Preparing for a Vocal
Session
Ways to patch a reverb
into the Monitoring Chain
by Rich the TweakMeister
part 1
part 2 part 3
Most of
the problems
that occur on vocal tracks are a result of not taking the time to properly set
up the session. For this article I will assume you are not recording
yourself, but someone else. Here's the mental checklist I use going
into a vocal session and some tips to help you get it right the first
time.
1. Does the vocalist have the lyrics
written down?
It is best if they were given these a few days in advance with the
rough
instrumental track. This allows them to practice in the proper key
and figure out how they are going to approach the material. If you don't
take this step, the vocalist will have wing it on the
fly and do their experimenting with the clock running. If you did
not get them advance copy, do you at least have the lyrics printed out for them in a
big
easy to read font? Give them a clipboard so they can write their
notes right on the lyric sheet.
2. The Mic should be set up
prior to the
session and the preamp level should be set. If you are using a
compressor going in, have that setup too. You might have to tweak
that a bit once they arrive but if you have typical generic setting
already set up this will be easier.
3. You have patched a reverb into the
monitoring chain.
You should not have the signal of the reverb going to
the recording input, but only to the monitors and headphones so the
vocalist hears their performance with reverb. Most vocalists will
give a better performance if they hear some depth on their voices.
We'll get more into this below.
4. Songs are loaded and it plays
back as it should
Tracks are created for the incoming audio and all
systems are go. Create several empty tracks in advance. Make sure
your CPU has some headroom for the session. Freeze tracks if you need to
create more headroom.
5. Take great care to make your vocalist
comfortable.
This is critical. Keep extra people out of the
session. Recording a vocal is like exposing your soul. The vocalist
may not want to do it if all your homeys are sitting there cracking stupid
jokes. It's the vocalist's performance that is going to make the song
and you want them to feel relaxed and confident. You might have some
refreshments available. Some vocalists like to have a little lemon juice
to clear their throats. Some like a little wine or water.
6. Don't make them practice too long
before recording.
Vocalist's typically deliver their best in the 1st
hour of the session, so don't waste their voice on superfluous stuff.
If you need to test out different mic and preamp combinations have everything
setup to make it easy for you.
7. Never give negative feedback to a
vocalist.
Don't say, "You sounded a little off key there,
lets try again". Instead, say "What did you think of
that take? They will probably say, "Oh I thought I was a little off, I
want to try it again." Let the vocalist judge their mistakes. It is
their voice on the line. You should, however, make sure they know when you
hear something you like. "That was great the way you held that note!"
8. Is your material really ready?
Of
course if you are free-styling this is not an big issue. Getting the
vocalist comfortable is paramount. But if this is a standard song with
lyrics, you should have spent much time making sure the lyrics ring out just
right. This is a craft in itself. We have a
lyric writing
forum here at studio-central hosted by Dugz Ink. Dugz has put
together a lot of resources for you check out on your way to writing your
next song.
Ways to patch a reverb
into the Monitoring Chain
You might wonder why this is a big deal.
For some vocalists, its not, but for many, it is critical and
they cannot perform without hearing their voice in reverb. But its all
basically an illusion. You are not actually recording the reverb, only
the bone dry signal. We do this because we want to be able to add reverb
later when the song is finished. This way you can choose "the right"
reverb for the song once the tracks are done. Should it be a large
hall sound? Or a small room for that intimate sound? Those decisions
are best made during the mix phase. Also many vocalists want WAY more
reverb than you could ever allow in the final mix. Its a
psychological thing. Reverb kind of glues their words together and
hides some little blemishes in a nice way. They feel they are singing
better, and when they feel they are, they usually gain boldness and
confidence, which in turn can lead to a fantastic performance.
There are many ways to do route a reverb
into the monitoring chain. The way you choose depends on the gear you
have on hand. 1. At the hardware
mixer.
Perhaps the easiest way is at a hardware mixer.
The sends/returns, and alternative busses and direct outs are designed for
such common studio
routings. However, not every mixer is able to achieve this.
Those with direct outs or an alt-3-4 bus are perfect for the task.
Basically, you need two busses for this operation, 1) a dry bus, which sends
the non-effected signal to the recorder or audio interface/soundcard and 2)
a "mix bus" that combines the wet and dry signals together. The dry
bus can be either the alt-3-4 bus or the direct out. The signal leaves
the preamp section of the mixer and goes straight to the recorder. On
the mix bus, you patch a reverb into the sends and returns of the mixer and
the mixed signal goes to the main outs, which can be monitored by headphones
by the vocalist. When using a mixer like this you want to make sure
the software monitoring switch in the sequencer is turned off, to avoid a
doubled signal. Because you are monitoring the track
directly at the mixer, you do not want to monitor it post-cpu. The
signal that you monitor has no latency and will allow for excellent timing
as the vocalist sings the track.
Example Mackie
1604 VLZ Pro
CR Outs
Sub Outs
Aux sends
Aux returns
CR Outs go
to monitors. Sub outs (also called ALT 1,2,3,4 here) go to soundcard
inputs. An aux send goes to the reverb, the outputs of the reverb goes
into the aux returns.
2. At the Preamp.
If
you plan to add effects here, check the preamp before you buy. Some
can do this easily and some cannot. For example, those with a
zero-latency feature will have a separate send output and a bus where you
can patch in your mix out of an audio interface or hardware mixer. An
example of this kind of preamp is the Focusrite Voicemaster Pro. This
type of setup requires you have an available mix feed to send to the preamp.
The advantage here is you can give the vocalist a custom mix that includes
their voice, reverb, and the mix, and you can adjust the level of each.
Many vocalists want to hear themselves louder than the mix and want generous
reverb. This method gives it to them the way they want it. The
only caution here is to make sure you have 1. a separate hardware reverb and
2. and audio interface with multiple outs (at least 4) or a hardware mixer
which has an additional set of outputs to feed the mix input on the preamp.
Usually, a mixer tape out works great. You want to make sure that software
monitoring at the sequencer is off or you may get a doubled signal in your
monitoring chain.
Example: Focusrite
Voicemaster Pro
back panel
Note the FX send which foes out
to a reverb and the FX return which goes back to the preamp from the reverb.
The -10 or the +4 output sends the dry signal to the soundcard. You
connect a secondary mix out of the mixer or audio interface to the EXT
Monitor input. On the front panel are controls for FX level, headphone
level and headphone mix.
3. At the audio interface.
Check to see if there is a
cue mix feature on the audio interface. What this basically does is
route the output of the mic to both the audio track in the sequencer and to
the headphone out separately. If you have a send on the audio
interface (not an insert), the signal will go through that to a hardware
reverb and you can bring it back through another input pair that passes
through without being recorded. This is a little tricky to setup, and
not all audio interfaces can handle it. Generally speaking, those with
plenty of i/o usually have some direct monitoring/effects facility.
These routings are not made in the sequencer, but in the control panel
outside the sequencer.
Example:
MOTU 828mk2
MOTU's Cuemix control panel
allows you to route signals coming in to the audio interface to any of the
outputs before the signals go into the sequencer. You can route the
mic input and additional hardware reverb inputs as well as the
sequencer output to the headphone jack to create a custom mix tailored for
the vocalist.
4. In the
sequencer.
The better sequencers will have a way to do this though
it may take some experimentation to get it right. Here you need to
have software monitoring on in the sequencer. There is a little bit of
latency here, but you have to deal with it. Basically you create a
separate bus in the sequencer that is dedicated to reverb and put a reverb
plugin on it. From the recording channel, or the input monitoring
channel, you create a send to deliver the signal to the bus. At the
main out of the sequencer, you will hear the bus and the recording channel.
However, only the dry mic track is recorded. Every sequencer is
a little different in the way they implement monitoring, so here you have to
get into the fine points of the manual, but if you persevere, you will
succeed. What's a good
reverb for the monitoring bus?
The good news here is that almost ANY
reverb will give the results you need. I use an Alesis Nanoverb, an
inexpensive reverb i would never use for recording, but monitoring, it's
just about perfect. You don't want to sell the farm to get a reverb
that will never make it on your tracks. Vocalists like the easy preset
reverbs as they can just dial up a setting they like.
Alesis NanoVerb
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Summing it all
If you prepare adequately for a vocal
session you have a greater likelihood of getting one of those stellar
once-in-a-lifetime performances that can make your work stand out.
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