Audacity- vocal recording tips?

julian

So I did my first real venture of recording in audacity last night. Drums were fine, guitars were fine, but I couldn't record vocals worth crap.

All I did last night was add reverb (which also sounded like crap, but it was better than completely dry vocals made somewhat odd by the ####ty ass room I was recording in)

It later dawned on me that the reverb that comes with audacity Gverb has a wet/dry control. I didn't notice before because it was mixed in with a bunch of very technical sounding sliders near the bottom.

It also dawned on me that I should probably use very mild compression. Just enough to smooth out the peaks and the lower volume, but not enough to make everything the same volume.

I think another thing would be to EQ the voice. I found myself singing with a lot of treble/mid bite in my timber because it was sounding very hollow and bassy in the recording and I was trying to make up for that(I don't know exactly what my range is, but I sing pretty low, I'm probably a baritone) I think a better thing to do would to do a treble/mid boost/bass reduction on the vocal tracks via EQ. Finding out what the resonant frequency in the room would be a good thing too I guess.

Anyways, I think I sort of reasoned out in my head how to record vocals a bit better, but do you guys have any tips?

Mike

This may sound completely un-useful but the best tip ever to get the best performance you can in the first place, you'll find you have to tweak and fiddle a lot less in the long run.

julian

Yeah, I was listening to some of the tracks I recorded and noticing a few screw ups. I realized I should merely rerecord the vocal tracks. To be fair to myself, I did all the recordings in the middle of the night.

MoreCowbell

So you had the "midnight ears"? It sounded great last night, but in the morning when you hear it again for the first time, you just find it sounds like poop.

Kind of like that girl you met and you thought she was hot in the club last night, but when you wake up in the morning she's a he.

This is just my opinion as I don't know it all. I don't know what mic your using, but I've found by experimenting with the position(or pickup pattern) in which the mic is pointed at your mouth changes things a good bit. You should try singing a line with the mic level just below your mouth pointed up at the roof of your mouth, then sing a line with mic level above your mouth pointed down at your tongue. Then ofcourse you can do a straight on approach and see how that works. Also try different distances from the mic and such. Experimentation will be your best bet. 😎

julian

Nah, I mean it sounded like crap just because I had been up for 20 hours.

I think part of the problem is that I am not used to hearing my voice recorded and it doesn't sound quite like what I am used to hearing.

MoreCowbell

Some of the best singer's in the world hate the way they sound as well.

Doog

General tips I've found for vocals are:

Use a pop shield.. either the condom type that sit on the end of the mic or the "Popper Stopper" type that clamp onto to the mic stand.

Cut the by a few dB at 150hz ish- obvious this depends on the mic you're using, but keep it crisp by removing some low end and maybe sharpening up the top end around 14Khz ish.

Compression. Makes so much difference to everything.

Use reverb sparingly unless you really want the spooky/ambient thing going on.

louis

Mike said: This may sound completely un-useful but the best tip ever to get the best performance you can in the first place, you'll find you have to tweak and fiddle a lot less in the long run.

thats probebly the best advice you can get.

our current demo's vocals was done in 1/2 takes, mainly down to time restrictions, but i really want to go over a couple again. keep trying and trying and when YOU feel you got a good track, keep it.

either that or turn up the "studio magic" dial on the mixing board.

shapeshifter

sorry i'm new here so i dont know too much about the people...but i checked out the myspace....scales.....and i think it's really good.... Louis are you playing the Jag? reversed?? big fan...all around....keep up the great work

vivadeluxxe

Comp-ing vocal tracks is always a good idea.

Record about 5 takes of the lead vocal track all the way thru and then complile one one track together out of the best parts of the 5. It's a whole lot easy than continually trying to get one take 'spot on'.

lyssagale12

Howdy,

Hey...guys...My young child is found of singing so i m think about giving magic sing mic gift on his b'day as about to come so it will definitely make him jolly.

Thanks

ashin

Hope you have give him that nice gift. He will be happy for sure i know it because i gave it to my brother few months back and he just went crazy of that cool stuff.