Canadian Musician September / October 2019 | Page 52
When it comes to adding
background vocal layers, I gen-
erally enjoy a bit of room sound
and will often have vocalists take
one or two steps back from the
microphone to help create space
around the lead vocal. This might
not be possible if you are in a noisy
room with lots of HVAC sound,
street noise, or the room is simply not flattering.
Worth mentioning is the importance of a great-look-
ing space. Singers are creative people who love creative
environments. Good lighting, nice décor, and comfortable
seating will affect performances.
Processing While Tracking
The culture and history of hardware and software that
treat vocal recordings is extensive. I’ll touch on a few key
treatments and focus more on the tracking side vs. mixing.
The workhorse of equipment chains for most top-tier
producers is a Neve 1073 preamp into a Universal Audio
1176 compressor. These units have been emulated by
many hardware and software designers and versions of
them are available at most price points. The Neve preamp
is loved for its ability to saturate a signal with a pleasing
and subtle amount of distortion and the 1176 has a vari-
able attack and release time that can suit most genres at
most tempos.
When it comes to mic preamps for vocal recording,
there are two schools of thought: clean or dirty. Knowing
how much saturation (dirt) a vocal recording calls for of-
ten comes down to genre and taste. Playing it safe and
aiming for a clean sound while tracking is a wise decision.
The downside to having a clean vocal sound coming back
at an artist while tracking can be a lacklustre headphone
mix and a less emotive performance. The downside to
cranking up your preamp and having a dirty vocal sound
is committing to it can be destructive and removing dis-
tortion is less feasible than adding it later.
A good solution is to add saturation or distortion via a
software plug-in instead of hardware. I tend to use Waves’
Scheps Omni Channel for this job. It is zero-latency and
has three flavors of distortion that vary from subtle to
fuzzy. Other great plug-ins for this job are FabFilter’s Saturn
and Soundtoys’ Devil Loc. Another option is to set up two
vocal chains: one dirty and one clean. I will sometimes
take a cheap dynamic microphone through a guitar dis-
tortion pedal and set it up next to my main vocal mic and
record both tracks. If the phase relationship is perfect,
these microphones can be blended. The cheap micro-
phone will get more distortion and bring out mids, allow-
ing the vocal to push through a dense track.
At our studio, I tend to aim for a clean signal path on vo-
cals. We track through an API 512c into a Rupert Neve com-
pressor, then an SSL EQ. If I want a dirty sound, I will patch in a
Standard Audio Level-Or or go for a plug-in for distortion.
Using reverbs and delays while tracking is a matter
of taste. I find that more experienced vocalists tend to
desire a dryer sound, as the added clarity can help with
52 C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
pitch articulation.
My go-to setup for tracking vocals is a plate reverb
and two separate delays, all via separate auxiliary sends.
The plate reverb’s length is often determined by the tem-
po and genre while the delays end up being pretty consis-
tent. The first delay is an extremely short stereo delay that
widens the mono vocal signal to spread across the stereo
spectrum. I put the left side at 1/64 th of a beat and the right
side at 1/32 nd of a beat and use very sparing amounts – just
enough to help the singer live above the track. For the sec-
ond delay, I use a long feedback and an 1/8 th note delay to
give a sense of depth and excitement. Again, very little goes
a long way; vocalists have a lot to focus on, so if these appli-
cations are at all distracting, they are not worth introducing.
Another classic treatment for vocalists is a subtle
pitched delay via an Eventide H3000. This behaves much
like the short delay described above, but with an added
tier of chorusing that gives a classic widening sound.
If you are working entirely in the box, note that some
DAWs and plug-ins will add latency to a vocalist’s mix;
this is to be avoided at all costs. A lot of interfaces have
latency-free routing and a lot of plug-ins have zero-laten-
cy versions. It’s important to look at your DAW’s hardware
buffer size and mitigate latency. If I am deep into a mix on
a session and a vocalist needs to come in for overdubs, I
will often bounce the track down and start a new session
from scratch to take the processing needs down (as they
add latency). Then I can turn down my hardware buffer as
low as possible.
I recommend setting everything up before the client
enters the room and getting your own headphone mix
dialed in. Troubleshoot anything and everything so when
the tracking begins there are absolutely no hiccups.
Getting the Best Possible Performance
Singing is an expression of emotion and with that comes
a certain amount of vulnerability. Treat vocalists like royalt
Have tea, water, coffee, beer, whiskey – basically anything
they might have the slightest desire for on-hand. Light-
ing options are important as well; it’s not uncommon for
me to be sitting in a dark room at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday for
three hours while cutting vocals.
Before a vocal session, I set up a stool as well as a
standing pad and will ask the vocalist if they prefer to sit
or stand. There are no rules here – whatever the artist
needs for comfort is key. Need to strap on your guitar and
randomly clack along while singing? Great! I might switch
to a dynamic mic to reduce the noise and I will likely do
some repairing with iZotope RX, but whatever the vocalist
needs, I will cater to. The goal here is to put the technical
side of things as far away from our minds as possible and
narrow in on making the performer feel spoiled and sup-
ported.
In terms of workflow for recording a conventional
song, I have great success taking three full takes of a song
without offering critique unless asked. Once these three
takes are done, if the artist or I feel more takes are needed,
I will focus in on troublesome sections and offer feedback
if it feels welcome. I like to create a seamless recording