help recording and mixing vocals

[caspa08]

i have an intel based mac running logic 8 and a fireface 400 soundcard which i plug my SE1000a mic straight into it i get ok sounding vocals but im not happy with them can anyone tell me how to get my vocals sounding really wide and in your face and bright im a semi beginner and do not have to much know how i use my studio for rap vocals manily

what plugins should i use?

how should i record vocals?

how should i mix down in logic?

i think these are the best questions to ask thank you very much for your help.

[eddiecain]

Start using your ears to figure out where to put the mic. 6 inches to a foot is a good place to start. Stay away from walls.

As far as plug-ins, start with EQ and compression.

When starting with EQ, you want to start wrapping your mind around which frequencies are where. Human hearing is from 20Hz to 20000Hz. Play with the EQ and turn up and down frequencies all over the place so you can start realizing where certain frequencies are. Do you know what 1000Hz sounds like and what effect it has on the sound by raising (boosting) or lowering (cutting) it?
If you're aiming for brightness, you either need to cut the low frequencies (around 100-300) or raise the high frequencies (around 3000-10000). Turning down or cutting frequencies is better than raising them, in my opinion.

Next up is compression. This is going to be the next best major improvement to your sound.
You have to figure out what all the controls mean, we'll start with Attack, Release and Ratio.
Think of RATIO like aluminum foil. Here's a metaphor. You have a sheet of aluminum foil. You could look at the whole sheet, but it's a pretty big sheet so it's hard to focus on just one part of it. When you raise the ratio, you start crumpling that sheet into a ball, a smaller and more compact ball. The best part of this is that it becomes easier to focus on. The negative side of this is that it FEELS more and more constricted (like someone is pushing on the side of your head). So you find need to find a balance with ratio where the ball is crumpled enough that you can focus on it and that it's easy to hear, but that it's not so crumpled that it turns into a tiny solid little ball that isn't any fun to play with.
Whew. If you're still with me, keep keeping your mind open.

All a compressor does is turn down the volume. But it can do this in a lot of different fun ways, helping you sound more professional and bigggger.

The knob called "Attack" is for telling the compressor when to start turning the sound down. If you make the attack very very small, then the compressor will turn down the sound immediately and won't let anything slip through. If you make the attack very very big, then the compressor will be more lazy and it will turn down the sound AFTER the sound has already started.

If you rap the word, "CALIFORNIA", a small attack will make that "california".
A big attack will be somewhere along the lines of "CAlifornia".
Why wouldn't you just leave the attack as big as you can? Because with recorded sound it's not about BEING loud, it's about creating the ILLUSION of loudness. If you use a small attack and your vocals go from "CALIFORNIA" to "california", but everything else in the mix is ALSO compressed, your small little "california" is going to sound bigger.
Start realizing that instead of turning things up to make them louder, you need to turn everything else down.


Last,
REVERB and delay. Reverb is huge. I can't give you as many tips on reverb, you need to play with the different settings you're already given. Here's the main deal: use only a little bit. Especially for rap, you really only need a tiny tiny bit of reverb, maybe none at all. As far as using delay, that's really for pushing things farther away, not bringing them closer really. But experiment and prove me wrong.

Hope you got through the novel.

GS, am I on track? Call me out

[mark.james]

Originally Posted by eddiecain

GS, am I on track? Call me out

Great post, eddiecain.

Mark