Recording - February 2015 - 50

qualities of the voice. It may be a richness, it may be a bright high end, or a
fullness-I go with whichever one makes
me feel the best. I also listen for each
mic's bad qualities and stay away from
them. For example, I may need to go with
the mic with the least amount of sibilance.
I'll pick certain gear depending on the
session and genre. On a rock vocal session,
I'll want to go with vibey gear that has color,
possibly a Neumann U67 or Shure SM7, a
Neve preamp, and a Universal Audio
1176 or Empirical Labs Distressor. For a
more modern R&B pop sound, I may lean
towards a Sony C800 and the Millennia
STT-1. That combo is really nice, bright and
clear. For rap/urban sessions I've used different variations of clean and colored gear.
Tracking with effects
When recording, I like to EQ and compress to "tape," although I don't process the
vocal too hard unless it's a creative move. I
know there are many schools of thought on
this, but in this digital age of plug-in awesomeness, I like to get some magic out of
the real hardware before I put on plug-ins.
For EQ I like to simply cut lows and boost
highs, cutting around 100 Hz and boosting

A successful Los Angeles producer/engineer opens his bag of tricks
By Greg Ogan

Working as a mainstream music producer in LA, I've been fortunate enough to produce and engineer a plethora of vocal sessions with top-of-the-line singers and artists.
I'm often asked about my vocal production techniques; I explain that it's different for
every situation I encounter. What I'd like to do here is focus on what I would do during a final vocal tracking day with an artist with the intention of releasing the song publicly. Hopefully I may be able to provide some ideas for your own sessions.
Setup and shootout
First off, I like to organize the song and tracks before the singer arrives. I like to turn
everything down so that my vocal tracks start out being a little louder than the music.
I import my vocal tracking template (as described in depth in my vocal template article on page 54), and I always check the mic and music levels in the headphone mix.
I then make sure I have the lyrics on hand. It's important to know where we are in the
song and to connect to it. Lyrics help with punching in on words, as well as having a
mental picture of the song's meaning.
In an ideal situation, I like to do a microphone shootout when the singer arrives.
That's when I line up a few mics going through the same style pre, ideally one that's
clear and transparent, and run a section of the song with the singer trying each mic.
When I'm comparing the mics to each other, I look for the one that brings out the best
50

RECORDING February 2015

just a little around 14-16 kHz. As for compression, I like to gain-reduce by around
3-6 dB, depending on the compressor,
with moderately fast attack and release.
I really like the singer to hear their voice
sounding as beautiful as possible; I'll feed
them a monitor vocal with compression,
EQ, reverb, and delay-see my template
article for specific settings. I try to create
an atmosphere and vibe for the singer so
they can really get into the music, which
supports a great vocal performance. I
always ask the singer to holler at me whenever they want a change; with the template
it's easy to accommodate their needs.
Vibe
When it comes to vocal production
styles, in terms of vocal parts and organization, I have a few thought processes.
There's what I call the rock or "organic"
vibe, the radio pop vibe, and the sleek and
shiny R&B vibe. Every situation, song, and
singer may call for different techniques, but
this is the best way for me to describe how
I may organize tracks and parts.
The "organic" vibe is when I want the listener to really picture a vocal performance
from top to bottom. This is where the lead

Recording - February 2015

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