JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum a dumb recording question

If the vocal is always recorded separately, how do you keep that "instrument" sounding like it was recorded live with the band?

If I understand correctly, you want to do the vocal separately so that the mic doesn't pick up other instruments and thereby put the vocal effects on other instruments. Is that the reason?

I won't have the option of recording everybody at once and having the vocalist in a soundproof booth because I am the lead singer AND the piano player. So I guess I'll have to do a scratch vocal track and then sing again later by myself.

In my band, we all listen to each other. I can do something vocally, and the lead guitarist plays something in response, or I add something new vocally based on what I'm hearing from another instrument. I think of my voice as another instrument in the band. My question is: How do you keep that give-and-take between all the instruments, INCLUDING the voices? I don't want to sound like I just popped in and did some karaoke.

--Jean

Have them isolate you in the vocal booth with your keyboard, assuming its electronic, using a direct box you can run direct to the board or to your amp which is in the room with the other guys or both at the same time. They can hear your keys through the cans or your amp or both and you can sing away on a seperate track with no bleed, after reviewing your vocal performance you can keep it or do it again at your convience but you have the band feel already done. I realize not all studios have drum houses or vocal rooms in the studio itself so it will depend on where you record and what insight and experience your engineer has. Good luck.

Dave

You could go to a studio that can accommodate your needs. In this case, it would be a place with a piano in a booth. If you play an electronic instrument, a vocal booth would probably suffice.

If you are recording at home, built a booth. I did and it worked out fine.

BUT....consider this, too. Why not throw convention out the window? IF your band really relies on the live give and take of the musicians, just set up in the studio, use some gobos to isolate the instruments, have the engineers get good levels, then go with it. A little track bleed will not hurt you at all, and it is amazing how little of it there is when you choose the right mics and do your set-up carefully. Records were made like this for decades...pretty darn good records, too.

Of course, doing it this way will require every guy in the band to play a perfect take, but it sounds to me that is what you are aiming for anyway.

Have fun.

Thank you, Dave and Truman!

I appreciate your help with sorting this out! --Jean

Not having any serious space for recording, I usually track in the band's rehearsal space. The original vocal is a scratch, and I record the real vocal track afterward with the singer listening through closed headphones. The secret to making this sound natural is in the mixing. One thing which helps is to send a little of everything through the vocal verb. That helps to make everything exist in the same "space." Just a little is enough: too much and you'll end up with no definition between parts.

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