and other dry recordings. In order to achieve this, a small enclosed space can be fitted with a generous amount of soft material to absorb stray sound waves so that the microphone receives a higher ratio of direct to reflected waves. This doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. A small closet and a few blankets will do the trick.

As a bedroom producer, it’s also important to consider the greater environment outside of your designated performance area. Do you live on a busy street? Is someone using a television in the next room? Is the air conditioner running? The more silent you can get your performance space prior to recording, the higher your “signal to noise ratio” will be, and the more control you’ll have over the recorded audio when it comes time to mix.

3. The performer

All vocalists are not equal. Different performers have different skills and talents. Aside from his ability to choose the artists with whom he works, this aspect of performance is out of an audio engineer’s control. But there are certain things a bedroom producer can consider and implement in order to improve upon a vocalist’s experience in the studio, and their experience can arguably make or break their performance. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to prepare for a performance, but vocalists tend to perform better the more comfortable they are. Personally, I like to be warm, well-fed, hydrated, somewhat isolated, and in a relatively good mood.

I’ve always tried to make other performers feel as much at home as possible when recording in my studio. It makes for the best recordings!

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Next entry, we'll talk about vocals from a compositional perspective. Stay tuned!