Recording Vocals at home – Fixing common mistakes

At this point in our career, we’ve recorded vocals a fair few times and implemented them into tracks which were all produced and mixed by at least one of us. When we started out (before releasing any of the PASES music), something which we noticed was that sometimes these recordings sound great, but sometimes… Not so much. We had never taken the time to REALLY look into how to capture a studio quality sounding vocal from home, and so that’s exactly what our mission was. This blog will run through some of the problems we identified, and how the research we did helped us to make adjustments, and get great sounding vocals in our home studio.

The room choice:

The very first thing which seems to come up as a common mistake was recording vocals in the wrong room. The place where you record your vocals will always colour the sound in a certain way and most of the time, this acoustic is probably not desired for the track you’re working on. The best way to make sure you don’t get any unwanted room noise is to record in a vocal booth in a perfectly treated studio, however, as this is not easily available there are several things that can be done at home to negate this issue. Dixon (2018) suggests to “Avoid recording in rooms with lots of hard surfaces and windows”, while Mayzes (2018) advises trying to “use a small-to-medium sized room with a lot of stuff in it. Specifically, with a lot of SOFT stuff like beds, couches, pillows, rugs”. Applying these ideas to our past vocal recording environments suggests that we were doing some things right; namely that we were often recording in medium-sized bedrooms which had a bed and a lot of bedding and clothes, however we have also been getting a lot wrong. Our rooms often had large, empty, flat walls. This is probably what was giving us some unwanted reverb sounds, meaning the vocal wasn’t as ‘present’ as we wanted it to be. To solve this we now use a room with acoustic paneling, a soft carpeted floor, rugs, and several blankets and cushions. This has resulted in a good ‘dead’ sound which allows us to add the desired ‘colour’ later.

Distance from mic:

The next thing we’ve found to be a major factor in vocal recordings not sounding ‘professional', is the distance between sound source and mic. Whitaker (2003) notes that “In a room, the measuring microphone also picks up many sound reflections, the direct sound D and reflections R are added. Near the sound source D predominates; at a greater distance R predominates”. What this means in Lehmans terms is that the further you are away from the mic, the larger the proportion of recorded sound comes from room reflections, instead of the direct sound from the sound source (either a singer, instrument or speaker). So when (for example) we’ve been recording in less-than-ideal rooms, and stepped back from the mic to record a belting section (instead of simply turning down the input gain), we’ve actually increased the amount of unwanted natural reflections the mic picks up in proportion to the belt itself, which ended up making this vocal section actually sound weaker in comparison to other parts of the song. Mayzes (2018) recommends “A good starting place is to set the singer 6 inches away from the mic, and then move them forward or backward to get the tone you’re looking for.” Closer than six inches can be helpful for a closer feeling sound, however too close can lead to plosives coming through too strong and significant bass boosting due to proximity effect. Further away can sound more airy and with a less overpowering low end, but too far away will lead to a more washed out sound with much more of the sound coming from reflections. What we have started doing to avoid these issues is trying the mic at different distances until we felt the sound was right for the performance/emotion of the song.

(good distance from the mic in many cases)

Choice of Microphone:

Before worrying about how far away we are from the mic, however, we should also have been putting a lot more time into choosing the right mic for the job. The mics which we’ve been using most are the MXL 990 and the Bluebird SL by Blue, which are both large diaphragm condenser (capacitor) mics both with a cardioid polar pattern. These are both good choices for getting vocal recordings, due to them being capacitor mics; “Most professional studios will use a capacitor mic for vocal use, because they have a high sensitivity and a wide frequency response, extending up to 20kHz or so” (White, 2018) however the mistake we were making was just using one of them and never experimenting with recording the same vocal on both microphones to see which sounds better for the given song. We have always done several recordings for a single part, but then simply taken the best performance and EQ’d until we thought it sounded right. Paul White (2018) suggests “If the sound isn’t right, try a different mic or change the position on the one you’re using slightly before resorting to EQ”. This is echoed by Dixon (2018) where, in his advice for common home vocal recording mistakes, he writes “If you have multiple microphones, set them up for the vocalist and have them run through a few times with each”. This advice tells us that while we always had the correct tools for recording a vocal well, we weren’t always utilising them properly; experimentation is key with finding the right mic for the song. We have since been recording on multiple microphones until we find the right fit, and only then looking at other ways to improve the sound.

Soundproofing:

The next subject for improvement was soundproofing. In the past when recording vocals, we’ve set up a mic on a stand, attached a pop filter, mounted a reflection filter behind the mic, and then just sung into it without putting up any kind of soundproofing around ourselves. There was no real attempt to block any reflections coming back into the mic (apart from the small reflection filter), and just adding a few very simple things would have drastically improved the ‘deadness’ of the acoustic environment (from the point of view of the mic). White (2002) states “with a cardioid mic, most of the absorption should be placed behind and to the side of the singers position”, meaning we should have been placing some sort of absorption around ourselves when recording. When searching for what could be an effective material to use as soundproofing we found Mayzes (2018) offered a good (and cheap) remedy – “Use what you have on hand – Mattresses, duvets, and heavy curtains can work”. These materials are effective at absorbing sound waves, and will therefore have a very good effect on deadening the sound (which is a very good thing), so if you are looking to record vocals at home in an untreated room, these are good options to go for. What we have started using in our home studio, (instead of these examples) is relying more on creating an already ‘dead’ acoustic environment with the use of acoustic panelling and foam padding. We have found (after some experimentation) that this negates the problem of room reflections just as effectively.

Another important variable which can greatly affect the results is the placement of the microphone setup in the room. White (2002) discusses this as he writes “Excellent home recordings can be made by simply keeping the microphone well away from the walls of the room (and improvising sound absorbers by draping blankets and bedding over mic stands)”. Mayzes (2018) agrees with this idea suggesting “Don’t put the microphone in the exact center of the room”. We took this advice and it did indeed make a large difference, we now only record in specific places in the room (see image below). This again just helps the vocal to suffer less from room reflections.

Fig. 1. The brown area is all places where it is acceptable to place a mic, the orange should be avoided.

Vocal Delivery:

Vocal Delivery is the single most important part of the entire process. You can set up the most amazing vocal booth in the world, but if the vocal delivery isn’t done well, it won’t end up sounding like a good vocal. We often used to jump straight into recordings without preparing beforehand to really make sure the lyrics and melodies shine. The number one piece of advice we can give here is to practice your vocal. Knowing the part well and making sure you find the best phrasing and vocal placement will transform the sound from somebody ‘singing’ to giving a ‘performance’. On top of this, Dixon (2018) suggests spending “five minutes at the start of the session getting the vocalist excited about the way they sound”, adding “Oftentimes a bit of reverb helps them feel at ease and lends to a more confident performance”. There was a time where we used to record vocals completely dry, and the difference of having a couple of effects on while recording is huge. It means you sound better in your headphones, and sounding good through the headphones gives you confidence. This confidence in how you sound will allow you to focus less on hitting every note perfectly, and instead focus on delivering the emotion of the lyrics more effectively and authentically. Mayzes (2018) comments on lyric delivery saying “They [the singer] need to be thinking of the lyrics as a story, not as just words”. This is a very easy trap to fall into, especially when recording yourself as you can often be more critical of your intonation than another engineer may be (intonation is much easier to fix than emotion being vacant). You have to remember that when recording vocals, you’re speaking directly to everyone who listens, so you have to put that emotion across. The simple addition of a bit of reverb really assists this.

In conclusion, there are many traps to fall into and many variables to consider when recording vocals from home. There is definitely a reason why the majority of bigger artists still go to a vocal booth in a studio to track their vocals. We believe however, that we have managed to effectively navigate all of these obstacles and create studio-quality vocals for our own tracks and for the artists that come to our studio. Therefore if you follow this advice, you will also be able to record studio-sounding vocals from home.

References:

iZotope. (2018). 11 Common Vocal Production Mistakes in Home Studios. [online] Available at: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/11-common-vocal-production-mistakes-in-home-studios.html [Accessed 18 Nov. 2021].

Mayzes, R. (2018). Recording Vocals at Home: 9 Big Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Landr Blog. Available at: https://blog.landr.com/recording-vocals-mistakes/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2021].

McAllister, M. (2021). The Best Cheap DIY Vocal Booth Options. [online] Produce Like A Pro. Available at: https://producelikeapro.com/blog/best-inexpensive-diy-vocal-booth/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2021].

Soundfly. (2020). How Close Should I Be to My Mic When I Record Vocals? [online] Available at: https://flypaper.soundfly.com/produce/how-close-should-i-be-to-my-mic-when-i-record-vocals/. [accessed 18 Nov. 2021]

WHITAKER, J.C. (2003). Master Handbook of Audio Production. New York: McGraw-Hill.

WHITE, P. (2002). Recording And Production Techniques. Second edition. London: SMT.