What's your vocal recording method?

Ailerom

Maybe it will be of use to someone, but I'm just curious about what others do.

1. I loop each verse, bridge, chorus and sing each part separately. I'll record between 5 and 15 takes depending on the day and how hard the part is.
2. Then I redo the same process to record harmony parts or lower vocal parts.
3. This usually results in a melody, with 2 additional panned melody tracks for each section. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Lower parts usually support the center vocal track and harmony parts will nearly always have 2 tracks, one left and one right. Sometimes a verse will have a harmony which is usually just harmonic thickening and is nearly always a single centered track.
4. So, with a degree of variability around the basic theme, I end up with core vocal tracks made up of
   ----- Verse: Center melody, left and right doubled melody.
   ----- Chorus: Center melody, left and right doubled melody, left and right harmony, lower vocal centered.
   ----- Bridge: Similar to the verse but sometimes with a bit more creativity to cature the opportunity a bridge gives to change things up.

It's a bit of an editing nightmare but after many years it seems to be the system I've gravitated toward. Very occasionally I'll do a single guide vocal first, but as a rule I don't like guide vocals except for harmonies. I usually know what I'm going to do very well before I start as I practice the vocal while driving for at least a week beforehand.

richardyot

I usually record a scratch vocal and listen to it for a couple of days first, just to check I'm happy with the words and the melody. At this stage I will usually make some changes, there will be some lyrics that don't sit right and maybe also some tweaks to the melody after I hear it in context.

For the final takes my workflow is similar to yours: I sing each section separately and usually do around 8 to 12 takes that sit in a take folder in Logic.

The loop recording process in Logic makes this task really fast. When I used to do this in Auria I always had to stop the transport and return to the start of the loop and record again. Loop recording means you can stay in the zone and just work on the performance, without having to constantly fiddle with the transport controls.

I will then carefully listen through all the takes and choose the best one for the lead, and a second one as a double.

I don't always add harmonies, but if I think some are needed (usually in the chorus) I will sing them using the same workflow. I generally don't pan any vocals, except very occasionally the low harmonies.

I don't find the editing particularly tedious, in Logic it's pretty quick to loop a section and go through a take folder. I don't comp individual words (or even lines), I usually use the whole take (whole verse, whole chorus etc) without chopping it up into comped sections. So in terms of going through the takes the process is quick.

Later on I might need to do some editing of the audio regions to deal with sibilants, that process can be time-consuming. I will slice sibilants out into their own mini-regions and reduce the gain, and fade in and out to tame the problem sounds.

My room is very reverberant because it has wooden floors and wooden blinds, so I've built a homebrew vocal booth using acoustic foam stuck to some boards with bookstops glued to them as makeshift stands:

And I've been through a few microphones and interfaces over the years, but I'm currently settled on this, an SM7B and SSL 2. I find the SM7 very forgiving compared to condenser mics because it doesn't emphasize all the little pops and clicks from the mouth as much as more sensitive mics. In the past I would lose perfectly good vocal takes because there would be annoying mouth and throat noises in there, and the SM7 seems to mitigate that.

Ailerom

I didn't think to mention the recording path as it could get pretty deep. I use one of these crappy things to control some room effect. It's not much but every bit helps. I record with a Rode NTK which picks up everything.

Pxlhg

I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

richardyot

@Ailerom said:
I didn't think to mention the recording path as it could get pretty deep. I use one of these crappy things to control some room effect. It's not much but every bit helps. I record with a Rode NTK which picks up everything.

That's a very nice microphone.

I used to lust after the higher-end condensers until I bought the SM7B for work (I sell tutorials online, so I need to record my voice). But after trying the more forgiving dynamic mic I'm never going back to condensers, I don't want to hear the sound of saliva in my mouth 🤨

richardyot

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

Telefunky

@Ailerom said:
I didn't think to mention the recording path as it could get pretty deep. I use one of these crappy things to control some room effect. It's not much but every bit helps. I record with a Rode NTK which picks up everything.

There are even more crappy things for room control.
I have surprisingly good results with something called „guest bed“, usually a 3-section piece of foldable foam in textile enclosure, about 30bucks.
The foam seems to be open pore type, similar to Basotect, but with no acoustic specifications.
Due to the 3 sections it can be positioned almost arbitrarily, it‘s light weight and can be stowed away quickly. 2 or 3 of them around you get a room almost echo free.

Ailerom

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

Ailerom

@Telefunky said:

@Ailerom said:
I didn't think to mention the recording path as it could get pretty deep. I use one of these crappy things to control some room effect. It's not much but every bit helps. I record with a Rode NTK which picks up everything.

There are even more crappy things for room control.
I have surprisingly good results with something called „guest bed“, usually a 3-section piece of foldable foam in textile enclosure, about 30bucks.
The foam seems to be open pore type, similar to Basotect, but with no acoustic specifications.
Due to the 3 sections it can be positioned almost arbitrarily, it‘s light weight and can be stowed away quickly. 2 or 3 of them around you get a room almost echo free.

Indeed. I've recorded under a thick blanket when I've had to.

JohnnyGoodyear

Good stuff here, thank you.

jo92346

@richardyot said:
I usually record a scratch vocal and listen to it for a couple of days first, just to check I'm happy with the words and the melody. At this stage I will usually make some changes, there will be some lyrics that don't sit right and maybe also some tweaks to the melody after I hear it in context.

For the final takes my workflow is similar to yours: I sing each section separately and usually do around 8 to 12 takes that sit in a take folder in Logic.

The loop recording process in Logic makes this task really fast. When I used to do this in Auria I always had to stop the transport and return to the start of the loop and record again. Loop recording means you can stay in the zone and just work on the performance, without having to constantly fiddle with the transport controls.

I will then carefully listen through all the takes and choose the best one for the lead, and a second one as a double.

I don't always add harmonies, but if I think some are needed (usually in the chorus) I will sing them using the same workflow. I generally don't pan any vocals, except very occasionally the low harmonies.

I don't find the editing particularly tedious, in Logic it's pretty quick to loop a section and go through a take folder. I don't comp individual words (or even lines), I usually use the whole take (whole verse, whole chorus etc) without chopping it up into comped sections. So in terms of going through the takes the process is quick.

Later on I might need to do some editing of the audio regions to deal with sibilants, that process can be time-consuming. I will slice sibilants out into their own mini-regions and reduce the gain, and fade in and out to tame the problem sounds.

My room is very reverberant because it has wooden floors and wooden blinds, so I've built a homebrew vocal booth using acoustic foam stuck to some boards with bookstops glued to them as makeshift stands:

And I've been through a few microphones and interfaces over the years, but I'm currently settled on this, an SM7B and SSL 2. I find the SM7 very forgiving compared to condenser mics because it doesn't emphasize all the little pops and clicks from the mouth as much as more sensitive mics. In the past I would lose perfectly good vocal takes because there would be annoying mouth and throat noises in there, and the SM7 seems to mitigate that.

So this is where the magic happens. There is almost only praise for the sm7b and vocal recording.

richardyot

@jo92346 said:

@richardyot said:
I usually record a scratch vocal and listen to it for a couple of days first, just to check I'm happy with the words and the melody. At this stage I will usually make some changes, there will be some lyrics that don't sit right and maybe also some tweaks to the melody after I hear it in context.

For the final takes my workflow is similar to yours: I sing each section separately and usually do around 8 to 12 takes that sit in a take folder in Logic.

The loop recording process in Logic makes this task really fast. When I used to do this in Auria I always had to stop the transport and return to the start of the loop and record again. Loop recording means you can stay in the zone and just work on the performance, without having to constantly fiddle with the transport controls.

I will then carefully listen through all the takes and choose the best one for the lead, and a second one as a double.

I don't always add harmonies, but if I think some are needed (usually in the chorus) I will sing them using the same workflow. I generally don't pan any vocals, except very occasionally the low harmonies.

I don't find the editing particularly tedious, in Logic it's pretty quick to loop a section and go through a take folder. I don't comp individual words (or even lines), I usually use the whole take (whole verse, whole chorus etc) without chopping it up into comped sections. So in terms of going through the takes the process is quick.

Later on I might need to do some editing of the audio regions to deal with sibilants, that process can be time-consuming. I will slice sibilants out into their own mini-regions and reduce the gain, and fade in and out to tame the problem sounds.

My room is very reverberant because it has wooden floors and wooden blinds, so I've built a homebrew vocal booth using acoustic foam stuck to some boards with bookstops glued to them as makeshift stands:

And I've been through a few microphones and interfaces over the years, but I'm currently settled on this, an SM7B and SSL 2. I find the SM7 very forgiving compared to condenser mics because it doesn't emphasize all the little pops and clicks from the mouth as much as more sensitive mics. In the past I would lose perfectly good vocal takes because there would be annoying mouth and throat noises in there, and the SM7 seems to mitigate that.

So this is where the magic happens. There is almost only praise for the sm7b and vocal recording.

It needs a good preamp because its output is really low, and it's also a little dark (I usually EQ a 3db shelf from 2k upwards on the recordings), but it's very smooth sounding and really forgiving of background noise and crappy sounding rooms.

In an acoustically treated vocal booth, in a real studio, with a real singer then a Neumann or Telefunken makes sense, but in my highly reverberant office and my untrained voice the SM7 is perfect.

Pxlhg

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

richardyot

@Pxlhg said:

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

You can power an audio interface directly from the iPad if you have a USB C model. If not you can use a powerbank plugged in to a hub (this works with both lightning and USB C models):

Pxlhg

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

You can power an audio interface directly from the iPad if you have a USB C model. If not you can use a powerbank plugged in to a hub (this works with both lightning and USB C models):

Yeah, of course, I did not think about that, and I recently got a pretty powerful powerbank too -- thank you!

Ailerom

@Pxlhg said:
That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

I just use a Zoom H5. I position it in a position where I feel comfortable singing toward it. I usually throw a jacket up against the windscreen behind it. Then I play the mix on headphones and record the vocal over and over on the H5. It's a bit more pain to align vocals but once you have a complete vocal aligned the rest are easy.

Here's an example of a vocal recorded in a Mazda BT-50 single cab ute.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/97cdrmnor0vie53q86w2b/Tin-Can.mp3?rlkey=cn678wd67sdf12cl2lo0qeku4&dl=0

Fingolfinzz

I have a box that I shoved foam in and then put the mic in it, it’s still an improvement though cos my room sounds like shit cos it’s too open I guess

Pxlhg

@Ailerom said:

@Pxlhg said:
That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

I just use a Zoom H5. I position it in a position where I feel comfortable singing toward it. I usually throw a jacket up against the windscreen behind it. Then I play the mix on headphones and record the vocal over and over on the H5. It's a bit more pain to align vocals but once you have a complete vocal aligned the rest are easy.

Here's an example of a vocal recorded in a Mazda BT-50 single cab ute.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/97cdrmnor0vie53q86w2b/Tin-Can.mp3?rlkey=cn678wd67sdf12cl2lo0qeku4&dl=0

Wow, good work dude! I listened straight out and on pretty low volume (middle of night) and the voice sounded good but a bit low maybe (again, it might be my old tired stereo). Very different with headphones, sounds real good and a nice production over all. Well done. I wont invest in any equipment for song as it's too uncertain so, we'll see - if I do something I'll let you know.🙃

Ailerom

@Pxlhg said:
Wow, good work dude! I listened straight out and on pretty low volume (middle of night) and the voice sounded good but a bit low maybe (again, it might be my old tired stereo). Very different with headphones, sounds real good and a nice production over all. Well done. I wont invest in any equipment for song as it's too uncertain so, we'll see - if I do something I'll let you know.🙃

No question, you have to share your music. I suppose the point is I would think the H5 not as good as the other mics I have but I was happy with this. Even recording straight into the iPad microphone would be worth a try. There is so much processing you can do inside the iPad. I reckon it's more than worth doing if it's the only option. Some of my cover band demos were vocal recorded on an iPhone, in a car, using the default Apple voice recording app.

Ailerom

@Fingolfinzz said:
I have a box that I shoved foam in and then put the mic in it, it’s still an improvement though cos my room sounds like shit cos it’s too open I guess

That sounds like a good idea. I could rig up a lined cardboard box around my current foam thing.

I reckon there would be more than I can imagine different things people have tried. If you get to the point of wrapping yourself in foam though, I think you've gone too far.

Gavinski

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

You can power an audio interface directly from the iPad if you have a USB C model. If not you can use a powerbank plugged in to a hub (this works with both lightning and USB C models):

Nice! Richard (or anyone else), any thoughts on an ultra small, light (preferably also applies to the power source of there is one) and affordable usb c interface, even with just the ability to plug in one XLR or instrument cable at a time?

JanKun

@Gavinski said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

You can power an audio interface directly from the iPad if you have a USB C model. If not you can use a powerbank plugged in to a hub (this works with both lightning and USB C models):

Nice! Richard (or anyone else), any thoughts on an ultra small, light (preferably also applies to the power source of there is one) and affordable usb c interface, even with just the ability to plug in one XLR or instrument cable at a time?

Zoom AMS 22

Presonus Audiobox Go

No experience with those (I am using an SSL2 like Richard) but they seem to fit your requirements.

richardyot

@Gavinski said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

You can power an audio interface directly from the iPad if you have a USB C model. If not you can use a powerbank plugged in to a hub (this works with both lightning and USB C models):

Nice! Richard (or anyone else), any thoughts on an ultra small, light (preferably also applies to the power source of there is one) and affordable usb c interface, even with just the ability to plug in one XLR or instrument cable at a time?

The Scarlett Solo is very small and pretty good IMO.

ecou

I would think the most portable setup would be a USB microphone straight into the iPad.

mtenk

@Gavinski said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

You can power an audio interface directly from the iPad if you have a USB C model. If not you can use a powerbank plugged in to a hub (this works with both lightning and USB C models):

Nice! Richard (or anyone else), any thoughts on an ultra small, light (preferably also applies to the power source of there is one) and affordable usb c interface, even with just the ability to plug in one XLR or instrument cable at a time?

I’ve been using an IK iRig Pro Duo I/O for a couple of years and it works flawlessly with my iPad Air4. It’s bus powered so it’s been great for a mobile rig. The ONLY thing I dislike about it is that it requires a proprietary USB-C cable (kinda lame). Sound quality wise it’s fine…just clean signal, nothing special but nothing bad.

They go on the used market for $80-$100 or so. Worth a look.

mistercharlie

I use a Sennheiser E906 for vocals, although mostly for spoken bits (I also use it as a podcasting mic).

The E906 is a guitar mic, designed to be draped over the front of an amp, but I really like it on voices too. It’s a dynamic mic, and rejects room noise really well. I have it on a shock mount with a pop shield.

In the past I used to run it into an eventide MixingLink to use its preamp, as my K-Mix’s preamp wasn’t up to the job, but it works really well with the iConnect.

My actual recording technique is probably terrible. I don’t have a vocal booth or anything, I just get in real close on the mic. There’s a little air from the room, but I like the sound of it. Plus, for music, I’m just going to be chopping and sampling the vocals anyway.

Ailerom

@JanKun said:

@Gavinski said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:

@Ailerom said:

@richardyot said:

@Pxlhg said:
I really would like to try to do some vocal recordings but living in an apartment (built 1947 when the aftermath of ww2 caused that they had to use poor materials, well that's the explanation I got anyway when asking why e.g light switches comes out of the walls 😂) it's just not doable. I've been looking for a booth, both ready made and dyi but it's to high a cost. It's quite frustrating.

That's a shame. I know one previous forum member (@LostBoy85 who hasn't posted for years) used to record his vocals in the car, for that very reason. Just drive somewhere quiet, park the car and record Cars make quite good vocal booths as it happens, thanks to the seat fabric.

Otherwise you could just record in the daytime, when people are more likely to be out, or at least not asleep. It partly depends on how loudly or quietly you intend to sing.

I was just going to say, even with the NTK I still use an SM57 and a Rode-USB sometimes. But in the context of this post, I used a Zoom H5 to record vocals in my ute, and a few others in a car. It works very well. One of the song of the month competition submissions was recorded that way. If I couldn't record inside, I'd record in a car with the Zoom no worries. Not quite as good as indoors but better than many other options.

That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

You can power an audio interface directly from the iPad if you have a USB C model. If not you can use a powerbank plugged in to a hub (this works with both lightning and USB C models):

Nice! Richard (or anyone else), any thoughts on an ultra small, light (preferably also applies to the power source of there is one) and affordable usb c interface, even with just the ability to plug in one XLR or instrument cable at a time?

Zoom AMS 22

Presonus Audiobox Go

No experience with those (I am using an SSL2 like Richard) but they seem to fit your requirements.

I'm pretty happy with my Shure MVi. I think, it's USB-B though.

richardyot

@Ailerom said:

@Pxlhg said:
That's actually a good idea, now I just need a car🙃 (ha ha, I actually do borrow a neighbours Volvo V60 sometimes in exchange for looking after their house plants in the summer). But how to connect the mic, is the lighter outlet enough to drive an audio interface? If not I only have an iPhone SE to use.

I just use a Zoom H5. I position it in a position where I feel comfortable singing toward it. I usually throw a jacket up against the windscreen behind it. Then I play the mix on headphones and record the vocal over and over on the H5. It's a bit more pain to align vocals but once you have a complete vocal aligned the rest are easy.

Here's an example of a vocal recorded in a Mazda BT-50 single cab ute.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/97cdrmnor0vie53q86w2b/Tin-Can.mp3?rlkey=cn678wd67sdf12cl2lo0qeku4&dl=0

The song sounds great, and the vocal is terrific! I don't think anyone would know how this was recorded.

seonnthaproducer

I have the vocalist song the entire song about 5-6 times, recording each take.

I used to do the section recording technique, but I found the vocals weren’t consistent, and it was hard to get the vocal inflections with each transitions. Plus, I’d spend more time in a session recording 5-6 takes of each section.

So, I do a scratch vocal of myself l recording the song, then I pass it on to the vocalist to listen a few times.

When we meet, we record the vocal to the same instrumental like 5-6 times.

If there’s a part I need then to work on, say the bridge, we record more takes on it.

This has saved me a ton of time in a session, and I’ve ended up doing multiple songs in a session. Artist was happy, and I ended up with organized projects ready for comping.

dreamcartel

@richardyot said:
I usually record a scratch vocal and listen to it for a couple of days first, just to check I'm happy with the words and the melody. At this stage I will usually make some changes, there will be some lyrics that don't sit right and maybe also some tweaks to the melody after I hear it in context.

For the final takes my workflow is similar to yours: I sing each section separately and usually do around 8 to 12 takes that sit in a take folder in Logic.

The loop recording process in Logic makes this task really fast. When I used to do this in Auria I always had to stop the transport and return to the start of the loop and record again. Loop recording means you can stay in the zone and just work on the performance, without having to constantly fiddle with the transport controls.

I will then carefully listen through all the takes and choose the best one for the lead, and a second one as a double.

I don't always add harmonies, but if I think some are needed (usually in the chorus) I will sing them using the same workflow. I generally don't pan any vocals, except very occasionally the low harmonies.

I don't find the editing particularly tedious, in Logic it's pretty quick to loop a section and go through a take folder. I don't comp individual words (or even lines), I usually use the whole take (whole verse, whole chorus etc) without chopping it up into comped sections. So in terms of going through the takes the process is quick.

Later on I might need to do some editing of the audio regions to deal with sibilants, that process can be time-consuming. I will slice sibilants out into their own mini-regions and reduce the gain, and fade in and out to tame the problem sounds.

My room is very reverberant because it has wooden floors and wooden blinds, so I've built a homebrew vocal booth using acoustic foam stuck to some boards with bookstops glued to them as makeshift stands:

And I've been through a few microphones and interfaces over the years, but I'm currently settled on this, an SM7B and SSL 2. I find the SM7 very forgiving compared to condenser mics because it doesn't emphasize all the little pops and clicks from the mouth as much as more sensitive mics. In the past I would lose perfectly good vocal takes because there would be annoying mouth and throat noises in there, and the SM7 seems to mitigate that.

Wow, what did that run?

Also do you find using an sm57 with a pop filter adequate for vocals or should It be sm58

Telefunky

A Pauly P120 pop filter may make a huge difference in front of a SM57.
At least in my case (it‘s depending on individual voice and/or air stream), I observed a clarity never heard before on that mic. Stunning.
(the P120 is very expensive, there a foam based Rycotes that are probably comparable for about half the price)

Imho the P120‘s „trick“ is 2 layers of randomly woven material. Under a good 20x magnifier there’s no pattern detectable.