5 Tips For Recording Professional Vocals At Home | E-Book

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Most Common Microphones & Gear Recommendation 

LOW BUDGET GEAR

(Good for starting out if you have nothing): https://bit.ly/2UUkI84

HIGHER BUDGET GEAR (What I recommend): https://bit.ly/3e5zSzb

It is important to understand the kind of microphone you have and what position it needs to be in for capturing clean vocals. 

The 3 most common types of vocal mics you will see are: 

1. Dynamic 

2. Large Diaphragm Condenser 

3. Small Diaphragm Condense 

Most dynamic microphones are END ADDRESS diaphragms while most condenser microphones are SIDE ADDRESS diaphragms. Without getting too complicated, this just means you sing into the END of the microphone, or into the SIDE of the microphone.

 Every mic is different, so be sure to check your user manual or google to find out if your mic is END or SIDE address. 

1. Room Selection / Treatment And Proper Mic Placements

When recording vocals, there are many factors that will determine the quality. One of the biggest and easiest things to control is simply picking a good room or space to record in. 

Some of the biggest artists you know and love have recorded vocals in hotel rooms, tour busses, backstage, or even just at their own houses. 

With some basic understanding of recording, you too will know how to get the best possible quality vocals regardless of your set up 

When Selecting a room or space to record in, try to avoid big, open, empty rooms with lots of echo and reverberation.

 If you clap your hands and it sounds like you are in a cave, that's not a good room to record in. 

Rooms with carpet and a lot of furniture, blankets, or curtains will help to dampen the reflections you hear in a big empty room. 

Another thing to consider is where you place your microphone in that room. 

Try to avoid recording in rooms with fans, loud electronics running, or tvs playing in the background. 

You want to be able to hear little to no background sound coming from the microphone when recording. 

A good practice is set up in a comfortable space that isn't too close to a very reflective surface (like recording in the corner of the room or up against a flat wall). 

Many people will set up mattresses or blankets draped around them maybe in a closet or something filled with clothes that help to stop reflections and add some sound dampening around the area they are recording. 

Get creative! It doesn't have to look beautiful, as long as it sounds beautiful. Even just hanging some towels from the ceiling to create a little 4 wall towel booth can work in a pinch. 

A useful tool artists will use if they are limited in control of the room they are in is to use some form of a microphone isolation shield. These can be very handy in a pinch. I will include some links in the gear list above. 

The last tool that is ESSENTIAL to getting clean vocal recording is a pop filter. 

Pop filters stop short bursts of air known as plosives that happen when we say the letters "B" or "P". 

This can often overload the microphone diaphragm and cause unwanted distortion or clipping, and also just sounds unprofessional. 

Generally the pop filter will be between 3-7" away from the microphone. 

The pop filter helps you keep the proper distance from the microphone as well.

Microphones are good at only one thing, they listen to what you point them at. 

That is it. Be sure to position your microphone at a comfortable height and point the diaphragm of the microphone at your mouth. 

Don't angle the microphone up or down, try to have directly pointed at your mouth. 

I aim for about 6" or a hand length (from fingertips to the wrist) distance from your microphone, basically right up on the pop filter. 

Too much space from you and the microphone will sound like you are far away from the listener and make your voice thin sounding. 

Get up too a comfortable distance to the mic, and if your voice is too loud at this distance when rapping at your loudest, turn down the input of your audio interface. 

We want to get the CLEANEST most SMOOTH vocal takes possible. 

This brings me to my next point, recording at PROPER LEVELS. 

2. Proper Recording Levels

One of the BIGGEST problems I see with home recordings is the levels artists are recording at.

 There is no need to over complicate this topic. 

Most of the time levels are so loud that the vocal is distorting and clipping and just sounds like garbage. 

You can always turn a quiet vocal up, you CANNOT however, fix a vocal that has clipped or distorted when recording. 

Just bring down that input of your audio interface to keep levels at a conservative range. (Usually between -18 and -6db)

Oftentimes people are looking to get the vocals LOUD like the beat they are recording to and at levels as close to the "red" area of the meter without peaking.

 There is no need for that, try to stay in the Green or Yellow area of your meters when recording.

 If the beat or music is too loud in your headphones and you can't hear your vocals recording at that level, simply bring the volume of the beat down. 

Just record at a level that you can hear your vocals clearly and don't hear any unwanted background noise. 

Once you have a good space to record, mic positioned correctly and your levels set at a conservative level, you are ready to begin recording that PERFECT PERFORMANCE. 

3. Nailing That Perfect Performace

When recording, performance is THE MOST IMPORTANT factor. 

Think of it like this, back in the day of recording to tape and paying crazy amounts for studio time, having your verses practiced and rehearsed was crucial.

Time = Money. 

Artists had to come prepared with their BEST possible energy for nailing that perfect performance. This is the official record. 

This piece of art will live on FOREVER once it is recorded, do you really want that recording to just be "ok"? Hell no! 

We want to nail the BEST version of that performance we possibly can so that when people hear that song and sing it back, they feel the emotion you were trying to convey and learn every single word with your exact cadence because you came on and stole all the attention when that vocal came in. 

Cadence is a modulation or inflection of the voice. This is the TONE or CHARACTER of your performance, the energy that you want people to feel relies heavily on your cadence.

 I see a lot of artists focus mainly on cadence, vibe and flow of the vocals before ever even really thinking about lyrical content; especially for catchy or hooky vocal parts. 

You will oftentimes just hear rappers mumbling the melody or rhythm of a hook long before they have the final words set in stone. 

Think of ODB from Wu-Tang, his unpredictable cadence and crazy vocal inflections is what makes him such a unique and memorable artist upon first hearing him.

Your voice is an instrument, the final and most important instrument added to the song, this is your time to SHINE! 

If it ain't perfect, re record it until it is! 

Even if you have to record a "draft" version and listen to it on repeat for days on end until you know EXACTLY how you want that vocal part to sound. 

Down to the little details of the way that "T" is pronounced in a certain word, or the inflection you put on a certain word you want people to really FEEL. 

Once you have NAILED that lead vocal performance and it sounds amazing all by itself even unmixed, that's when you know your job is done! 

Now you can move onto the next tip, adding ear candy, layers, harmonies and background vocals. 

4. Vocal Production & Layering

Vocal production is truly an art form in itself.

A lot of major artists work with songwriters and vocal producers specifically to help them structure and build out the vocal parts to be engaging throughout the song, never leaving the listener with a dull moment. 

With rap, oftentimes this is just in the form of a catchy adlib track or some simple vocal doubles to add thickness and weight to a hook. 

Harmonies are always a really cool addition when working with more melodically vocal parts. 

The level of creativity is up to you and you can keep it as clean and simple as you want. 

That's the beauty of making your own music at home, you can experiment with things and try stuff you never have before just to see what. 

It sounds like. 

Happy accidents sometimes lead to the coolest results and they happen all by just experimenting and trying new things. 

I see a lot of artists send me songs that have 1 lead vocal for the verse and chorus, 1 dub track, emphasizing certain phrases maybe, and then a simple adlib track with some response words to the lead vocal. 

This is more than enough to build out a great song, but there are many things we can do to add even more energy to a song. 

DOUBLING 

A good trick to do is recording 2-3 vocal doubles of the whole chorus part. 

Make sure to nail the performance as close to the original TIMING wise to make sure they sound like one big vocal and not like a choir of people singing the part. 

You can sometimes layer in a higher or lower vocal pitch, or slightly different cadence to blend in with the lead vocal to add some cool harmony. 

When you only record one vocal double, this limits the engineer to only having a mono layer to work with. 

A lot of artists have only one lead vocal panned right in the center through the verse and chorus. 

A sound I hear a lot of times and really like is when the chorus opens up and becomes stereo, coming out of both speakers. 

This usually means you have a lead, and two vocal backgrounds, one vocal part is panned hard Left and another panned hard right. 

Now you have center, left and right all coming in strong with that vocal part to really add depth and size to the chorus. 

A simple but effective trick.

MELODIC ADLIBS 

As I mentioned before, your voice is an instrument. 

If you're a very melodic artist, try this sometime for some cool adlibs. Mute the vocals and just vibe to the beat for a minute. 

Close your eyes and just feel the melodies of the song. 

I will have an artist record a full take all the way through the song just humming or adding little melodic parts with their voice, almost like they are a synth or pad. 

This can add some really cool textures and harmony parts that can be added behind the lead vocal parts later. 

Artists like Rae Sremmurd and the Migos are very good at adding little bits of ear candy in the background to keep the song interesting at all times, catch your attention, and better set the tone for the song. 

Try out some of these layering techniques on your next song if you're looking to add a little extra something 

5. Fast WorkFlow With Recording Templates

Once you have gotten to a point where you have your recording setup locked in and you know how you like to record, you will find you spend a lot of your time doing the same things over and over when setting up sessions to record. 

You also may have found some reverbs or autotune settings you really like on your voice and want to be able to reproduce them quickly every time. 

This is where having a nice recording template can get you those CONSISTENT results quick and easily. 

Every time I start a session, I load my recording template, click and drag in the beat to the session, set my microphone track to record, and we're in business. 

All of my most commonly used effects and vocal chains are set up in the template to where I can QUICKLY and EASILY get a feel of the vibe and helps SO much when in the creative stage to not have to think about technical settings and time consuming processes. 

I want to stay in that right mind state of thinking and be as fluid and creative as possible without limitations. 

Having multiple vocal presets at the click of a button lets me paint with whatever colors I may want, without the pain or time involved to set it all up every time. 

Check out my Recording Templates and Vocal Presets to begin recording and sounding great FAST and EASY 

Instantly improve your sound!

Conclusion

With these tips and tricks for recording vocals at home, I truly believe you will be able to take your songs to the NEXT LEVEL and be proud of the music YOU recorded in the comfort of your own home. 

If you take away anything from this, understand that a good song is made up of a great beat, strong vocal performance, and lyrics that captivate you with emotion. 

All of this comes from the writing and recording phase of the song. 

Too many artists try to get the recording done as fast as possible and worry about the sound "latter" or have the outlook that things will be "fixed in the mix". 

You can't change the taste of a cake after it's been baked. 

Think of writing your song as picking the PERFECT ingredients and recipe for your cake, recording is the process of combining the ingredient at JUST THE RIGHT LEVELS and mixing is just putting the icing on an already delicious tasting cake, making it THAT MUCH BETTER. 

Mastering could be considered placing the beautiful cake with icing onto an elegant serving platter and placing it on display with some nice garnishments to really seal the deal. 

Now, go BAKE YOUR CAKE!  

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