The following blog post is going to cover a range of different vocal production techniques suggested by a variety of recording/mixing engineers alongside producers.
In an interview for Sound on Sound magazine, Phill Brown – a recording engineer famous for working with Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin – talked about the ways he likes to work with vocals. To avoid the microphone respond dramatically in accordance to varying SPLs, ‘dummy mics’ [2:25] can be set up in front of the singer, so they think they are singing into that microphone but actually an off-axis microphone is being used to capture their performance (or both). This way the singer is able to have freedom of movement and the proximity difference between the singer and the microphone means that plosives and dynamic changes aren’t going to create dramatic variances in the way the microphone is picking them up.
Another way Phil suggests dealing with vocals is having a singer who knows how to work with a microphone [2:48] – meaning knowing correct ways to utilise the voice in terms of dynamic range vs proximity to the microphone, singing off-axis, warm up techniques and just maintaining a healthy voice.
[3:07] He suggests not compressing vocals too much on the way in because you can always treat it in the post.
Darren Schneider, Recording Arts Course Director at Full Sail University. Darren explains that whilst recording vocals, it’s not uncommon to hear notes ending with ‘s’s’ and ‘t’s’ increasing in amplitude due to the microphone’s frequency response being sensitive to the higher frequencies often present whilst pronouncing those sounds [0:53]. To reduce the amplitude of these sounds, known as sibilance, a de-esser can be used [1:05] – essentially a single-band compressor that can be used within the 5-10 kHz frequency range to attenuate the presence of sibilance in vocal takes.
He also suggests using the HPF section of an EQ unit [1:49] to reduce the presence of low end frequency content that can clash with the frequency content of other musical elements within the mix.
Darren states that you can use compression as a way of reducing the dynamic range of a signal so that there is a less drastic difference between quieter and louder sections. Referring to how the parameters of a compressor can be calibrated in accordance to the way a particular sing singers, he suggests a good compression ratio to start with is 3:01, this being the amount of compression applied to a signal after it has exceeded the compressor’s threshold.
References
Full Sail University (2014) How To: Vocal Mixing Techniques — Full Sail University. [online] YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4_04tm_cxA [Accessed 16 March 2017].
Sound on Sound (2016) Phill Brown at ACM: Vocal production & how to have a lasting career. [online video] YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pBTbKALFtc [Accessed 16 March 2017].