Tracking vocals in control room with monitors on

[mickanos]

I pose this question for discussion

Advantages and disadvantages to tracking vocals in the control room with the monitors on?

Have you done this?

Situations/styles of music which may warrant this technique?

Mic placement? Where would you set up?

Which mics are best? Dynamic??

Just putting it out there......

[Savagery]

I almost always do this for my own music. With clients, it just depends. I am hesitant to do it with condensers, unless under controlled conditions. The classic way to do this is to place the mic equidistant between two monitors, and flip the phase of one speaker. They should null at the mic.

With dynamic mics, which I prefer in many cases, just have the singer face the monitors and sing. Handheld, mounted, doesn't matter. The bleed will exist but be minimal. Just gate it out if you are worried about it.

Advantages are, that it feels good. As a singer, it just feels right to sing with 'open ears'. Headphones and isolation give the clear sonic advantage, but you have to do whatever helps the performance. Just have the singer try it, if they like it better and perform better, it's the way it has to be.

[mickanos]

Yeh, so it would be good for a singer who is great live but inexperienced or a touch hesitant in the studio, will make them feel more 'at home.' I'm down with that...

What if you don't have a gate, your tracking in your bedroom, would a bit of bleed from the monitors, kinda be a good thing for certain situations??

What about mics, would an SM58 do the job?

[brother_spirit]

I did this last night with a rapper. Using a Condenser in the control room. Didn't position him anywhere fancy, I just turned down the Main Mix on my board so the monitors were playing very quitely and ended up with a completely clean & usable take.

[mickanos]

Yeh sweet, you would have to turn them down pretty low with a condensor mic though

[faderc]

I do this all the time for gang vocals or two peeps doing BV's. I use the figure 8 pattern on my K2, position the talent either side, point the null at the monitors and go for it. Very quick and works well, minimal bleed, which will never be heard in the track anyway...or trim it in your DAW of choice.

Cx

[Savagery]

Originally Posted by mickanos

Yeh, so it would be good for a singer who is great live but inexperienced or a touch hesitant in the studio, will make them feel more 'at home.' I'm down with that...

What if you don't have a gate, your tracking in your bedroom, would a bit of bleed from the monitors, kinda be a good thing for certain situations??

What about mics, would an SM58 do the job?

Well, I'm experienced in the studio, but less so live, and I still prefer this method. I just don't like headphones in general, that's probably why.

Bleed is fine, just don't worry too much about it. Just be careful with compression- try to get a gate plugin or something, and gate before compressing.

I don't like SM58s in the studio, there are much better mics for this... but it will work. I use an AE4100 and it's fantastic. I just think the SM58 makes everyone sound like they are singing with a cold...