Recording - May 2013 - 30

Anatomy Of A Vocal: “If I Were A Bird”
By Sven-Erik Seaholm

before the onset of the reverb. This can be
used to help clear up some of the cloudiness that reverb can cause, enabling your
vocals to be significantly more intelligible.
A slapback delay, a single echo of the
vocal, can be a good choice for similar reasons, especially if synced to your groove’s
tempo. Longer delay or echo settings can
be used subtly in conjunction with reverb
for a more modern and polished sound.
With every song, it’s best to explore the
gamut between Tom Petty (dry) and Fleet
Foxes (wet) with the effect’s balance, as
each song has its own character and therefore it own set of needs.
Take ’em for a ride!
Once you’ve got your vocal sounding
great, it’s time to listen to it in the context
of the song one last time. Listen for sections where the vocal may be sticking out
a little or denser passages that may be
drowning the vocals a bit. Lowering or
raising the voice to offset this is commonly referred to as “riding the vocal”, and
can go a long way toward making things
sound more professional overall.
If all of these tools and concepts seem
a bit daunting (not to mention expensive), take heart. Several software manufacturers have developed all-in-one
solutions that include some or all of the
previously mentioned effects. Again,
starting with the supplied presets will
familiarize you with the program more
quickly, saving you several wasted hours
of head scratching. iZotope, The Plugin
Alliance, Waves and Antares all present
great choices in this regard.
Whether your tuneful adventures
involve crooning love songs or spitting
fiery rhymes, the connection that is made
between your music and your listeners
hinges on how engaging your vocals
are. Keeping these concepts in mind
throughout the vocal recording process
will help ensure that bond is a strong and
lasting one.
Sven-Erik Seaholm (seaholm@recording
mag.com) is an award-winning independent record producer, singer and songwriter. His latest release is Seaholm
Mackintosh’s Monarchs. Check out his
website at www.kaspro.com.
30

RECORDING May 2013

When my partner, Brooke Mackintosh, and I set out to record our first album
Monarchs, we wanted the core of it to represent our live presentation: two-part harmonies with one or two acoustic guitars and a minimum of overdubs. To that end,
most of the songs were recorded “live in the studio” and subtle atmospheric touches
were added later. Ironically, “If I Were A Bird”, the song that best showcases this simplistic approach was tracked separately due to scheduling constraints. Here’s how we
did it.
I first recorded my acoustic guitar performance in Vegas Video 9 (www.sonycreative
software.com/vegaspro), using an Avantone CV 12 tube mic (www.avantonepro.com)
aimed parallel to the upper bout of my Recording King RO-16 000 style acoustic guitar (www.recordingking.com) at about a foot away. I find this position gives the best
tone, without the bassiness from the sound hole or the distracting fret squeaks that can
result from a 12th-fret neck positioning. This mic was connected to a PreSonus Eureka
channel strip (www.presonus.com/products/Eureka), with the compression set to a 5:1
ratio, with a medium-fast attack, a medium release time and no eq. I played to a click
set at 118 BPM.
I performed the song several times until I was satisfied with the feel, then I comped
the takes together into a solid guitar part (Figure A).
I set up a track for my vocals and used an MXL V87 condenser mic
(www.mxlmics.com) going into a second PreSonus Eureka channel strip with the compression set to a 4:1 ratio, at a fast attack, with a medium-fast release time. I also added
some very subtle eq to the signal, boosting 1 dB at 200 Hz with a medium Q for some
body, 1 dB at 800 Hz with medium Q to bring the vocal a little more “forward”, and

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro http://www.avantonepro.com http://www.recordingking.com http://www.presonus.com/products/Eureka http://www.mxlmics.com http://www.kaspro.com

Recording - May 2013

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