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Steps to record great Vocals in your home Studio !
Recording good vocals at home is a challenge . Here are some guidelines to achieve great results at a home recording studio .
1 . The Room
The room should be treated with acoustic panels . Place the acoustic panels behind the DAW ( Digital Audio Workstation ) - two bass traps in the corners of the room , and on the side walls to cut unwanted reflections in the room .
2 . Your Vocal Mic
Choosing the right Vocal Mic is the second most important factor for recording great vocals . You can choose a dynamic or a condenser mic . Shure SM58 and SM7B are great options for a dynamic mic . RODE NT1-A and SE Electronics X1 series are best picks for Condenser mics . For a slightly costlier but long term investment , Neumann TLM 102 or AKG C414 are great picks ! The quality of recording depends on your room and placement of mic . Place the mic in the centre of the room because reflection is less at the center of a room as compared to the corners or elsewhere . Use a POP filter to remove unwanted P ’ s and B ’ s in your recordings .
3 . Your Audio Interface
I recommend audio interface like Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 series or Audient ID22 . These interfaces are affordable and the quality of AD / DA converters are good .
4 . Setting your Gain Level
Most beginners think that recording at higher levels is good in digital audio , It simply doesn ' t work that way . Digital Audio interfaces are very sensitive therefore they could clip your audio if the levels are too high . It is better to record in between the of range -20db to -10db when the vocalist sings the loudest part . You still have 10db of elbow room to play with plugins during your mixing . The bit depth and the sample rate are also important factors . Nowadays , the default standard for Music recording is 24-bit / 44.1KHz and for Video it ' s 24bit / 48KHz , as most of the audio interfaces support till 96KHz !
5 . Using EQ for vocals
Use a High Pass filter and roll off at 70Hz -80Hz to remove unwanted room ambiance in your mix . Also , try to find any nasal tone in the vocals by sweeping using the ‘ Q ’ value . The bad spots can be identified between the range 400 Hz to 600 Hz . You can then subtract that hollow sound in your vocals . Try to dip down around -4db to 6-db if possible then check all tracks again . Now do a little bit of boost in the higher frequency around 4KHz to 6KHz for 2db or 4 dB boost to get that sizzle in your mix ! This should sound great in your mix !
6 . Using Compression for Vocals
Using compression in vocals is to maintain the dynamic range for the track . There are no rules that you should insert a compressor in your vocals , if it ' s already sounding good . But if there are too many dips and highs in your volume range , you can insert a compressor with a standard setting of Ratio 2:1 or 3:1 . If the output is very loud , then set the threshold at around -15db to -10db depending on your mix with reference to other tracks . But see to it that you have a gain reduction meter showing around -3db to -6db , because if it ' s too much , you will lose the original details in your mix . Also , set the attack to be less than 1 ms and the release about 30 ms . Finally , adjust the Makeup gain according to your song .
7 . Using Reverb and Delays for Vocals
Effects like reverb and delays play a great roll in your mix . Using reverb in your vocals will create an ambience space in your mix . Generally I use Reverb with default plate settings and modifying the Pre-Delay from 15ms to 40ms depending upon the song . Also , using a High Pass filter removes any muddiness in the reverb which makes your mix sound great ! Delays can also be easily applied to the track to create a rhythmic feel based on the tempo .
These tips will definitely improve your vocal recordings sound great . Happy Recording and Mixing !
Author : L . Baba Prasad . He is the Owner and Chief Sound / Mix & Mastering Engineer at Digi Sound Studio . He also teaches Sound Engineering & Music Production courses . For more details visit : www . digisoundstudio . com / www . digisoundacademy . com
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