QUESTION: What’s more important to the success of a song? A) the emotion, energy, and overall performance style? Or B) the fact that one note was a little off here or there?
ANSWER: A! The overall musicality, power, and emotion of a performance are more important than perfection. A minor blemish will go unnoticed by most listeners in the context of an otherwise amazing performance. As a last resort, minor mistakes may be correctable using pitch and time editing tools – but those tools leave telltale signs, and over-correction will remove the groove, style, and musicality from the performance.
9.4 MIKING INDIVIDUALS
Large diaphragm cardioid condenser microphones are the usual choice for vocal recording because of their big, hyped, detailed sound. They are often mounted upside down on a large boom stand – this way the mic and stand do not block sight lines to any music stand below the mic. Even though large diaphragm mics are more popular choices, small diaphragm mics, which are usually flatter and more transparent, may suit some singers.
A pop filter should always be used for voice recording when the mic is within a couple of feet of the singer. Make sure there are at least a few inches between the singer and the pop filter, and the pop filter and the mic – the pop filter needs this distance on both sides to work effectively and dissipate the plosive air currents that cause pops and booms.
If you have access to multiple vocal mics, you should experiment with them to decide which one suits the singer best and produces the most pleasing sound. Just because a certain mic is another engineer’s favorite doesn’t mean it will sound great on the singers you’re recording. For example, a mic that has a presence peak where a singer’s sibilance or nasal resonance lies, will rarely be flattering.
Think about mic distance and proximity effect:
• For an up-close and in-your-face sound, position the mic closer to the singer, 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) away, with a pop filter between the mic and singer.
• For a more natural, transparent sound with more of a sense of depth, position the mic 20 to 30 cm or more (9 to 12 in) away from the singer.
The further away a directional mic is, the less proximity effect there will be, but the more room sound there will be – so listen for warmth and fullness vs clarity and diction in addition to direct sound vs room sound as you move the mic back and forth to find the ideal position.
Don’t forget about the more open, honest, and transparent character of omnidirec-tional mics! Their lack of proximity effect allows the singer to get closer without muddy
reflections will be minimized relative to the direct sound.
Some vocal mic techniques to try include:
1. The most “in-your-face” and brightest sound is produced by close miking. The mic is typically placed directly in front of the performer, at a distance of 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in), with a pop filter midway between the vocalist and microphone.
2. A slightly less bright sound, less prone to the booms and pops of plosive air currents, is produced when the microphone is positioned just above the singer’s mouth, facing directly forward. The mic is not directly on-axis to the mouth, hence the slightly less bright sound which may mellow some excess sibilance.
3. Positioning the mic at, or slightly above eye height, angled down towards the mouth keeps it out of plosive air blasts, but on-axis to the mouth. This technique restores some of the brightness lost in the previous technique. It also encourages the singer to face straight ahead and slightly upwards, possibly improving their sound and perfor-mance. It is also easy to set this mic over and out of the way of a music stand. Angling the mic towards the nose instead of the mouth will change the characteristics of the sound picked up – whether this is beneficial or not depends on the singer!
4. Positioning the mic below the mouth, angled up towards the mouth can sometimes benefit a singer who sounds thin and nasally, or overly sibilant. The sound will be fuller and warmer, but less punchy than other close placements. If a music stand is being used this technique can be difficult to set up though.
Fi g u r e 9.1 The different vocal mic positions described in the main text.
If the singer needs lyrics or music, use a music stand – otherwise you’ll hear the rustling of hand held papers. The music stand should be positioned high enough that it does not encour-age the singer to look down – if they do occasionally look down, their position relative to the microphone is changed and the timbre of the recorded voice will fluctuate. The music stand is also a hard reflective surface that causes reflections that the mic may pick up, coloring the vocal sound. Covering the stand with a piece of carpet can help minimize these reflections, as can angling the stand more horizontally so the reflections bounce behind the mic rather than into it.
Do encourage good mic technique! If a singer is getting much louder on some notes or phrases, have them lean back from the mic slightly. If there are very quiet passages they can lean into the mic a little. This will even out their recorded levels, making compression and mixing easier. Do watch out for excessive tonal changes related to proximity effect and reflected sound if the singer to mic distance changes – if there are any distracting timbral changes, have them maintain a more constant distance from the mic, adjust your recording levels accordingly, and be prepared to have compressors work a little harder during mixing.
Ultimately, it’s all about the performance. So if the artist you’re working with can only feel at home if they have a handheld mic so they can sing like they do on stage, give them a handheld mic. The handheld mic could be a prop, with a studio vocal mic set up just beyond it, or it may be the mic you record through.
Solo Vocal Recording @
No EQ is used on these examples.
Example 9.1: A vocal recorded with a cardioid mic just a few inches away. This per-spective may be considered too close.
Example 9.2: The same singer recorded with a cardioid mic about 9 inches away. The sound is close and powerful, but still fairly natural sounding.
Example 9.3: A vocal recorded with a cardioid mic, about 18 inches away. This sound may be too distant for some aesthetics, but favored for others because of its organic neutrality.
Example 9.4: A vocal recorded with an omnidirectional mic, just a few inches from the mic. Notice the lack of proximity effect compared to the close cardioid mic recording.
9.5 VOICE AND ACOUSTIC GUITAR
Some singer/guitarists need to sing and play at the same time – it is difficult or impossible for them to perform well when they try to record the guitar or vocals in isolation.
Figure 9.2 shows vocal and acoustic guitar being recorded simultaneously. Using a car-dioid or hyper-carcar-dioid mic on the voice, the guitar is off-axis, below the mic’s main pickup.
The guitar spill is subject to the mic’s off-axis coloration, and doesn’t usually sound good.
A cardioid mic (or two) on the guitar, provides a good guitar sound, but vocal spill is colored by the guitar mic’s off-axis characteristics.
Bidirectional mics can be exploited to minimize spill between the voice and guitar, as long as there are no sound sources or undesirable room reflections behind the mics. Because bidirectional mics reject sound directly above and below them, there will be less voice picked up by the guitar mic, and less guitar picked up by the vocal mic, as shown in Figure 9.3.
Aiming the mics by their null points (at 90° and 270°) will reduce spill even further.
Listening carefully for proximity and perspective changes, front/back distance adjustments can also be made to really get the null points aimed at the sources of spill while keeping the desired sound sources on-axis. With a good mic, even if the voice or guitar do end up just a few degrees off-axis, the sound should still be great. In fact, if the vocals are over sibilant or the guitar is too bright, moving the mic slightly off-axis will gently roll off some high frequen-cies as a preferable alternative to EQ. A null point optimized set up is shown in Figure 9.4.
F i g u r e 9 . 2 A singer/guitarist miked with cardioid mics. Each mic picks up significant off-axis (colored) spill.
F i g u r e 9 . 3 Using bidirectional mics on-axis to their desired sound source reduces spill, but the nulls are not quite aligned with the respective sources of spill, so rejection is not maximized.