Zen and the Art of Vocal Track Maintenance

This tip is a collection of simple yet effective recording techniques designed to optimize your vocal recordings. Taken from Home Recording Power! a book from the Power! series published by Muska & Lipman.

The following are some highly useful tips to remember for recording and mixing vocals.

• Always use your best microphone for vocals (for those of you with only one mic, this is a no-brainer).
• Using a microphone and a microphone preamp plugged into the line-in of your sound card will give better results than plugging a microphone directly into the mic-in of your sound card. If you do not have a mic preamp, you should plug into the mic-in of your sound card.
• Monitor your vocal performances with all the effects you want, but record them dry.
• Don't overdo reverb unless you just can't sing!
• Use a high-pass filter during mixdown; it can keep the vocal from becoming too muddy.
• Use headphones when recording vocals. Sealed headphones are much better than open designs.
• Boosting frequencies between 200-300 Hz will make almost any vocal thicker.
• A short delay of up to 50 ms (milliseconds) can boost the "size" of your lead vocals and make them sound a bit "fatter."

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