Ableton Forum

This is going to be my first time trying to record myself and others for some tracks. Any advice? Anything I should know or prepare for?

Thanks in advance, you guys have always pulled through before so I'm looking forward to learning a thing or two

In case you don't get to use a singing booth don't place the microphone in the middle of your room.

drink water with a little bit of lemon in it - it's good for the throat, or my name's not Pavaratti

unless you simply love the way your recorded voice sounds (and most of us don't!), you should have someone else mix your vocals in the track. at the very least, have someone else there when you turn the volume on the vox up to verify its a good level. most of us will mix our own vocals way too low.

Get a pop shield. Failing that, use some cotton socks or something and place the mic slightly off axis. If oyu have time to experiment then you should do some quick takes and make sure levels are ok, you're not geting plosions etc.

Also, the room (if not treated) will contribute to your recording wether you like it or not. Sometimes this can be a benefit but mostly it will cause your recording to sound echoey, dull or muddled. Setup your mic where you want (out from a corner with some heavy blankets against the wall is a good start) and set your volume a little high on the recorder. Record some silence for about 1 minute to see how loud the room is. You are looking for the sounds of fans from your PC, kids playing outside, dogs barking off in the distance, traffic etc. All these things you don't normally notice but your mic will. Your main recording will drown "most" of that out but nothing worse than finally getting what you think is a good take and hearing someone screaming from next door in a quiet part of the recording.

One last thing, with the vol on the recorder still up a bit, step a few feet back from the mic and try a loud "test, bow" or other short punchy words towards the mic. On playback listen to how it sounds especuially things such as reverb and echo. If you can hear any echo, it will be recorded with your voice. If it's pretty bad then try move the mic.

Getting started it doesn't have to be top notch stuff and if your track is loud enough it can mask a lot of issues but as you do more you will (or should) begin to notice just what needs attention.

Lastly, if you don't have one yet, look at getting an external hardware compressor if you will be doing more recordings. Without one you need to keep your levels low or risk a whole take if it clips. Also, a good mic will yeild great results BUT will also be a lot more sensitive to imperfections and interfeerance noise. Just remember that it wont sound better just by buying a $500 mic. In fact it can actually go the other way when you hear just hopw your room sounds (this also then brings to light how it is sounding when you are mixing but thats a whole nother topic all together).

Have fun

Sing like you're not the singer, but the listener.

If you're recording other people who aren't 100% confident singers, then make sure you have a rock-solid poker face for the entire session. If they make a little mistake or are feeling self-conscious, one little smirk or smile could bomb their confidence and possibly ruin the whole session.

Even on a shit take, keep your expression focused, nod along as though you're really feeling what they're doing. They'll also feed off that - "Hey, I guess I don't suck as much as I thought I did..." this'll give them reassurance and confidence. At the end of the take, don't critique their performance, just say "Cool - one more?" Go straight back into it, they'll probably put down a much better take feeling more relaxed that you're taking their performance seriously.

Do as many takes as you can - keep them all, you might find that even a horrible take has one word at the end of one line which you can paste in to an otherwise flawless performance to fix it.

And as has been said before, pay a lot of attention to mic positioning - don't put it in the centre of the room, and make sure that behind the vocal position is something soft.

Have fun!

diy pop filter http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?3224 ... ter-Screen

Even on a shit take, keep your expression focused, nod along as though you're really feeling what they're doing. They'll also feed off that - "Hey, I guess I don't suck as much as I thought I did..." this'll give them reassurance and confidence. At the end of the take, don't critique their performance, just say "Cool - one more?" Go straight back into it, they'll probably put down a much better take feeling more relaxed that you're taking their performance seriously.

A friend of mine on another forum is an engineer professionally, and he says that the best trick in his arsenal for getting a good take out of non-professional singers is the Practice Take.

Have them sing a warm-up take that you won't be recording, but then actually record it.

According to this dude, upwards of 80% of the time this is the best take of the session and the one that makes it into the final mix.

Thanks guys, going to mess around with recording the room, mic placement and trying to put stuff up as dampeners this week and then try recording this weekend.

Much appreciated as always!

http://www.simple-home-recording-studio ... ocals.html