Recording - February 2010 - 32

In this month’s Vocal Column, Rick Barrio Dill ponders the wisdom of NOT doing things in a manner we know will work DO WE GET IT DONE By Rick Barrio Dill Decisions we make often come simply from habit. This is true for us as artists, engineers, producers, recording musicians, or just plain human beings. Natural instincts and intelligence tell us that once we do something successfully a certain way, all we have to do is repeat those steps and the same result will happen. We can feel safe by working and living this way. Habit is a comfort food that we easily snack on, especially in situations where time is of the essence. As a result, this “safely going through the motions” can prevent us from making different decisions and using new methods, decisions and methods that could lead to a new and improved “alternative” for our art—and for our lives, for that matter. The way we go about recording vocals falls right into this category, at least for many of us. Quick—ask yourself, “Do I use the same one or two mics through the same favorite preamp or signal chain notched to my favorite settings when I record vocals?” Sure, you might make some slight alterations as the situation and vocalist change, but for the most part, do you follow the road map that has worked for you up to now to get the job done with good results? OR DONE RIGHT? At this point I’d like to state that many of my favorite artistic moments came from a complete and utter lack of a habitual set of decisions, of any sort. Many times when I was recording different and new vocal situations, the best results came from a total absence of knowing what I was doing at all. Sometimes I just fell into the light by crawling around a dark room long enough looking for a door handle. Learning to stack My hero is Prince. In every way possible this man has blown my mind (and eardrums) using just about every instrument possible. Now, Prince knows what he is doing. He is also gifted beyond measure. One time I was working with a particularly gifted R&B artist and we were going for that giant Prince vocal sound, similar to that on “7” and so many other great vocal stacking songs he has done. Most R&B that I had worked around to that point was in “factory” type settings and these studios worked fast to turn stuff out. The recipe or “habit” was really just cutting layers and layers of vocals to get the vocals to “Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” —author/art director George Lois You figure, “It sounds great, and besides if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Before we go any further, let me state for the record that I feel this is a great way to process most decisions, and a perfectly acceptable working method but only up to a point. Much of a muchness Let’s say you also belong among those who might occasionally complain about the “cookie cutter” sounds that many modern recordings seem to share these days. Is it possible that so many recordings sound so similar because everyone is sharing the same road map? Or maybe you are one of the people who listen to a favorite artist and throw their hands up, asking, “How do they get such big-sounding vocals?” Do you scour the bulletin boards or the latest online gear blog to obtain the quick and golden answer on how you can get that same huge result?RECORDING FEBRUARY 2010 stack out. It always sounded OK, but not quite Prince. I figured we just needed to be real tight with the phrasing and go insane with the track/stack count to get there. As a result, I started cutting over and over 12–16 tracks of each harmony, I panned them across the spectrum and Vocaligned it all perfectly for a total of over 96 tracks of just vocals. It’s the way I knew had worked before. On playback, it sounded tight and it sounded good but it was really just a wall, with no real vibe or character, and it didn’t sound anywhere near “Prince thick”. It simply didn’t hit the mark. We tried all kinds of different panning options and still, not even close. Another way Eventually, just because I didn’t know what to do next, I started deleting tracks and backtracking. We took a break, and while leaving for dinner, I completely knocked over and broke our gobo-style wall diffuser setup, and as

Recording - February 2010

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