Recording Vocals in your Home Studio

alright…. Recording Vocals….. Ya’know, it will likely just be more effective to show you. I will do a few free videos for you in the coming couple weeks.

Just so you understand… please know there are no “silver bullet secrets”… Or any of that non-sense i see people selling others on, everyday.

When it comes to tracking/recording a great vocal. There are certainly, however, many tried and true mic placement techniques, tips and tricks, to treating your room so it will play nice when you need it to… which can be had on the cheap, too!

The “Home Recording Mastery” Program goes very In-depth with tips, techniques, concepts, as well as good gear that performs as well as big name brand equipment for 2-5x the pricepoint.

Here are some tips and techniques. (Feel free to let me know if you’ve heard all this stuff before, and/or if you know and use all this stuff too) Im still trying to get a better grasp on your knowledge and experience.

As i always say, pre-production pays!

If you are the producer and the singer; take extra time to warm up your voice, try to get relaxed and comfortable.

Setup your daw and the project you will be recording in.

Get yourself a good headphone mix — critical!

Choose the mic that works best for the particular sound or song you are working on.

Make sure you are using a pop filter… (i know, i know, i hear you say… like, duuh.)

But what if i only have one good mic that i use for vocals?

I hear you. Well one thing you can do is to test out the placement of the mic and angular direction that your pickup pattern points at. Flip it upside down, if its already down, flip it back up… you will hear a difference… Use your judgement and move stuff around until you’ve found what works best for the particular goal.

The whole body resonates with sound not just the mouth, i like to angle the microphone downwards toward my throat at times, and also sing slightly off axis at others. mic placement and positioning really depends on a number of factors. But essentially, whats most important is knowing and defining the tone, texture and sound parameters for the target goals of the individual project, and then making it happen… even if it takes getting a bit creative.

Practice mic technique. Practice mic technique. Practice mic technique. and… Ok thats enough, you get it. But really, this is a very good skill to learn and will serve you and your mixes well.

mic technique will be easier with a dynamic mic in most cases… but can definitely be done with a condenser all the same.. Just be careful about picking up unwanted bumping noises from wiggling the stand and mount.
*Which must be SECURELY fastened by the way.

Thats all for today, time to try to sleep…. Which im terrible at doing. Yup, chronic insomniac….. right here.

Happy Easter Folks.