Vocal Tracking and The Art of Compressors

Published by Willie Green on May 27, 2010 at 12:08 pm

Vocal Tracking

So your mic is placed, the talent has arrived, and your mic pre is sounding great, now what? You can either:

A. Hit record over and over and hope you get something good, or

B. Take steps to help ensure you get the perfect take.

Possibly the most important piece of the puzzle is the headphone or “cue” mix. If the artist isn’t comfortable with what they’re hearing, there is no chance of a quality performance. This is something that will vary from performer to performer, so you’ll want to check during each and every session. Some may like the beat extremely loud and not hear much of themselves, some will prefer the their vocals far up front. Communication is imperative here.

Unless you are in a situation where you have separate Aux Sends feeding the cue mix, you will often be listening to the same mix as the talent . If this is the case, it is more important for them to have the mix they want than you. When the tracking is finished, you’ll have plenty of time for a good rough mix, but this is your one chance to get the perfect performance.

There are a few tricks you can use to aid the artist however; while they usually know what’s best for them, sometimes they may need a little nudge in the right direction. If an MC is having a hard time staying in time, turn the beat up a little, it’s possible they need a little more volume to really feel it. If a singer is consistently out of tune, give them more of themselves in the headphones, they may not hear themselves well enough to get their pitch right (this is all assuming you have artists talented enough to make these corrections of course). If you have the multi-tracks of the instrumental (rather than just a stereo 2 track) you can also try raising or lowering different elements of the beat, for example muting everything but the piano for the singer or taking out that off-kilter, Neo-Soul Rhodes that is throwing your rapper off.

Once your cue mix is right, you’re ready to start doing takes. Different artists will have different methods they prefer, and it is their choice. Nothing kills the vibe of a session more than an engineer forcing the artist to do something they don’t want to. Remember, this is their record, not yours.

Engineering is a service occupation. Keep the pace of the session in mind. Some people will want to listen back after every take, some will want to start immediately again with barely a breath in-between, you have to be ready for either circumstance. Some rappers are ok with punching in a line or two, some are morally opposed to any punches. (I’m not going to debate punching in vs. “real hip-hop” here, and I will not entertain the “Rakim never punched in, so I can’t” argument. I will simply state that there is plenty of opportunity on stage to prove you can spit everything start to finish, the studio is the place for crafting the perfect record).

If you have an artist that punches often, you may want to have more than one “Lead Vocal” track preset in your recording template. (You are using templates, right? For more on templates, see Pro-Logic Pt. 1). This way you can quickly move back and forth between tracks, overlapping the end of the take before and crafting a great vocal a few lines at a time. (Again no discussion of “real hip-hop,” but this was the preferred technique of a certain pair of heavyset “Twinz”).

Here’s a tip to get quality punch ins: Make sure the artist raps/sings the line before the intended punch as well. This way, your punch will sound natural and flow with the lines both before and after it.

If the artist prefers not to punch in, then you will possibly wind up doing many takes of the same performance. With hard drive prices lower than ever and hard drives larger than ever, space to keep all these takes should not be an issue. Keep everything, and when you’ve picked the choice take, you can go back and delete the unused ones later. You may want to pick some lines from one take and some from another, this technique is called “vocal comping” and is widely used, although more often with singing vocalist than with rappers.

Sometimes this can even be as microscopic as picking certain syllables from certain words to match with others from other takes. This sounds like overkill, but on some projects, like Steely Dan albums for instance, every single note is considered extremely important. More on this in coming months.

As you’re recording, always keep an eye on your levels. As previously discussed, with the quality of today’s analog to digital converters there’s no real need to have the levels higher than -6dBFS; the quality will be fine. If you happen to be using technology from 1994 for some reason, you may want to track a little hotter. Just make sure your signal isn’t clipping, because it’s very difficult/impossible to get it out later, and if your levels are too high, you WILL clip out during the perfect take and have to redo it, these are the laws of the universe. (In addition, make sure the artist’s cell phone is on vibrate, or preferably off. Phone calls and texts follow that same law of the universe).

There has been a new trend of artists reading lyrics off their iPhones, Sidekicks, and Blackberrys. Aside from upsetting rap purists, this can create an actual issue – these devices can cause interference in the microphone that will be recorded. If you notice this happening, your artist may have to travel back in time and use a pen and paper for their lyrics.

Next Month: Rough Mixes

Compression Pt. 1

Compressor Tool Compression is one of the harder elements of audio engineering to master. Everyone has heard of it, yet many don’t know exactly what it does, or how to use it properly. In technical terms, compression reduces the level of a signal that goes over a certain threshold. The amount of reduction is called the Ratio, and is usually user-set. How quickly the reduction starts is called the Attack, and how quickly the reduction stops is called the Release. Now that we’ve been formally introduced, what do these things mean to you?

In layman’s terms, compression evens out level changes in an audio signal, like a vocal for instance. The threshold determines at what point the evening kicks in, and the ratio determines how much. (The lower the threshold, the sooner you compress, higher the ratio, the more reduction you’ll get) With these controls you can squash all dynamics out of a track, or give it a slight squeeze while keeping the subtle volume changes. By compressing, and then turning the track back up (most compressors have a parameter called “Make-Up Gain” or “Output” which does the same thing) this will actually make your signal sound bigger. Too much compression will make your signal sound squished and lifeless, there is a balance that can only be learned by listening.

The Attack and Release functions found on some compressors provide more control over the signal and can greatly change the sound. A slower attack time will allow more transients (sharp, percussive sounds) to get through before the compression kicks in. This is incredibly useful for drums, letting the snap of the snare through before the body of it is squeezed. A faster attack time obviously does the opposite, catching the transients more quickly and thereby softening them. This might be good for a kick drum that needs to sound rounder, or an aggressive rap vocal that needs to be smoothed out.

Release is a bit harder to hear, but can drastically change the sound. A release time that is too fast may sound very unnatural — especially on a vocal — but, too slow and the compressor will not totally release before the next time it’s supposed to kick in, skewing the compression settings you’ve so carefully dialed in. With drums, ideally the compressor should totally release right before the next drum hit. With vocals, it really depends on the speed of the lyrics, so you’ll need to listen and experiment.

Compression is one of the most difficult aspects of engineering to hear. Unlike something like EQ, when you first begin using compression, you may not even know what you’re listening for. Keep at it and keep experimenting — you’ll figure it out.

A tool to help you along the way is the Gain Reduction Meter, which is present on most if not all compressors. This tells you exactly how much you’re compressing your signal, usually noted in dB. By the way the meter reacts, you’ll also be able to see how your attack and release setting are affecting things. Start conservatively, over-compression can really kill a song.

All compressors sound different, ranging from clean and transparent to aggressive and highly colored, you’ll have to get familiar with your selection to decide which is right for the vocal you’re working on.

Next Month: Compression Pt. 2

Willie Green
www.WillieGreenMusic.com

Follow Willie on Twitter

Willie Green is an in-house producer for the Brooklyn-based Backwoodz Studioz record label, and a freelance mixing and mastering engineer. The Berklee College of Music graduate has also managed a number of recording studios throughout the Northeast.

Read more about recording and engineering:

Recording and Mixing: Part 1

Mic Choice & Placement, Mixing Levels & Panning

Mic Pre-Amps, Staging and EQ

More articles from Pro-Logic:

5 Responses

Tweets that mention Vocal Tracking and The Art of Compressors | aboveGround Magazine -- Topsy.com Says:
May 27th, 2010 at 12:18 pm

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Willie Green and Dominick AKA BIG D O, aboveGround Magazine. aboveGround Magazine said: The homie @WillieGreen1 has some more knowledge for you suckas! Read up, lay dope vocals, pay us: http://bit.ly/93fdA5 [...]
Nasa Says:
May 27th, 2010 at 1:41 pm

This is dope. It takes time and reps to figure all this out and Willie is giving it to you all in one article.

As an emcee I’ve found that when I want to do a verse that’s more chill, I have my vocals high in the mix. When I need to get amped up, I have them normal volume. I usually have my full mix in the phones pretty hot, but lately I’ve been doing less of that.

It’s important as an emcee to know what you like to hear during your takes and to be working with someone that is willing to adjust their levels for you.
Rough Mixes, Buss and Mix Compression | aboveGround Magazine Says:
June 24th, 2010 at 10:18 am

[...] Vocal Tracking and the Art of Compression [...]
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Pro-Logic with Willie Green

Willie Green is a Producer/Engineer from Hartford, CT and currently residing in Brooklyn.

Green is an in-house producer for the Backwoodz Studioz record label, and has produced for the likes of Cannibal Ox, Reks, Super Chron Flight Brothers and Naledge of Kidz In The Hall. He has also managed a number of studios throughout the Northeast.

In this regular column he will provide expert insight into the behind-the-scenes facets of making music.