Lead Vocal Mic Placement
Just like with a great sounding instrument, many times with a good singer you'll get the "sound" automatically just by putting him/her in front of the right microphone. On the other hand, with a bad or inexperienced singer even a high priced microphone or signal processing won't add the polish you're looking for. That said, if you start with the correct technique, you're half-way there.
There are a number of things to remember before you begin to place the mic:
The best mic in the house won't necessarily get the best vocal sounds, so don't be afraid to experiment with different mics.
Decoupling of the stand from the floor will help get rid of many unwanted low-frequency rumbles that occur from truck traffic, machinery being used down the street, footsteps, and things that are even lower in frequency than normal hearing. Just place the stand on a couple of mouse pads or a rug for an inexpensive solution.
One of the main things that you're trying to do with mic placement is eliminate pops, lip smacks, and breath blasts.
An easy way to have a vocalist gauge the distance from the mic is by hand lengths. An open hand is approximately eight inches while a fist is about four inches. By saying, Stay two fists away”, the vocalist can easily judge his distance and usually doesn't forget (see Figure 8.2).
Exercise Pod: Recording The Lead Vocal
E8.1: Recording Lead Vocal
A) Place the mic even with the vocalist's lips about one hand away (see Figure 8.2) and have the him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts?
B) Move the vocalist back to about two hands away and sing the same part of the song. Turn up the gain so it's the same as before. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts now?
C) Move the vocalist back to one hand away and readjust the gain. Place the mic even with the vocalist's nose and have the him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
D) Now place the mic even with the vocalist's eyes and point it down towards the lips (see Figure 8.3). Have him sing the verse of a song. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
E) Now place the mic even with the vocalist's lips about one hand away again. Either change the pickup pattern to omnidirectional or change the mic to one with an omni pattern.
Have him sing the verse of a song again. Did you hear any pops or breath blasts? Did the sound of the vocal change? Is it more or less defined?
F) Place the mic so there's no breath blasts or pops.
E8.2: Adding A Compressor
A) Go back to your favorite mic, place it at either nose or eye level, point at the lips and continue.
B) Insert a compressor into the signal chain either on an insert in the console or preamp, or placed between the preamp and DAW input.
C) Set the Attack And Release controls to medium, the Ratio to 4:1, and raise the Threshold until there's 2dB on vocal peaks. Can you hear the compressor when it kicks in? Does it change the sound of the vocal?
D) Decrease the Attack time (make it faster) until it catches more of the peaks and there's 5 or 6dB on vocal peaks. Can you hear the compressor when it kicks in? What happens if you lengthen the Release time? Does it change the sound of the vocal?
E) Set the Output control of the compressor so that the record level is about -10dB on the meters.
You've Got To Hear Yourself
In order for a vocalist to stay in tune, she's got to hear herself. How much she hears herself will actually determine if she stays in pitch or not.
Some singers sing sharp when they sing too hard because they push themselves over the top of the correct pitch when they're not loud enough in the headphones so they sing harder to compensate. The secret is to either have more vocal or less of everything else in the monitors or phones, but be aware, pitch and timing problems also occur if a singer hears too much of the vocal and not enough band in the mix.
If the vocalist is singing flat, turn him down a little or add more of everyone else in the mix. Less vocal makes you want to sing harder (and possibly raise your pitch slightly) and vice versa.
Sometimes the mix is too dense and having a mix with fewer instruments can help with a pitch problems.
Boost the bass guitar (the root of all chords) and kick drum (the root of all rhythm) to help the singer with pitch and to stay in the pocket.
Turn down anything that's heavily chorused and turn up anything that has a more "centered" tonal frequency (like a piano).
Sometimes listening to only the rhythm guitar instead of two guitars (if there are two in the mix) can be helpful since some singers can hear their pitch better from a simple tonally-centered instrument than from screaming guitars or airy synth patches.
Copyright 2014-2016 Bobby Owsinski Media Group
No comments:
Post a Comment