Recording - February 2010 - 14

decision is made that the singer will be on the floor. What marriage? The sounds on the floor will be married together indelibly for all eternity—divorce and fixing mistakes after the fact will be almost impossible. This reminder often goes unheeded. 3) Cue vocals Where the singer either isn’t singing hard enough to risk getting tired or injured, or isn’t singing all the way through the song, but only at key points to deliver cues; in either event, giving the musicians a “place holder”. I don’t much care for this approach. It always feels like the singer isn’t trying very hard and I think this influences the accompanying musicians in the same direction. 4) Pre-recorded vocals Only possible when using a guide track to which the entire ensemble is essentially overdubbing. Short of scenario #2 above, this is my favorite approach. With careful pre-production, a musical “click track” can be created. What I mean by “musical” is that a tempo map can be created, if a linear tempo doesn’t suit the song. If there’s time and energy enough to create a pre-production demo of the song, or if the track is hybrid and many of the tracks can be recorded before the basic tracking session, the singer can pre-record a vocal that could conceivably be good enough to live through the entire production. This is especially useful if a singer who also plays can’t deliver the best possible vocal performance while also playing. This technique can really transform the groove of the instrumental performance. Any groove differences between the guide track’s vocal and the ultimate basic track can easily be adjusted by time-shifting the guide vocal track, if it is kept. A variation on the pre-recorded vocal could happen during basic tracking. If there was no chance to make a preproduction guide track, the singer can record a take as soon as the form has been established. After that, the musicians can play along to that vocal while ironing out the details of the instrumental tracks. 1) No vocals The situation in which the singer doesn’t want to or can’t sing and the band can get by without a vocal track. The upside to this is being able to get basic tracks recorded if the singer isn’t interested in being present, or is off taking care of other business or wants to be listening in the control room with full focus. The downside is that without an emotive vocal in their headphones, the musicians may not play with the same type of gusto they might if the vocal was present. Also, with no vocal present, some musicians find it confusing to keep track of where they are in a song, resulting in a less sure-footed, less intense performance. 2) Live vocals Sung with the intent to record keeper takes (master quality), either in some sort of isolation or on the floor with the other performers. This is usually my favorite approach to recording vocals. If the singer is delivering a master-quality performance, good musicians will have all the inspirational, emotional and musical guidance they’ll need to give inspired, passionate and musical performances of their own. On a good take, everything will just make sense, and the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts. If the singer is comfortable in isolation, better still—that adds the potential for getting a controllable sound; compositing and the occasional after-the-fact vocal punch-in will be a lot easier than if the singer is on the floor. Vocals in isolation will enable a broader choice of microphones. Vocals recorded live on the floor (especially in louder settings) will almost certainly limit mic choices to dynamic mics such as a Shure SM7, Electro-Voice RE20, or possibly a hypercardioid condenser designed for stage use, such as the Neumann KMS 105. If the singer insists on being on the floor, then leakage of other instruments into the vocal mic is just going to be a fact of life. On the floor, the only tools an engineer can bring to bear are the use of baffling and knowing how to best position the lead vocal microphone such that its polar pattern will reject unwanted sounds as much as possible. Singing live during basic tracks can be an inspiration to all, but it can be exhausting. Especially if the musical arrangement is being refined over an expanse of multiple takes, if the singer came in prepared, by the time the musicians have “found” the track, the singer may have become unfocused, bored or tired, or perhaps even worse, may have fatigued or even injured their vocal cords. It is the producer’s responsibility to point out to the singer that being out there on the floor represents a marriage contract, and this has to be said at the time theRECORDING FEBRUARY 2010 “After about three lessons, the voice teacher said, ‘Don’t take voice lessons. Do it your way. You’re a song stylist. Always do it your way.” — Johnny Cash Leaks and consequences If you prerecord or overdub the singer, I highly recommend documenting the vocal chain so that small changes can be made to the vocal track at a date later than the original recording. But if you record the singer out on the floor with others present, make sure everybody understands that later overdubs are just about impossible. Why? For one thing, because that vocal track will have leakage on it, so during moments of overdubbing and punch-ins, the leakage won’t be there, and that will give the game away. Another reason is the reverse—instrumental mics in the same room are picking up snippets of the vocals, and if a vocal is replaced later on, and the phrasing is a bit different, those snippets could be heard from instrumental tracks in the mix, at just the wrong moment—like when the drums have stopped playing but are still decaying. If you have time, it’s probably not a bad idea, after getting “the” take(s), to run one last take with no vocals being sung, just for the sake of getting a

Recording - February 2010

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