Achieving Your Best Studio Vocal

Jeannie Deva

The voice is the signature of a band. The songs will change, the musical style may even vary, but: They know the band by the singer’s sound. That’s not to say there aren’t other instruments that can have their own signature sounds in a band. That will make the group even stronger. But the majority of listeners will not buy an album or go to a concert of a band that has a great guitar sound and yet terrible vocals.

Many years ago I was ushered into the recording studio by several voice students who were running into trouble while recording their vocals. From both beginners and pros, I was hearing these complaints: singers were losing their voice during or by the end of the recording session; they did not have enough session time in the studio to get their vocals right; vocal sessions were often scheduled in such a way as to make singing difficult; they were straining to sing due to incorrect headset mixes; vocals were taking a ridiculous number of takes with the final result still one that compromised the professionalism of the product; the mike or mike angle was incorrect for the singer. Still to this day, clients come to me with the same complaints. As well, I find many singers do not know what preparation steps to take prior to going into the studio. These, as well as other reasons, can make it difficult or impossible to achieve a high quality vocal and in-budget project.

Producers, engineers and band-mates can find themselves justifying and settling for lower standards on the vocals because they don’t know how to help the singer get anything better. As those of you who are singers know, the voice is a very different instrument from all the others, and each singer has their own particular needs.

There Are 5 Major Factors to Your Best Studio Vocal Sound

1) General technique to expand range, develop vocal stamina and consistency, and improve tone, pitch, control and power, 2) Song interpretation to establish your own unique style, 3) Song delivery and performance skills, 4) The art of vocal recording, 5) Knowing how to evaluate your tracks. Ultimately, it is the culmination of all these talents into a superb recording that achieves an identifiable vocal and broad recognition for you.

1) General Technique

When working on the vocal for a recording, concentrate first on the technical details, then on the overall performance. Establish the right key, learn the melody and lyrics, smooth out any pitch and range difficulties, lock onto the rhythm, learn all important melodic and rhythmic ques. Try singing the entire song using a naturally pronounced “Ah.” Strive to keep your “Ah” pronunciation consistent and relaxed regardless of pitch changes. After repeating, sing the song with the lyrics. This approach can help relax your throat muscles, enhance resonance, reduce strain and improve accuracy of pitch and melodic phrasing.

Your studio preparation should include practicing the song standing stationary in front of a mike on a stand, and preferably hearing yourself through headphones. When in the studio, you will have to stand relatively still while you perform your song so might as well get used to it beforehand. Try recording yourself. Listen back and note anything that you like, as well as for any technical details needing correction. These aspects should be fully developed before you go into the studio to record your tracks. Once the technical details are covered, establish a clear concept of the message and emotion(s) of the song. Your phrasing decisions will come from your understanding of emotion and message.

2) Song Interpretation

To establish your own unique style, the lyrics must become your own communication. You must mean what you say phrase by phrase within the larger message you wish to communicate through your song. As a practice method, use your own image in the mirror or select an object in the room. Speak the song lyrics to your mirrored image or the object. Work through any self-consciousness until you can do this naturally as though having an actual conversation. Develop your ability to speak as though the words and ideas are occurring to you right now. Make this a totally spontaneous conversational approach. If you really mean what you say as you sing, if you develop your own interpretation and really want to get this across to the people in your audience, you will be establishing the one thing that makes you unique: Being yourself.

3) Song Delivery and Performance Skills

Your voice and emotion must reach out through the recording to the listener and create an emotional effect. If the audience doesn’t dig it, what’s the point? When you sing in the studio, you must bring to your song the same energy and believability that your audience would expect of you in a live performance. To help your song have presence and energy even though it’s recorded, you must create the illusion of singing to someone. Don’t create mental image pictures of someone and sing to the person in your mind. To do so diminishes your energy and the vitality of the song by removing you from the present. Sing the song as though the person is in front of you now. It is up to the singer to integrate all the components of singing, performing and recording to reach through the tape and really connect with the listening audience.

4) The Art of Vocal Recording

Microphone selection: At the beginning of your first vocal session, line up three different mikes. Run through a verse and chorus using each, one at a time. Record as you go, onto three separate tracks, with the EQ and volume settings the same. Then go into the control room and listen back through the room monitors. From there you can make a better choice which is the right mike for you. You can also experiment with the mike at mouth level, nose or forehead level, or at jaw level tilting up to your mouth.

Microphone Technique: a) While certain live performance mike techniques also apply to recording, there is a primary difference: in the studio, mike to mouth distance remains constant and you can’t touch the mike or mike stand. This added mechanical necessity should be practiced before going into the studio until you can do it and still sing emotionally. If not, trying to hold still while singing can be distracting and annoying and your performance will suffer. b) Pops and hisses on tape created by overemphasis of certain consonants can ruin professional recording attempts. To practice, think of the consonant as using the same amount of air as its neighboring vowels. Align your energy with each vowel, letting the consonants take a back seat.

Headset Mix: Headset mix and mike choice can make an incredible difference in how you perform and sound. Take the time to work with your engineer and get it adjusted right at the beginning of the vocal session. Work on it until you have absolutely no attention on the mix and can perform undistracted. On occasion, the brand of headset can cause an alteration of the natural EQ of your voice making it sound thinner, bassier, or muffled. Compare several brands of headsets. When you find one you like for its fit, weight and sound, you might invest in it and bring it to your sessions. Sometimes the problem is not the fault of the headset but the result of incorrect or non-existent vocal warm-up and poor vocal technique creating throat muscle tension and incorrect vibration of the voice.

Signal Effects: The main signal processing used in headset mixes is EQ, compression, reverb and possibly digital delay. These effects should not be recorded onto tape but can be added during the mix. If used properly per your needs and taste, adding at least a bit of reverb and correct EQing of your voice to your headset mix can make a huge difference in how you sound to yourself and add ease to your singing. How you sound to yourself as you sing in the studio is paramount in supporting and achieving a good performance. If you don’t like how you sound, you will struggle with muscular attempts to change it and your performance will be lost. (Not to mention your voice!)

Punching-In: When a portion of your vocal needs to be re-done, the engineer will have you sing that section again and re-record it. When re-recording a section on the same track as your previously sung vocal “take,” it is called punching or punching-in. Make sure the engineer rolls back to a phrase or two just before the place needing to be re-recorded. If there’s a vocal there, sing along with it. This ensures the re-recorded part sounds natural, in context and believable.

Scheduling: If your time to record vocals is scheduled to take place when you’re tired, you will have to physically push past the fatigue, risking strain and other non-optimum results. If you’re trying to save money by pulling an all-nighter, take a nap and come later once the drum and guitar sounds have been set. Figure it out. You need to be at your physical best for your instrument to respond well. If you can schedule your vocals to occur on a different day than the instruments, get a rough mix of the instrumental so you can practice with it.

The fifth primary element of importance subdivides into four sections: Rhythm and phrasing, Pitch Accuracy, Vocal Tone, and Overall Performance.

Knowing how and when to pay attention to these details in the course of a session, will help you stay in control of your vocal recording process and help you achieve your desired goal for the recording – a captivating vocal that grabs the interest of your listener.

4) Evaluating Your Tracks

How many hours have you been in the studio working on the final take of this song? You may be wasting your time, money and voice. Usually, if the vocal is not getting noticeably better after the fourth take, either the headset mix or mike choice is ridiculously bad and throwing you off, or you need some technical vocal assistance. Nonetheless, knowing how to evaluate your tracks and how to fix them can make a pivotal difference and is an art unto itself. This is also a key to efficiency and helps you know what to re-do, what to keep and when you need to call it a day and do more vocal pre-production before further recording.

Rhythm and Phrasing - Rhythm in this case, has a lot to do with the subject of phrasing. Do the phrases work rhythmically with the music, or do they sound rushed or off in any way? Determination of good phrasing cannot be a mechanical decision. It should be based on believability of expression. Try speaking the line. Notice how you inflect the sentence. Where do you place accents for importance? If you stress the wrong word or words in a sentence (like Chandler in “Friends”), it will sound comical, be difficult to understand, or just not believable. Your phrasing has much to do with “selling” the song and really touching your audience – or not.

Pitch - Are there any words sung off-pitch? Some singers can notice them, some cannot, as their ears need further development. Sometimes pitch problems can be the result of a singer’s problem with the headset mix or wrong choice of mikes. Also, there may be too much too little, or the wrong kind of reverb on your voice. Your voice may not be at a comfortable volume compared to the other instruments. The wrong mike for your voice can alter your vocal frequencies and throw you off. A wrong reverb setting can confuse and distract you by pulling your attention to the reflection of your voice rather than your primary sound. The wrong EQ can encourage you to tighten certain throat muscles and limit the natural movements needed to create higher and lower pitches.

Vocal Tone - In the context of this song and style, does the voice sound too choked, strained, or weak for pro standards? Sometimes too much compression put on the vocal during recording can make the singer push and strain. If you’ve recorded your verses one at a time or line by line, listen carefully to ensure that your vocal quality sounds consistent. Sometimes singers mistakenly change their position to the microphone, which then varies their sound on tape. You must stay alert to this when recording and remember to maintain the same mike distance especially when punching-in a word or phrase. However, a more basic problem may be the lack of adequate vocal technique to achieve vocal consistency, voice-muscle endurance and ability to sing powerfully while avoiding vocal strain or blow-out.

Overall Performance: Does the song sound alive? Do you believe the singer? Does it emotionally move you or leave you feeling untouched? There is a delicate balance between achieving a great performance versus having technical details to correct. As long as the technical details don’t distract the listener’s attention from the performance, you’ve succeeded. If the performance is great but there are some “ear-wincing” mistakes, work them through off tape and then, rather than punching in, try recording a second or third track of those sections. Hopefully you’ll be able to use them in a compilation track thus fixing those areas that need correction on your main vocal track.

Paying Attention

Do you want this tape to help you get a deal? Do you want it to turn some heads? Maintain an objective and professional attitude and hold the line regarding the whole project. Don’t push it if it’s not happening. Take the time to plan out the whole project and do sufficient pre-production to arrive prepared.