It seems to me there is an awful of of "upselling" going on in this article. Buy my amazing seminars! Buy my ultimate guide!! Or at least that was the impression I got.

Some good information--don't get me wrong--but also some overkill.

I think a lot of folks on this forum have Nectar, or Neutron, or something like them, and good compressor VSTs, and know how to use them. (Or they simply make up their own vocal chain rigs.) There are any number of good plug-ins that can analyze your vocals and help you get them in the right spectrum. In a month or so of fiddling around with your own stuff you will know as much as any engineer.

Most of the really good vocalists I know keep the effects to a minimum and work with a great mic and the bare minimum of effects. But they put the vocals front and center and the other instruments are well mixed.

As for takes, Mick Jagger has often been known to keep the first takes because they had more emotion and spontaneity, even if they weren't perfect.

Jeff Lynne commented on Bob Dylan in the Traveling Wilburys (this is almost right, I think, my memory is not perfect):

"Bob doesn't do second takes. You have to go with what you get--unless he's really off, and then you have to be, well, very delicate."

So, I don't know, I think you can go way too far with all of this. In rock 'n roll, I think you just have to stand up there and do it.

David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
Studio + Fingers

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