Vocals and the Spoken Word
These days, getting good vocals or spoken words on tape or hard disk can be one of the greatest challenges of recording. The human voice is one of the hardest sounds to re-create because listeners are supercritical if it doesn't sound exactly as it should. We are, quite naturally, very used to hearing the human voice.
Choosing the Right Microphone for Voice
If you ever had the occasion to sing on stage, you probably sang into a dynamic cardioid microphone. Dynamic microphones are great because they handle loud sounds well, reject other noises from the sides, and are virtually indestructible. While dynamic microphones might be perfect for the stage, they aren't always perfect for the studio. Dynamic microphones don't re-create the full frequency spectrum very well, which can be a problem that sometimes shows itself in unnatural sounding vocals. However, a dynamic microphone is your best choice if you work with a loud singer who screams his or her head off (or you are one yourself), because it handles the sound better. For everything else, choose a large-diaphragm condenser microphone. Large-diaphragm condensers are those microphones with the large, fat heads. They allow you to pick up all of the frequencies present in a human voice.
FIGURE 11-4
Vocal miking
Save your best condenser microphone for your vocal work because it will allow you to pick up the nuance and detail of the human voice. If you work with vocals a lot, investing in a good microphone will pay off time and time again.
Pop Filters
When we sing and speak, we create certain sounds, called plosives, that tend to “pop” the microphone with sudden bursts of air. Words that begin with the letter
A pop filter is a small round disk of mesh that sits between your mouth and the diaphragm of the microphone. When the plosive leaves your mouth, the excess air is filtered through the mesh, and only the normal sound reaches the microphone. Pop filters are a must for vocal recording and can be obtained at a relatively low cost. You can even make one out of a coat hanger and pantyhose (new ones, please!). Pop filters also serve another important purpose: They keep saliva from reaching the microphone.
The Proximity Effect
Microphones exhibit a special phenomenon called the “proximity effect.” Simply, the closer you stand to a microphone, the more bass frequencies come through. As you step back, the bass diminishes. If you are close-miking a vocalist, this phenomenon creates a muddy sound. The easiest option is to have the singer step back a little, but then the track might sound distant. If so, you can do a few things to fix the problem. Many condenser microphones are equipped with a bass roll-off switch. Turning on the base roll-off switch will usually cut the bass frequencies from 200Hz and below, which is where most of the proximity effect occurs. If your microphone doesn't have such a switch, you can EQ either on your outboard or virtual mixer by cutting 200Hz and below.
FIGURE 11-5 shows what a 200Hz roll-off looks like in Logic's EQ plug-in.
FIGURE 11-5
Logic's EQ plug-in
Voice Monitoring
The vocalist should monitor through closed-ear headphones. The level of the sound coming to the vocalist's ears is critical to getting the best performance. Hearing too much or too little of his or her own voice can cause major pitch problems. Adjust the mix until the singer feels comfortable and you notice that the pitch remains relatively constant. Typically, a singer doesn't enjoy hearing the dry sound of his or her voice through the headphone mix. Reverb is usually needed to sweeten up the sound and make the singer more comfortable.
Isolating the Voice
Vocals are something you definitely want to isolate, because it's important to cut down a lot of the excess ambient noise in the room. For the home studio, that could mean sending the vocalist to the bathroom to sing! Isolation will give the voice a relatively flat, neutral sound, which offers you the most control over the sound. Ambience can be added with reverb later.
Holding Pitch
For a singer, there are few things more important than holding good pitch. Not everyone is blessed with this ability, so you might have to rerecord time after time until you get something you like. But that can lead to frustration on the part of the singer, which can make the situation worse.
FIGURE 11-6
Antares Auto-Tune
Technology to the rescue! Antares Audio Technology invented a product called Auto-Tune that has changed the way vocals are recorded. Originally conceived as a computer plug-in, Auto-Tune has taken the audio world by storm. Auto-Tune (shown in FIGURE 11-6), which is available either as a standalone rack unit or a computer plug-in, listens to the vocal track and corrects the pitch of the notes as they stream by. Not only does it correct the notes in real time, it also does it invisibly — you can't tell that it's there…except of course that a perfectly in-tune vocal is coming out the other side. It also works for other instruments besides voice! Single-line instruments only please!
Most vocalists sing a touch flat or sharp on certain notes, and those small differences are easily corrected by this amazing plug-in. However, no piece of technology can change extreme mistakes in pitch and singing. The more pitches that Auto-Tune has to pull up or down, the less transparent the changes will be. If you work with singers often and pitch is important to you, plug-ins like this might come in very handy.
