I have been working on a tune in BB. I took it to RB and I am about ready to add the vocals. Does anuone have any recommendations on mics, techniques, etc.? Is there a tutorial that has already been posted? Any feedback is appreciated.

I'm sure many others will have suggestions, but in case parts of this are helpful to you, I asked questions about vocals and the suggestions ranged from technique to compression. It was very helpful for me.

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=53594&Number=374087#Post374087

My 2 cents:

Unlike working with midi, synths and band in a box.... recording guitars and vocals with a mic is something that does take time to perfect your skill set.

A good condenser mic. A decent interface. Time spent working with recording a mic.

No need to break the bank on a mic, but don't buy cheap either and don't use a USB condenser mic. Figure a median budget of around $200 up or down a bit. Perhaps a total of around $400 for the mic and the interface.

With a halfway decent mic, and some time spent playing around with it, you should be able to record good vocals. However, it will likely take some time to dial it in to where it sounds good.

Nothing beats time spent recording to learn how to do it. I've been at it for quite a while and I feel like I'm on the verge of "getting it".

With vocals, regarding FX.... use as little as possible.

If I was starting now and knew back then what I know now ..

I'd advise to get a good mic preamp.
An interface 'can' be a preamp, but I'd rather have a good preamp in line before the interface even sees the signal.

Studio Projects Vtb1 is a very cost effective solution.
Like all good stuff, these preamps have gone up over time instead of getting cheaper.
I bought my first couple for about $120 each. Looks like about $199 now.
Good news is your cheaper mics can sound better, and any decent LDC mic will shine as much as it can with a good preamp.

/old saying; an average mic with a great preamp is better than an average preamp with a great mic. .. or something like that

Also, spend some time learning whatever mic you have to work with. Try recording vocals in the hallway, stairwell, living room, whatever .. learn how the room and mic setup affects everything. It does.

"Studio Projects Vtb1 is a very cost effective solution."





+1. Good advice.



Regards,


Bob

Thanks for the help. I have a TubeMP but it seems to have some inherent buzz. I will check out the other pre you folks are talking about.

Tho a lot of folks hate Behringer, a solid setup that I have set 3 folks up with is a Berry MIC200 (copy of a TubeMP) and a MXL V67G large-capsule condenser.

V67G is a great mic that sounds warm, with a solid mid range & smooth high-end. I KNOW that sounds like a sales pitch, but it is not. I like this mic over every other condenser I have had here from Behringer, Rode, Shure, etc....and it looks cool! The next best mic I heard on my voice was a Shure KSM32.

I also owned a TubeMP. As a matter of fact that was my very fist external mic pre when I started. Mine also had a hum / buzz, but I fixed that with a tube swap. With the MIC200 I also swapped out the tube, but no for any problems. I just needed a ua7 instead of an ax7 for some more clean gain.

Both the TubeMP & MIC200 use a 12ax7, which breaks up at a lower volume. (this is why they are favorites in guitar amp pre's) the 12au7 does not break up until the top end of its range, so I could get the gain I needed for the ribbon mic.

The presets on the MIC200 are useful for quick down & dirty settings, and in fact I use the Keyboard setting on my MXL a lot, and the Vocal setting for my Samson CS & SM58. They are just EQ pre-sets with names, but they do come in handy.

Hope this helps!

If you want to go light cash wise the Blue USB is a surprisingly good mic. We've recorded a lot of vocals with it. An example is our current song on the user forum, "Don't Sell It, Don't Give It Away." Since this vocal track was recorded we have mostly used a Rodes NT1 with a Focusrite Scarlett interface but again the Blue is an incredible deal and requires no interface.

About $100 at Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_2529047011?ie=UTF8&node=2529047011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=Blue+Microphones

Thanks to all of you. It was very helpful.

I use a MXL V63M condenser mic that I got for $50 on sale and an Art TubeMP studio preamp (for phantom power) for $29 that works fine for me.

So you don't have to spend a lot to get started. But if you have the money, bump up the quality on the mic and preamp.

Edit: you can always check out the tunes in my links below if you want to judge the quality I got out of that setup. All vocals, acoustic guitar, ukulele, banjo and hand percussion were recorded with the v63m and the tubeMP.

re: >>With vocals, regarding FX.... use as little as possible.<<

There's a really cool pro trick listed in Bobby Owinski's 101 Mixing Tips website. I think it's referred to as the super delay something...you'll see it as it's extremely popular now.
It involved (he uses pro tools but it can be done in other DAW's as well) a stereo delay and adjusts left and right outs VERY SLIGHTLY by note lenghth. (i.e. left would be 16th, right would be 1/32. Pulls the dealy return (send track) down so it's almost not noticable in solo and not noticed at all in the full mix.
But the technique adds a wonderful shimmer to the vocals. It's one of those less is more type of techniques. Instead of trying to make reverb make the vocals sound wider or bigger, this technique just makes vocals sparkle a bit.
You may have to experiment with your DAW to get it right but it's a wonderful trick and saves hours of fooling around when you want that vocals to cut through the other instruments without sounding processed.

This is a common trick for vocals.
The Ozone Stereo Imaging module does this quite well as each frequency band can also be adjusting in time by milliseconds and there are L/R phasing options etc.. however I would still record the vocal itself dry.
Always leave your options open even if it appears to be more work.

If I were asked about tracking the vocals....I would always recommend the above.

If forces one to seriously concentrate on vocal quality from the start.
IE: accurate melody/pitch, phrasing, achieving good levels (about -12db) mic technique and avoiding proximity response when using a condenser mic.
But....that's just me.

A good day to all....