MangaMan Posted June 10, 2012 Posted June 10, 2012 I, like everyone here, am a lover of music. Unfortunately I've never gotten around to learning to play any instruments, except one: vocal. I've been singing for longer than I can remember and I want to get the most out of my voice and share it with everyone across the world. I'm looking for any tips and tricks for recording vocals. I've got a Samson C01U USB Studio Condenser microphone. I have GarageBand '08 version 4.1.2 and Audacity at my disposal. I try to get the best recording environment possible and I mostly try to work with what I have, being that I'm a Digital Arts Animation/Illustration major, money is a hard thing to come by. Please, any tips and/or trick in vocal recording I would be very grateful. Quote
SnappleMan Posted June 10, 2012 Posted June 10, 2012 From my experience the most important factor in vocal recording is the performers ability to sing into a mic. You have to be able to know where to naturally position yourself as you sing so all your tone gets focused and shaped as it's being recorded, otherwise you'll be doing a lot of cleaning up, compressing and re-recording. So yeah, learn how to work a mic. Quote
suzumebachi Posted June 12, 2012 Posted June 12, 2012 can't speak to actual singing technique and all that mumbo, but first off, a C01U is a great place to start. contrary to popular belief having super high end mics with ultra expensive preamps and a ridiculous audio interface is not the be-all end-all of vocals. sure it helps, but like snappleman alluded to, far more important is positioning and room sound. the best way to ruin a vocal recording is to have background noise. the next best way is to have too much room sound or natural reverb. also make sure your mic is facing the right damn way (SOUNDS OBVIOUS RIGHT BUT YOU'D BE SURPRISED MAN YOU'D BE SURPRISED) and don't get too close or you'll get proximity bass, which might actually sound good to untrained ears but trust me you'll want to kill yourself trying to mix it. oh, and levels. make sure that shit don't clip, son. and use a pop filter. Quote
MangaMan Posted June 13, 2012 Author Posted June 13, 2012 pop flitter, check! Recording space is a hard one. I don't have too many places around the house that are suitable recording places. Any of the places that might be good, don't have any place for me to place my equipment on. I'll need to figure something out. Quote
Darangen Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 As far as space goes, you just need to make do with what you have if you don't have or can't afford a good space. I've started using a small closet with lots of pillows and blankets to absorb a lot of the reflections until I can afford something better. Quote
Malcos Posted June 14, 2012 Posted June 14, 2012 I'm working on a video at the moment which I intend to post to youtube soon. It's a video capture of a vocal recording session and mixdown. Only the highlights mind you lol. Quote
MangaMan Posted June 14, 2012 Author Posted June 14, 2012 I'm working on a video at the moment which I intend to post to youtube soon. It's a video capture of a vocal recording session and mixdown. Only the highlights mind you lol. That sounds perfect, let me know when it's up! Quote
MangaMan Posted June 18, 2012 Author Posted June 18, 2012 From my own experience, I've learned that it is always good to warm up before recording. It's a very basic thing, I know, but you'd be surprised how often people will forget. Another thing I learned from my voice acting, is that it is good to, how do I put this, loosen up the jaw to get ride of as much saliva as possible. What this does is it gets ride of that *smacking* sound that can happen when your singing. Green apples are another great tool to help remove that smacking sound. These are just a few small tricks that I have learned over the years. Quote
Malcos Posted June 27, 2012 Posted June 27, 2012 That sounds perfect, let me know when it's up! Gimme a few more days and it should be up, I'm going to add a video also showing how I mixed it. Quote
Malcos Posted July 15, 2012 Posted July 15, 2012 Forget the mixing bit altogether lol. I started and realised that a mixing video would take way too long to edit and explain why I did each thing, what effect does what etc. I haven't even finished mixing it, and considering I had a cold when I recorded...bah. I posted the original session on youtube anyways, hope you get something out of it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gntmWX2C26c&feature=youtu.be Quote
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