ADELE vocal chain

[Mark Kano]

Originally Posted by narcoman

.... kinda the opposite of what I think! Great song, great vocal - but the mix just isn't "real" enough for me. I want it like Aretha!!!

Ok, this translates a little clearer to me now. When you said the "sound quality was crap" I was thinking that you were craving more of a hi-fi/clean approach. Sounds like perhaps they just didn't nail the authentic old school sound for you? I still like it for the throwback vibe but with some modern touches. At least we both like the song!

[jazzlife]

It's obvious just looking from the Music Video that she is using the infamous Vintage Telefunken ELA-M251. It's a hands down because you don't just borrow a $30,000 mic just to show a couple seconds of it on a Promo Music Video.

[uncle muscles]

What the hell are you people talking about? The mix sounds phenomenal. The recording didnt, on the other hand. And I know this because I applied the reverse of what the Tom Elmhirst provided in the article on a set of stems I found and I can conclusively say he slayed that mix.

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by uncle muscles

What the hell are you people talking about? The mix sounds phenomenal. The recording didnt, on the other hand. And I know this because I applied the reverse of what the Tom Elmhirst provided in the article on a set of stems I found and I can conclusively say he slayed that mix.

hey - if that's the sort of sound you like, then groovey for you!!!

[doylemusic]

Originally Posted by Todd

If the chain has Adele in it, its going to sound really really really good.

Chain is important, but the first input is talent. Give her a 57 and a Mackie Pre.

[bonfa_fan]

Re Adele's mikes for 21, my own guess is Neumann U87's, which I've used extensively on instrumental and vocal studio projects, because they're so natural sounding. Then I saw a post on another GS forum, which perhaps lends support to the Neumann theory:

Adele picked up a package of Neumann and Sennheiser mics for her major UK tour late last year. Commenting on her Neumann KMS 105 vocal mic at that time, Adele’s front-of-house engineer, Dave McDonald, said, “It takes the vocal and really throws it to the back of the hall with clarity. When I started working with Adele I said, ‘let’s get you one of these, a) for health reasons, because you need your own microphone and b) it’s the right mic for your vocal’. The KMS 105 just has this depth. It goes right to the bottom and the high-end of the vocal and it’s crystal clear. That’s what I always want. I don’t want to be messing around for ages EQ-ing a vocal when I can just put a really good mic on it.”

[narcoman]

i hear it was Rode mic's.

[Mafiacondon]

+1 rode

[thefyn]

Originally Posted by binarymilton

that video doesn't tell you anything, unless you want to hear about her pet dog.

Was it an original pure bred dog or a Chinese knock off?

[Mike Caffrey]

Originally Posted by theBackwardsman

Ok, I guess no one here knows for sure.
But why I'm asking is because I'm gonna record an AMAZING female vocalist with a simular range and tone as Adele.

I'm gonna do it in a pro studio but don't have the possibility to AB lots of mics, but just beg to use on of the most expensive mics. I really want to do her voice justice and I love the vocal sound on Adeles album.

This voice is really powerful so don't the recording want it to come off as harsh in any way.

Anyone more experienced that could ID what chain might have been used, or at least mic?
I know it's a stupid question, but might help on the way.
All I've got in my own locker is SM7, but I think I want a little more detail than the SM7 can offer this time

I wouldn't worry about the tone of the chain too much. Years ago, a singer gave me a copy of her album. I was really impressed by the vocal recoding. When I saw her live, singing through a 58 she sounded identical.

Yes, mics will sound different when you A/B them. If you do it without the track playing you'll find that the tone is different because of all of the frequency masking that happens. What makes it through the mix EQ on the vocal, the masking and the mastering is not going to be as different as you think.

A singer's performance is going to create some level of emotional response in the listener. If it's minimal, then it doesn't matter, they're not going to listen again. If it's extremely intense, they're not going to notice the tone.


Do worry about the dynamics. The closer someone is to the mic, the more extreme the contrast in the dynamics, which you don't want. If you have a mic with a lot of proximity effect, you can keep them further away and the dynamics will be far more natural - people don't sing an inch from your ear.

As far as signal processing, I like to have a little peak limiting in front of some compression. When you're setting levels, the peak limiter shouldn't move. When the sing for real, they're going to sing louder even if they claim to have sung their loudest. The compression should be slow in both attack and release. Use the lowest ratio possible (I've been using 1.2:1 quite a bit on a lot of things). The lower the ratio, the smoother the closing and opening of the compressor. It's fine to set the threshold low, but it's also ok to not compress enough for the final mix, you can always add more later. Even when you know exactly what you're doing, you can't control what the singer does that can result in your settings being wrong.

I prefer recording full length performances. Many people work on verses and choruses separately. I'll almost always drop the input level of the pre by 5dB for the choruses when recording this way. It helps avoid clipping and too much compression.

Dynamics do more for the feeling of a recording than anything else. More than tone and more than timing. Truly natural dynamics are rarely right for a recording, so you have to control them and leave enough that the performer can control the feeling, or you have to create them in the mix out of a flat performance which is never as good.

[void1985]

About vocal chain for Adele's "21", Universal Audio's FB page just posted this article!

Producer of the Year Paul Epworth on Adele, Cee Lo, Foster the People - Blog - Universal Audio

[synergyroom]

Rode classic 2 through UA 6176