Recording a vocal track can have a bit of a learning curve to getting the best results. Although you might have the sound down in person, there are a ton of new techniques to master, and things that can potentially go wrong that make recording vocals a bit scary.
Not to worry though, our resident vocalist master Broghan has come up with a handy-dandy list of the top 5 tips and tricks for getting through your recording session. These tips will help you get through the recording in as few takes as possible, saving your voice, your time, and your money.
1. Keep The Room Warm
Keeping the room at a nice warm temperature helps to ensure that your vocals can stay on pitch, as a cold room is harder to pitch in. If you're still struggling, a nice tepid drink without dairy can help to warm up your throat and get your vocal cords moving.
Here at Burn My Records, we make sure to work in a nice studio room that has a very quiet heater. This means whether it is the depths of winter (in Wellington that is truly freezing), or in the stifling hot summer months, we can ensure your comfort while you record with us.
2. Get Comfortable With Your Team
Performing can be nerve-wracking at the best of times, but performing into a studio microphone is a whole new experience. It can feel intimidating to perform even things you know really well in front of new producers in a studio who are listening critically to your performance. Making sure that you have a connection and a team that you are comfortable with can help to make you more at ease, helping to keep you on an even keel and giving you more confidence with your performance.
At Burn My Records we are happy to let our vocalists have people around for their comfort in the studio while they record, as keeping you happy is our utmost priority. We will also do everything we can to help you feel comfortable with us as a team, and make sure that you can feel at ease asking to take breaks or communicating your needs to us.
3. Hamburger Criticisms
Like any new skill, learning how to record as a vocalist takes time and effort, and occasionally the production team may have some constructive criticism to help you along the way.
However, you should always be supported when receiving criticisms, so your producer should be using the technique of hamburger criticisms. This is where you receive one piece of feedback on something you did well, then something you can improve on, followed up with something else you did well.
When criticism is handled well the artist is free to be bold in the recording booth and try new things. This improves the integrity of the overall track, and opens up the opportunity for spontaneous improvisation and innovation.
Recording often takes many takes and attempts, so don’t feel bad if it takes a while to get the right feel. Your producer should know how to get the best out of you whilst boosting your self esteem. Everyone benefits when the production team is able to work seamlessly with the artist with no tension or fear.
At Burn My Records we are committed to always supporting our artists, no matter how experienced they are at recording. Whether it is your first time in the studio or your thousandth, we are here to support you while making sure you are having fun in our space.
4. Add Some Reverb
A handy hint is to add a small amount of reverb in the vocalist’s headphones to record takes with. Much like how you often feel as though you sound better in the shower, the extra bit of reverb helps to give a confidence boost to the vocalist.
At Burn My Records we are lucky to have the expertise of Jayde and Lorenzo as our producers. These two have a long history in production and have a great deal of experience in helping vocalists through recording new material. They are great team members to have on your side if you feel like you might need a bit of extra help getting through the recording of your next song.
5. Set The Scene
Create a space for recording, use mood lighting and tidy away any mess. This helps to minimise any distractions to the vocalist, as well as reducing the chance for accidentally knocking something over and contaminating the take.
Using mood lighting helps to get the vocalist in the right headspace to record. It's really hard to walk into an average room on a random Tuesday morning and bust out the best performance of your life in front of people you don’t know that well, a tidy environment helps you to focus and inject more passion into the performance.
Finally, a surprising amount of people are allergic to dust so having a quick vacuum around can help stave off the sniffles. Vacuuming can help clear congestion and running noses, as well as keeping your vocalist from sneezing or otherwise feeling uncomfortable during the recording. You should vacuum each time you have someone coming to record.
As an added note, if you are planning to record in a house with pets, please make sure they keep the pets away from the studio for at least a few hours and after the vacuum to make sure no dander is in the air while you are trying to sing. A surprising number of people are also allergic to cats, for example.
A Local Unspoken Rule
Loud cell phones are the number one thing that can unexpectedly ruin a take, so if you have your phone in the studio it must be on silent or on mute only.
Otherwise, you might fall victim to the unwritten rule: “Anyone whose phone ruins the take has to buy the entire studio a box of beers.”
Burn My Records
It’s really important to our little Wellington audio recording studio that our artists are comfortable and feel safe when they record. We hope that these tips and tricks will bring you some aid when you are looking to record yourself along your own musical journey.
If you’d like to talk to us more about the recording process, or about writing and producing your own music, feel free to get in contact with us through our contact page. We also offer mentoring sessions with both our vocalist Broghan, and our lead producer Jayde, which you can book through AMIO here.
All the best with your own journey, and we hope to hear from you soon!
Comments