Recording Vocals Part I

Vocals can be one of the trickiest parts of a song to record, but can be what sells your mix as being professional or what makes it sound amateurish. There are several things to consider when recording vocals such as microphone selection, positioning, performance guiding, and processing. I am going to do my best to pass on some information that I have picked up along the way through both research and trial and error. The best way to learn this stuff is to apply it yourself and figure out what works best for you, there is no "one way" to do anything in recording.


The first thing you want to do when preparing to record vocals is to select the right microphone. This step should not be shrugged off and considered as unimportant, because the right microphone can make your job much easier later on and the wrong microphone can make a vocal track almost unusable.

Listen to the artist singing in the environment you are recording in. Find out what frequencies are present in their voice. Are you recording a female vocal with a high range or a male with a deep voice?

Often times we are wanting an open vocal sound that has good representation in the high frequencies which will help with presence in your mix. A condenser microphone tends to have more clarity and definition in this range than dynamic microphones. That is not to say a dynamic microphone is not the way to go. You could have a very thin sounding vocal that a dynamic can round out. If you have a vocalist that is just coming out too bright when using a condenser microphone, it may be a good idea to switch over to a dynamic microphone.

Something that I suggest when recording vocals is to make the time to test out different microphones. I often bring out three or four different possibilities as well as maybe one dynamic microphone just in case. I then run them one at a time with the vocalist to see which one fits the vocal the best and brings out the characteristics I want emphasized.

I also record these tests so that I can bring the vocalist into the control room to take a listen for themselves. Often times I have found that engineers tend to disregard what the artist themselves think even though they often have the only judgment that matters... they are the ones paying you after all.

After a microphone has been selected, you can work on positioning both it and the vocalist in the room you are recording in. You don't want to be too close to surfaces, as these will introduce reflections in the recording that can result in undesired effects that are hard to remove. You also want to make sure you are not in any room modes. Stay out of the center of the room where standing waves can exaggerate resonate frequencies of a room.

A vocalist should not be right up on top of a microphone when recording, but should allow a bit of distance between them and the microphone as the picture to the right suggests using their hand as a guide. A pop filter should then be used, placed half way between the singer and the microphone. This will help reduce the chances of plosives and sibilance coming through onto your recording.

These techniques should be a good starting point towards getting a great sounding vocal track. Remember that these are suggestions, and you should always experiment with different microphone placements and use techniques that work for the particular situation you find yourself in. I will be going into more detail in a later post on guiding the vocal performance as well as processing the vocals once they are recorded to get the best results.

What are some of your favorite microphones to use on vocals? Do you find yourself using dynamic microphones on vocals very much? What techniques do you use to match the perfect microphone to a vocal? Let me know in the comments section!