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Posted by JmanNZ on Apr-18-2009 00:23:

Tips for a vocal production??

Hi Guys, I'm still quite new to producing, I've made a track or two but nothing up to release standards. I really want to try something with vocals and it seem I may now have an opportunity to try. Basically, a friend of mine is a music school teacher (which is awesome because my theory is shite) and can sing. She also knows someone who has a studio which we can (hopefully) borrow for a recording.

The problem is I don't really know how to approach this project as a whole. I've been searching this forum and what I have come up with is:

1) make the basics of a track and arrangement, but without engineering or any serious time on sound design etc...
2) find a sound with a similar freq as the voice and play over the track with what the vocals would do
3) write lyrics that fit the melody and song
4) record vox
5) complete the track as a whole

I haven't set my expectations very high on this, but at the very least it will be a great learning experience. can anyone tell me if this is a good way of doing this? is there an easier method? or does anyone has any pointers for a first timer doing this?

Cheers

Posted by Subtle on Apr-18-2009 00:30:

Here is how i would do it.

Make a bassline and a simple beat, and then get her/him to sing on top of the bass, then the melodies you put on top of it will fit the voice since its sung according to the bass.

Posted by JmanNZ on Apr-18-2009 00:53:

Posted by EgosXII on Apr-18-2009 01:53:

quote:
Originally posted by Subtle
Here is how i would do it.

Make a bassline and a simple beat, and then get her/him to sing on top of the bass, then the melodies you put on top of it will fit the voice since its sung according to the bass.

+1
it depends how much of your track is about the vocal. if the vocal is the key part of the track, i would just have a kick and bass, and some light percussion maybe (clap/snare kinda thing) then get her to sing, as subtle said. Then just work the rest of the track around the vocals

if it's more about the track itself, with some vocals in to help out i would just make the track then send it to her to figure out how she wants to fit her vox in, then get that recorded

i think the first option is for you

Posted by Stephen Wiley on Apr-18-2009 03:33:

Uh - Make sure you have somebody who knows how to record vocals at the controls. Make sure there are fresh lemons and water available for her and don't apply a bunch of FX to the vocals other than maybe a little compression but if you can avoid that even better. You can always go back and add effects but you can't take them away!

Also remember that a singers best performances come early and that they are very critical of themselves. Never tell them what they did sounded bad, just suggest another way and encourage them to try again. Many of the songs you hear were sung many times and the vocals were cut and pieced together for the final production.

Vocal production is very difficult. You're not going to hit the nail on the head the first, second, or even third try (unless you hire a smart engineer and have an experienced singer)

If you can get studio time cheap or free and you've got somebody with chords and desire then do it to it. There's a lot online to read but try to avoid all of the opinions but pay close attention to the common "rules" but don't be afraid to experiment.

The best advice I can give you is use the least amount of FX during recording and make her drink lemon juice before she starts!

Posted by JmanNZ on Apr-18-2009 05:38:

Thanks guys, this is good stuff!

Yea I def wont be putting any fx on and will only compress if I must. I have a feeling I will be the engineer for the day, so it will be a day of trial and error with a lot of learning. At least I know a bit of the recording theory from years ago when I was a assistant engineer (only recently got back into it with producing as a hobby). But during those days our job was simply to capture someone else's creation on tape, nothing more.

And yea, I think the first option sounds like a good one too, probably easier to pull off, more flexible.

The lemon juice is a good one, I'll remember that!

Posted by asdfg on Apr-18-2009 08:40:

1) use a good mic/room/vocalist
2) record multiple takes of each part - can be used later for layering etc
3) good use of compression on the main vocals will help bring them through the mix (duh)
4) EQ can help a lot, especially if you're not using a good condenser mic, try high-pass filter at around 120-200hz, experiment. i've also found most of the time boosting the highs a little can sound great.
if you're going for loud/clear vocals keep the reverb at a minimum.
5) look into getting a copy of Melodyne, Autotune or any other pitch correction software, I recommend the Melodyne VST plugin, RTFM.
6) most importantly I would probably recommend listening other music and how the vocals sit in relation to the other instruments (arrangement), and where layering/delays are used etc.

Posted by JmanNZ on Apr-20-2009 05:05:

quote:
Originally posted by asdfg
1) use a good mic/room/vocalist
2) record multiple takes of each part - can be used later for layering etc
3) good use of compression on the main vocals will help bring them through the mix (duh)
4) EQ can help a lot, especially if you're not using a good condenser mic, try high-pass filter at around 120-200hz, experiment. i've also found most of the time boosting the highs a little can sound great.
if you're going for loud/clear vocals keep the reverb at a minimum.
5) look into getting a copy of Melodyne, Autotune or any other pitch correction software, I recommend the Melodyne VST plugin, RTFM.
6) most importantly I would probably recommend listening other music and how the vocals sit in relation to the other instruments (arrangement), and where layering/delays are used etc.

Thanks mate, those VSTs area a good idea, I have never really had a need for anything like that before. And yea, I will be doing a lot of specific listening to my favourite vocal tracks before I even start writing the vocals!

Posted by Stephen Wiley on Apr-20-2009 05:49:

I'm going to assume you know how important it is to have a good preamp?

If not, you need to find a place to record that has a good preamp. A good singer can take a shitty mic with a good preamp and make it sound nearly perfect. You can take that singer and give her a shitty preamp and an amazing microphone and the results will be far worse. The artists chords are obviously always the biggest determining factor, but a good preamp is the clear second when it comes to recording good vocals so focus on that a lot more than the mic. Also try to have the lyrics all on one page. You don't want the microphone to pick up on the artist turning pages while you're tracking. There are creative ways to mask this by messing with the bottom, but it's much easier to just make sure there won't be any paper turning when tracking.