Sing Along

I don't have isolation booths for vocals or drums. I have a nice live room for guitar amps and a nice dead space for my control area. Note: that's "control area" not "control room". There are a few reasons for this:

1) Installing a dedicated control room (or vocal/drum booth) would cut into useable space in my basement.

2) 95% of my live audio recording can be done with headphones

3) It can be an expensive proposition.

4) It cuts into visibility

5) My wife would kill me

Obviously, this is not an ideal scenario for recording. However, I have Mackie 824 near field monitors and an area that has acceptable audio characteristics. I've tuned the area for real-world response and I know how sounds react within this area. If you're reading this, you probably have a similar situation; that is, a less-than-perfect environment that you know like the back of your hand. It's cheap and you get good, if not great results. And you may have some of the same drawbacks as I have:

1) During cold weather, the furnace kicks on. I've had to compensate by moving my vocal area. This has actually worked out OK. I have a nearly-completely unhindered view of the vocalist which is great for visual cues and there's actually more room in the new area for the singer(s). Still, I typically turn off the heat in winter and AC in summer during vocal takes.

2) Unfortunately, the new vocal area is situated directly under the drain for the 2nd floor bathroom. Which means that vocal recording has to stop while the toilet flushes (Hold your water, girl!).

3) I've also impressed upon my family to take off their shoes and tiptoe during particularly critical vocal passages. Mostly, I just ask them all to leave the house during vocal sessions (which doesn't always work).

I do quite a few musical theater sessions. I am either recording backing tracks for the shows, editing existing tracks, or recording vocalists for auditions, demos, or lip-syncing. I recently finished a track that called for a 30 person chorus, but only 8 singers showed up. Still, there's no way you're going to put 8 people in a vocal booth, so I now have an advantage. Setting up a stage monitor at low volume, I was able to feed audio to the singers without overtaxing my headphone distribution system. We triple-tracked the chorus vocals with great results. I had the singers in a semi-circle around my Studio Projects C1 condensor mic. I also had 2 Nady CM-90's, 4-5 feet behind the C1, set up for 180 degrees spread and panned them hard left and right. Those vocals sounded HUGE.

When recording multiple vocalists simultaneously, make sure that you listen to each vocalist's timbre and volume (when possible) and position them for the best blend. Another neat trick is to record a few takes and then move the singers around the mic, so you don't get the same "image" from each take. This helps you achieve that "large" sound if you don't have a full complement of singers at your disposal.

You make do with what you have. I put the C1 on an extra-long heavy duty boom stand, and make the vocalists sing up to the mic. The CM-90's are at about 5 feet high and hard panned left and right, behind the C1 for a great stereo image.

You can purchase a C1 for under $250, and CM-90's for under $50 each. The Nadys are not the most reliable mic out there, but when they work, they're more than worth the money. Both require phantom power.

Invest in a heavy duty boom stand for vocals. OnStage makes one for $150, Ultimate has one for $240. I use a Quik-Lok. They look great when potential clients take the tour, they last forever, and they're difficult for clumsy singers to knock over.

Till next time.

DD

http://DoubleDstudio.com/

We can make your music sound great!

Double D Studio

Welcome to the Double D Studio official blog site for home recording studio owners of any and all levels of expertise. Although I am a PC guy and I use Sonar, I want to make this blog as general as possible, to apply to you ProTools/Mac guys and gals out there.

I want to look at issues such as outboard gear and FX, mic choices and placement, instruments, arrangements, and other resources. I think one of the most important issues for new studio owners is cost. If you're like me, it's always "one more"... fill in the blank. A new vocal mic, a couple more boom stands, a studio drum kit, another softsynth, cables ... the list is endless.

So, what can we make do with? How do we stop the outflow of money like blood from a severed artery? What is a cost-effective means of ... (again, fill in the blank).

As we move forward, we will address business issues like marketing your studio (if you want to do that); treading that fine line between word-of-mouth and serious advertising. Do you want to open up your home to just anyone, or do you feel more comfortable with soliciting business on your own, and from among your friends and acquaintances, letting your work and reputation speak for themselves. Lots to ponder. Stay tunes.

Come back soon.

Double D
http://doubledstudio.com/
We can make your music sound great!