RECORDING March 2023 - 72

FadeOut
[
The Art, Frustration and
Wonder of Recording
Your Own Vocals
Guest editorial by Aaron J. Trumm
I
n general, vocal recording is a tricky thing to master.
Cutting your own vocals is not for the faint of heart. In
the " golden age " of recording, unless we are speaking
of home demos, most artists never recorded themselves-
professionals were on hand dedicated to the task. Same
for mixing and mastering. Now, unless you're 20-yearold
Johnny Cash or a Brontosaurus, those days are
largely gone.
Today many of us produce, mix and master our own
music. So, recording vocals is no different, right? Well,
any self-recording vocalist knows it is most definitely
different. Doable but different.
Hearing the Real You
It's hard to see (or hear) yourself from the outside, and it can
be downright disturbing hearing the sound of your own voice.
This is partly simple physics. Your voice in your head is affected
in myriad ways by your ears, bones, cartilage, brain and so
on. So, it naturally sounds a bit off to hear it from an outside
perspective-like on a recording. The surefire way to get used
to this: get used to it! Do it for long enough, and it will start to
sound normal, if not necessarily like " you. "
Hearing the Truth
Even harder than the physical difference is hearing the truth.
Recordings don't lie, meaning every missed note or odd
timbral quality you exhibited in the booth is shining bright for
you to hear-and be mortified by-every time you press play.
But here's the good news: most vocalists, amateur to pro,
are harder on themselves than others. Most engineers have
had the experience of cutting a take and saying, " That sounds
awesome, " only to have the vocalist listen back and say,
" That's awful! "
Of course, put that same engineer in the booth, and suddenly,
they're the critical one. It's an irony as old as the wax
cylinder.
72 RECORDING March 2023
Mixing Your Own-Recipe for Disaster?
Perhaps an even harder thing to do is mix your own vocals.
Vocalists get the vocal mix wrong a lot. You'd think they'd lean
toward turning their part up too loud-like bass players. Usually,
it's the opposite. Many singers tend to want to bury their
performance in the mix or slather it in effects. The real reason
is most likely a complex soup of psychological mumbo jumbo,
but two big reasons usually come up.
One, vocalists are super self-conscious (it's a hypercritical
thing). So, what do you do when you feel naked and exposed?
Put a robe on! Cover up. Bury your vocal under the other stuff.
Number two exacerbates this problem. Since the singer
knows the words and melody intimately, they can have a
skewed view of whether or not words or licks are audible. To
them, " kiss the sky " sounds like " kiss the sky. " To listeners, it
sounds like " kiss this guy. "
The Way Forward
So, what's a self-recording, self-mixing singer to do? Practice
and ask for help. Most vocalists who succeed at mixing themselves
do so by creating separation. When in " mix mode, " think of
the vocalist on tape as a different person. Yours truly even refers
to himself in the third person. I may say, " He's holding back on
that note a little, " or " Aaron's hitting that note perfectly. "
It also helps to mix the session on a different day than when
it was tracked. Even better if it has been a few days. Of course,
getting a second (and third) opinion on the mix is also beneficial.
This is good practice anyway, but it's especially helpful
for vocalists to get an outside perspective. Mix notes from my
drummer almost always include a vocal note or two.
It's Not that Hard
At the end of the day, recording
your own vocals isn't as hard
as it can seem. You just have to
understand your own psychology
and practice for a while until
you find balance. In the immortal
words of ABBA, just " feel the beat
from the tangerine. " I still don't know
what that means.
Aaron J. Trumm records and mixes
his own vocals, and he still has no
idea what he sounds like. Hear for
yourself and talk to him about it at aarontrumm.com
or social media @AaronJTrumm.
[
http://aarontrumm.com
RECORDING March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of RECORDING March 2023
