EQ Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 34)

VOCAL CORDS TURNING DREARY VOCALS INTO POP STAR PERFORMANCES, PART I Fig. 1. Evans’ pitch-correction map in Melodyne. The demo track is the yellow blobs, the lead vocal is the red blobs, and the correct pitch is shown in the blue silhouettes. by Devine Evans In a perfect world, every vocal session would have a singer as amazing as Beyoncé, as diverse as Fergie, and as passionate as Mary J. Blige. On the other hand, how could audio engineers truly master their craft if they were only working with singers on those levels? After all, it doesn’t take a genius to make a great singer sound good. So I would like to pay tribute—and say “thank you”—to all of the non-Beyoncés who have helped me develop my vocalrecording techniques. Now, I’d like to share some of these hard-learned applications with EQ readers. This month, we’ll deal solely with lead vocals. Next month, we’ll tackle recording background vocals, harmonies, and a few tricks. PREPARATION Well, okay, we’re going a little backwards here, because I typically do my lead vocal sessions after all the background vocals are recorded, edited, and processed. I feel this gives my future pop star a more exciting and energetic feeling about their song, because the arrangement is really coming alive. But, as I said, we’ll delve into those sessions next issue. Before I allow my vocalist to begin recording lead vocals, I have my demo singer set the pace by giving me one perfect lead-vocal track with all the feeling, timing, and spot-on pitch I want. Not only will I use this as a guide for our performer to follow, but I will also use it in the editing process as a template for my lead vocal. COMPING IN LOGIC As the caliber of singer we are discussing is not likely to give me a breathtaking first take on our lead vocal track, comping is the only option. There are many ways to accomplish the task of creating a perfect composite vocal from four or five less-than-perfect takes, but thanks to the revolutionary design of Apple Logic 8, I now use it to record all of my lead vocals. Logic makes the process of creating a composite vocal painless. With my future pop star in the booth, my audio track armed, mic preamp set, and monitoring volume low, all I have to do is record take after take. With Logic, there is never a situation where I say, “Man, I wish I would have kept the vocal we did two takes ago,” because the software converts all of my audio regions into a take folder. After I get five or six takes I feel are the best the performer can give us, it’s time to start comping. In the Arrange window, all I have to do is select the lead vocal that we just recorded, and choose the Region menu >Folder>Pack Take Folder. As soon as this process is complete, a small arrow pointing to the right shows up. By clicking this arrow, you open the Take Folder, and you’re ready to begin. All of the audio takes are listed directly below the most current take, so you simply swipe across any of the previous audio takes with the pointer tool to start the process. You will notice the top track in the Take Folder begins to display an adjusted waveform with all of the selections separated by white 34 EQ JULY 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - July 2008

EQ Magazine - July 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Louis XIV, Four TET and Steve Reid, Can Your Record Go Gold in the Digital Age Tool Box Death Cab For Cutie Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Propellerhead Reason 4 Sony Acid Pro 6 EDAX Audio Labs VTP-100 M-Audio Profire 2626 Tape Simulator Shootout Tape Simulators Sounds Room With a VU: Infrasonic Sound Recording Company, Los Angeles, CA.

EQ Magazine - July 2008

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