Recording - February 2016 - 16

detail, while keeping the warmth of the
vocal. If you are lucky enough to find
one that has been properly maintained,
this microphone is sweet, particularly for
singers that have a lot of power. The 2
kHz range can get overexcited when
they project power, and this mic is the
perfect antidote. Celine Dion carried her
own 251 to every session, and she
owned a particularly sweet one.
The next one in terms of darkness to
brightness would be the U 47. The balance of the lower resonance with the
crisp high end make this microphone
ideal for male vocalists and some female
vocalists with richer tones. This is the
Frank Sinatra microphone. Needless to
say, if you find a good U 47, you can't
go wrong. The next one is the U 67, my
favorite for most female singers. I find
that its balanced richness of detail is perfect for capturing the breathy nuances
we've come to expect from pop vocals,
without getting overly crisp at the source.
The brightest of the four is the AKG

C12-many vocalists prefer this mic for
the clarity they hear in capturing vocals.
If I can, I like to set up at least two mics
in front of a singer I haven't worked with
before, and choose which microphone
suits the vocalist the best. The general principles about these great mics apply to any
other microphone you can get out there.
Some will be cleaner, some will boost the
critical diction area, and some will boost
the high end. The trick is to know what
your mic brings to the mix, and then try
out at least two options to see what works
best for the singer and the song.
With digital recording, where the medium returns to us essentially what we throw
at it, the signature of the vocal sound is
captured at the source. I like to use mic
pres that give me interesting colors such
as harmonics or distortion. The original
Neve 1073 and its modern day emulations add just the kind of grit we've grown
to love in classic vocal recordings, so I
tend to favor those over a cleaner pre.
With this combination, I then go for a
really transparent compressor, such as the
Summit TLA-100 or my favorite, the TubeTech CL-1B. What I love about the CL-1B is
that it can really control the peaks of a
powerful vocal while keeping the sound
very transparent. Now, if you happen to
be working with a mic that is crisper, or a
mic pre that is more transparent, then

maybe you want to go for a grittier compressor, like a Teletronix LA-2A or a dbx
160. Notice that most of the compressors
I've mentioned have an optoelectronic
detector; if you want to get the most natural compression, the transient characteristics
of an optoelectronic compressor can't be
beat.
How do you put a vocalist in the right
frame of mind to give you the best performance, and how do you help a vocalist who is having trouble capturing the
vocal you think he or she can produce?
Sometimes the work of a producer falls
into the psychological, correct?
Again, each vocalist is different-what
works for one won't work for another.
What I try to do in every case is to keep
things very relaxed and low key. The last
thing you want to add to the situation is
the feeling that "this is it-make it or
break it". Vocalists have the most difficult
time because their instrument is literally
tied to their emotions. If the singer is in
the wrong frame of mind, you will hear it.
So, helping them to relax is paramount.
This is also why I try to not make a
big deal about when we are recording
and when we aren't. The very first take
may contain magic, so if the music is
rolling and the vocalist is singing, I am
always recording. Let me say that again:

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